Warning Signs of ‘Quiet Cracking’ at Work

If quiet quitting was the poster child of workplace issues over the past few years, it’s not anymore.

Now, a new problem employers have to watch out for is “quiet cracking,” says Frank Giampietro, EY Americas Chief Wellbeing Officer.

What is quiet cracking?

Quiet cracking is when workers “show up, they do their job, but they struggle in silence while they do it,” as Giampietro put it in a recent interview with Business Insider.

“What we’ve seen in the market more recently is that a lot of folks are actually staying with their current employers, but they’re not actually thriving at work,” he said.

This owes to the current job market, which has many workers avoiding leaving their jobs, even if they’re unhappy in their roles, because of economic uncertainty. Hiring is down, and job-switching is now worse for wage growth than sticking it out.

“A lot of folks actually feel stuck where they are, and it’s not necessarily that they’re making a choice around continuing to be there, but it’s that they don’t have other choices available to them that are better,” Giampietro said.

The result is high employee disengagement and dissatisfaction, which can erode morale, hurt productivity, and contribute to burnout.

Global employee engagement fell from 23% to 21% last year, according to an April Gallup report. The report estimated that this cost the global economy approximately $438 billion in lost productivity. This is only the second time it’s fallen in the last 12 years, the other being in 2020.

Promotions are harder to come by as companies overhaul their performance reviews, enforce return-to-office policies, and carry out mass layoffs. Coupled with economic uncertainty and a shift to a hardcore working culture in many industries, workers are understandably scared to switch jobs now, assuming they can find open roles of interest in the first place.

In other words, there’s “a large group of people who are saying that they’re stressed most of the time and many of whom are probably either suffering burnout or close to it,” Giampietro says.

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Warning signs

Giampietro says the signs of quiet cracking can look similar to indicators of burnout, though not necessarily as extreme.

There can be physical manifestations, like an employee being sick, fatigued, or complaining of headaches more often than usual. Performance-related signs can be less obvious.

“You might have a strong performer who’s not delivering in the same way that you’re used to seeing them deliver,” said Giampietro. Or maybe a colleague who’s usually upbeat and optimistic is noticeably much less so.

It boils down to “looking for changes in what you would see as a typical behavior pattern for the folks on your team,” he said.

If you notice such changes, don’t automatically assume it’s a performance problem, said Giampietro. Instead, he suggested checking in with the employee to see how you can address the issue.

It can be as simple as, “Hey, I’ve noticed a change in your behavior. Can we talk about it? I just want to make sure you’re OK,” Giampietro said.

It’s a tough time for employees, as the push for corporate wellbeing investments that surged during the pandemic has since slowed with the shifting tides of businesses’ priorities. This means many workers are receiving less support at the same time that they’re struggling more at work.

“There was a lot of focus and attention on wellbeing coming out of the pandemic, especially with high turnover in most organizations, but as turnover has stabilized, there’s been a focus on cost,” Giampietro said. “Wellbeing may not be getting the attention it deserves in most organizations.”