Concerned About Quitting Quietly? Reconsider Your Work Management Methods

'Quitting quitting' presents itself as a new challenge for the workplace. This article discusses how the "Dark Matter of Job" is leading to employee burnout, according to Andrew Filev, the CEO of Wrike, and what can change this scenario, including rethinking the systems and processes of work management.

Despite that, this new space known as 'silent resigning' has infringed upon many workplaces this year. This means that employees appear too tired to put extra effort into their jobs. Business executives are searching for solutions that would help increase employee commitment and decrease burnout while maintaining productivity levels.

It can be easy to focus on this phrase "voluntary attrition, …silent resigning," but remember that about 25 years ago, computer programmers were in the same circumstances as office workers. They had pretty bust schedules and consulting firms, and around 80% of software projects were bound to fail. In response, Agile flat-out disrupted the software development movement, impacting millions of developers and thousands of organisations.

Remote work added complexity to the modern workplace and, in turn, to the so-called "The Dark Matter of 'Job,'" which stems from poorly structured employment relations. 'Dark matter' refers to hard-to-measure work that is done and forgotten because of the many apps teams rely on (for example, Google Drive, email, Slack, etc). All these can lead to project delays or abandonment, job obscurity to the employees regarding progress level, or an overworked employee to the extent that all they can do is dispassionately 'stay behind' in the office.

Conversely, there is such a trend where organisations aim without needing full Agile adoption. For such a phenomenon as 'silent quitting' to never take flight, they need to consider reviewing their job management and see things that can be permitted. Owners of the organisations need to put effort into implementing policies that make employees happy and allow for the visibility of their efforts toward team goals.

How "Dark Matter of Work" Leads to Burnout in Employees

According to the US Labor Department, the second quarter of 2022 saw the most significant annual decline in productivity ever. Companies swiftly introduced innovative solutions to aid their workforces in managing activities and collaborating while not being in a shared physical place when compelled to adopt remote work due to the pandemic. But by doing so, a plethora of fresh problems emerged.

For instance, according to Wrike's data, 54% of the work is visible to corporate leaders. If it seems low, knowledge workers think the actual figure is even lower, at 45%. Employee burnout may worsen as a result of this connection. According to a Gallup survey, a lack of support from managers, unclear roles, and lack of communication were some of the leading causes of burnout among full-time employees. If this lack of visibility is not addressed, businesses risk more significant staff churn and fatigue.

Business executives must address these concerns. What can they do? They can reevaluate how they handle workplace openness and corporate culture. They should also assess which technologies and practices can illuminate the Dark Matter of Work if remote and hybrid workplaces are here to stay.

Company culture changes can address "quiet quitting"

Setting boundaries is frequently more difficult for those who work from home. Employees in global teams may feel under pressure to reply to emails from coworkers in other time zones, especially in larger organizations. The "always online" approach consumes employees' time and contributes to a burnout culture.

Business executives should seise this chance to reshape their organisations' cultures to support remote and hybrid work. They can encourage workers to respect their coworkers' and their working hours and use systems that let coworkers schedule communications to transmit at specific times or have a "do not disturb" mode after hours. Teams can also prioritise more considerate meeting schedules by scheduling them during convenient times for everyone or by utilising solutions that automate call recording and note-taking.

Consider asynchronous work, which allows employees to create their schedules and provide outcomes following the organisation's deadlines and goals without being required to be online continuously. Even though this method is linked with remote work, if team members follow conventional working hours in various time zones, learning from an asynchronous work culture might still be beneficial.

This work style works well when teams use asynchronous messaging and projects, where urgent demands are kept apart from regular chores and emails. Employees may start-up where others left off thanks to effective work management platforms and processes, which frees them up from having to be always available.

Establishing an asynchronous team requires a lot of trust and openness. However, the benefits include more flexibility and fewer lengthy meetings, which boost morale and retention at work.

Why We Should Stop Using Expressions Like "Quiet Quitting"

As most agree, observing why employees leave a particular organisation is always very disheartening. Terms such as 'silent quitting' sometimes suggest that it is their fault when someone feels burned out or unsatisfied with a job. While some resign from workplaces for improved working conditions and greener pastures, when employee turnover is detrimental to the business's growth, agencies should take that as a warning to implement organisational change from the top.

Business executives are sorting out how the technology and office furniture should aid the employers in seeing more of the output of their employees. For example, in Working in Wrike, where the data is obtained, 61 % of employees have constantly reported that they unduly suffer from stress because they do not have the information required to execute the tasks. On the contrary, 94 % of knowledge workers surveyed are confident that great teams have no stress because all members carry different parallel sources of information.

Since various applications and technologies are used for the distribution and updating processes, teams have very little visibility across all the units. Consequently, (48%) of the firms wishing to increase the teams' productivity and, therefore, the company's performance by purchasing technologies to re-engage the workers anticipate doing this before the new planting season begins. But, most do not know that knowledge workers use 10-14 applications a day daily. However, there are 10-14% all-inclusive applications where data loss may occur. Such could be averted by making virtual workplaces more focused and having one source of truth for every workflow. When people do not have to search for information, they complete other duties efficiently and quickly.

It follows that people work harder to achieve their objectives, although such diligence is quite likely to go unrewarded. Competent business leaders should take stock of the extent to which there are visible activities and whether the current level of such visibility is a true reflection of the work being performed. There is also a possibility that the worker may be in danger of having burnout syndromes if they are overworking themselves or attempting to replace, for example, a person who has just left the company or a product line that has been recently terminated. Business owners and managers are responsible for ensuring that processes allow for appreciation.

Change Must Begin at the Top

An original "rule" observed in one of the Agile projects back in the 1990s was to allow the team to "establish a sustainable pace" that culminates in repeatedly achieving smaller wins. Please do not push your employees to the point where it is impossible or unreasonable. And a productive Agile team's outputs will say it all.

A software development team's capacity to deliver products increased due to working within a 40-hour framework. Equally important were the advances in work-life balance, inter-team relations, and employee satisfaction.

The modern workplace also has solutions to challenges of the Great Resignation and "silent resigning," which emanate from the moving away to remote and hybrid work models. Ignoring such difficulties leads to poor achievements and high costs. A. Organisational leaders should define 'one version of truth' and evaluate the Digital The Dark Matter of Work. Instead of making all employees unreasonable for declining worker productivity, they can focus on improving their hybrid work environment.

These changes come from the top. Use this opportunity to measure the dominant features of workplace culture that hinder a genuinely robust workplace and identify which tools and processes have played a factor.