Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. Have you ever pondered why some companies are fraught with performance problems despite the abundance of skills and expertise of their employees? There could be a plethora of reasons, but chief among them could be that critical business functions are manned by people who are still on their desk, still logging and showing up but they have since resigned!
With the cooling labour market in Zimbabwe, high retention rates with less investment in an enabling workspace presents the organisations with hidden costs associated with silent resignation. The term silent resignation came into prominence after a Tik Tok video by Bryan Creely, and in China, it gained traction during 2021 movement through #TangPing which means lying flat. It is a unique workplace phenomenon which occurs when employees remain physically at work while they are emotionally and mentally disconnected to the purpose of the company.
While it is driven by same underlying factors as actual resignations, with silent resignation employees still fulfil their job requirements but not subscribing to anything to do with creativity and innovation or becoming less psychologically invested in work, ideally, they complete their task, but the spark is gone.
Silent resignation is one of the treacherous modern-day business challenges. The Gallup 2023 State of the Global Workplace report shows that 59% of global workforce consisted of quite quitters. One may want to ask how it is different from classical employee disengagement? Silent resignation is extreme and dangerous because it is subtle rebellion and almost invisible employee behaviour that escapes immediate detection. It gradually dawns upon the companies that business leaders might not see it easily.
The implications are damaging and have far reaching implications. It silently robes creativity, innovation, and productivity because the employees would be doing the bare minimum, just to avoid being fired. Perhaps businesses that are struggling with performance are paying people who have since checked out, mentally and emotionally. Maybe Ayesha Fatima was right when she opined that not every resignation is writing, some employees quit long before they leave.
The phenomenon might seem strange, but you may understand it because you could have felt it, feeling it or know someone who does. This article seeks to put business leaders to task to re-examine, relook, or strategies their roles to deal with silent resignation.
While silent resignation is quiet, the consequences are ultimately deafening. When employees have silently resigned or quietly quitted, they continue coming to work, executing their primary responsibilities, but they are less likely to engage extra-mile behaviours.
In practice, there will be no more showing up early, staying late, creativity and innovation or attending to non- mandatory meetings. In a business meeting, certain individuals with brightest minds remain quiet or contribute only they are addressed, and they will not be willing to volunteer to take tasks.
Other noticeable behaviours including not picking up business calls, responding to emails, and messages outside working hours. The drive would have died the natural death, but the employer will still fulfil remuneration obligation.
The costs associated with silent quitting are multifaceted and have far-reaching ramifications to the business and the economy in general. Employees who have mentally checked out but still on the wage bill are more dangerous or costly to the business than employees who resigns and go outrightly.
First thing in the morning they will be browsing career opportunities or recruitment agencies websites, quietly updating, and applying jobs using employer’s resources including time. At its core, silent resignation manifests in fauxductivity the illusion of being productive. When your employees are busy doing nothing.
The 2023 Global Workplace report reveals that silent resignation cost the global economy USD8.8 trillion in lost productivity. This astounding figure accounts for a whopping 9% of global GDP, the same report revealed. This underscores the significant financial implication of having a business run by people who are disenchanted with their work. Counter productivity behaviours are inevitable in employees who have adopted silent resignation.
The cost of silent resignation goes beyond just poor balance sheet or unpliant bottom line, but it breads a dangerous or toxic culture that can extent throughout the organisation. Quite quitters struggle with collaboration which ultimately affects the performance of those who are actively engaged. In a workplace setup, when people silently resigned, they do not just drift along, they also quietly kill morale, as they contribute less, increasing workloads to workmates, and such behaviours impacts negatively on the overall business performance.
Quite quitters, normally take frequent leave days, having too many excuses or having extended breaks or lunch, deliberately missing business-related meetings and events. Such behaviours overburden other employees, resulting in resentment, frustration, consequently leading to burnout on those employees who are fully connected to the business. As silent resignation spreads, it creates a sense of hopelessness among employees, hostility, blame-game culture further contributing to low morale until the whole organisation sinks.
The costs of labour turnover are common and known however, with silent resignation costs are not obvious, however serious. Quite quitting silently robes the much need innovation and creativity. Silent resignation stifles enthusiasm that previously ignite late-night brainstorming and proactive problem-solving sessions. Innovation and creativity are replaced with indifference.
Research shows convincing evidence and nexus between actively engaged employees with creativity. However, when employees checked out emotionally, they do what is necessary—neither more nor less. It is not about rebelliousness but a way survival. Both globally and locally, intense competition requires organizations to be innovative and creative to thrive. In Zimbabwe, a cooling labour market means fewer people can afford to leave their jobs, even if they are unhappy, leading to a workforce that is mentally and emotionally disengaged, consequently the much-needed innovation and creativity is stunted.
The Gallup survey of 2023 revealed that 43% of employees get disenchanted with their work simply because they are micromanaged. When employees are not at liberty to make decisions that affects their performance, they become less creative and innovative ultimately narrowing their efforts to the job descriptions.
Employees with high job autonomy on a task, as reported in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, demonstrated greater job satisfaction and lower intentions to leave the company. In view of Psychologs 2025, Lack of autonomy creates presenteeism which basically equivalent to silent resignation, as they do precisely what they are instructed to do, no overtime, no late nights, and going extra mile. Under such situation the employees will just do the bare minimum enough for them not to get fired.
Like I highlighted before, silent resignation escapes immediate detection however, the costs are consequently deafening. Here is what the business leaders can do to reserve or avoid the vagaries of silent resignation. High performance that does not priorities people driving it is meaningless, thus business leaders ought to create an environment that understand employees as people not purely as essential cogs of the corporate machine.
If the never-ending business task jam-packed the live of employees beyond workplaces and working hours, the like hood of burnout is high. Considering that Gallup research shows that 60% of employees are emotionally disconnected, an antidote to the silent resignation cost is to create businesses that care for people working for it.
By investing in activities, initiatives, and time to debrief employees, leadership will connect employees to the business emotionally. It is no surprise that management that focuses on their employees’ well-being and happiness is much more successful in attracting and retaining top talent.
As I sign out, business leaders ought to know that silent resignation is a subtle yet destructive employee behaviour that quietly robs productivity, innovation, and morale while silently inflating business costs.
To address the hidden costs of quiet quitting highlighted above, companies must go beyond surface-level fixes and instead employ tools and methods that harness deep insights into employee experiences and organizational culture.
By grounding interventions in these insights, business leaders can craft actionable, home-grown, and lasting solutions that re-engage employees, restore innovation, and sustain performance. Investing in understanding and addressing people-related issues will not only mitigate hidden costs but also build resilient workplaces where employees remain connected, motivated, and able to flourish to their full potential.
Kudakwashe Chimbari is a versatile Human Capital practitioner who is passionate about harnessing unique people solutions. He writes in his capacity. Feedback: [email protected], +263777 310 608
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