You’ve heard of quiet quitting, but have you heard of quiet managing?

You’ve heard of quiet quitting, a trend that has been making headlines for some months which sees workers setting boundaries to ensure they are only doing the tasks included in their job description.

But have you heard of quiet managing? This week, professional coach and founder of Broda Coaching Adam Broda ‘broke’ LinkedIn by floating the idea of quiet managing to his network. The response? Over 50,000 likes and over 2,000 shares.

Mr Broda, who’s CV displays a hard-hitting professional history working with top international companies such as Amazon and Boeing in management roles, says he wishes to start the new trend of quiet managing, which essentially calls for an end to micro-managing, and a focus on providing flexibility and trust to employees so that they feel supported to perform to the best to their ability.

In Mr Broda’s own words, here’s how it works:

• Stop checking employee start/stop times
• Let people choose to work where they want
• Encourage guilt free time off
• Remove unnecessary meetings/distractions
• Listen to team feedback about your management style
• Give employees what they need to be successful, get out of their way and trust them to deliver

Mr Broda goes on to say that “quiet managers operate with a high level of trust in their employees, and don’t micromanage.

“This way, the job becomes more of a support role, and gives managers the time to get out in front and lead by example….instead of leading by structure and administration.”

Is quiet quitting so bad for companies?

In short, it depends on why an employee is choosing to go down that road. There are many reasons why a member of staff chooses to ‘quiet quit’. While the main thrust of the practice is refusing to go above and beyond for your employer, some employees do so to prevent burn out after a particularly challenging period at work.

Others do so to save mental energy for a side-project that could be their main passion, while some simply do so because they feel they have no alternative job prospects. However, after the Great Resignation and the persistent staff shortages in several industries, one would imagine this is not the case, especially in Malta.

And what about quiet firing?

America-based job recruiter Bonnie Dilber presents another side to the discussion, which also focuses on various management styles and practices.

According to Ms Dilber, whose own LinkedIn discussion racked up over 16,000 likes and hundreds of comments, companies should not be worrying about quiet quitting, but rather they should look at their management practices and “identify places where people are being ‘quiet fired’ by poor managers who don’t want to do the work to support, train and coach their teams.”

Providing ample examples of this, she points to employees who complain of not receiving any feedback or praise, of getting minimal pay raises when comparable colleagues receive much more, when one-to-one meetings are cancelled or shuffled around, when managers never talks about their career trajectory.

Expanding on these poor management practices, Ms Dilber says “it works great for companies…eventually you’ll either feel so incompetent, isolated and underappreciated that you’ll go find a new job, and they never have to deal with a development plan or offer severance. Or your performance will slip enough due to the lack of support that they’ll be able to let you go.”