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AOM Press Releases

The Conversation: Quiet Quitting and the Great Resignation Have a Common Cause – Dissatisfied Workers Feel They Can’t Speak Up in the Workplace

13 Oct 2022
U.S. workers have been at the forefront of three big trends in recent months.

Originally found at The Conversation.

First there was the “great resignation,” in which record numbers of workers were quitting their jobs. That coincided with a flurry of unionizing efforts at major U.S. companies, including Starbucks and Apple. Most recently, you’ve probably heard about “quiet quitting,” an often-misunderstood phrase that can mean either doing your job’s bare minimum or just not striving to overachieve.

As a management professor who has studied worker behavior for over two decades, I believe these are all reactions to the same problem: Workers are dissatisfied in their current jobs and feel they can’t speak up, whether about organizational problems, unethical behavior or even just to contribute their knowledge and creative ideas. So in response, they generally either leave or decrease their effort while suffering in silence.

It doesn’t have to be this way; but it’s also not easy to change. Put simply, it will take courageous action from not only workers but lawmakers and companies as well.

Continue reading the original article at The Conversation.

Read the original research in Academy of Management Journal.

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