The “Quiet” Phenomenon; You Don’t Have To Be Quiet Cracking - August 20, 2025

There’s a new “Quiet” trend right now, referred to as “Quiet Cracking”.  Add this to the list of other “Quiet” trends that have been documented recently about today's workers, including “Quiet Quitting” and “Quiet Vacation Time”.  

Quiet Cracking is when someone is dissatisfied with their job, but suffers in silence because  they won't leave their untenable employment.  In this situation, the worker feels trapped in their job because they need the pay check to live off of,  or don’t feel it’s appropriate to leave a job soon after having started that job.  As a result, they remain in a difficult situation, quietly suffering or “cracking”.  Notice I used the term “won’t leave” instead of “can’t leave”.  I make this distinction because workers always have the choice to leave a job.  I realize that’s easier said than done, when the employee has a mortgage or rent to pay, and/or a family to support.  It’s understandable to feel trapped in this situation early in your career, but once someone has worked for about five years, they should have some savings accumulated, and have created somewhat of a nest-egg or buffer for themselves.  Once you’re a few years into your career you shouldn’t have to be quietly cracking. 

Avoiding a Quiet Cracking situation is the primary example I use when I’m advocating to Gen Z workers, to build up their savings. That being, accumulate enough savings as quickly as you can, to get to the point where you have “F-U” money, and don’t have to put up with an unbearable work situation.  Even a buffer of three month’s expenses will give you the courage to escape from a bad work environment.  

There is also a lot of economic uncertainty in the workplace now.  Businesses are worried about tariffs and inflation impacting their revenues, and so there is a lot of caution right now from businesses about hiring additional staff, or making investments in business infrastructure. All of this can make looking for another job challenging.  In this business environment, some workers believe they are better off Quiet Cracking, than leaving, and not knowing if they’ll find another job.   A recent survey by TalentLMS found that over half of workers (54%) experience some level of Quiet Cracking, with 20% reporting it frequently. A recent study by Gallup reported the global cost of lost productivity due to Quiet Cracking to be $438 billion.  It seems like employers could have spent a fraction of this amount to address employee issues and they would be better off financially. 

How does a work situation get to the point where an employee is Quiet Cracking? They have a terrible supervisor who doesn’t treat them well. Or, they may have recently started that job and it turned out to be more than they could handle or they weren’t properly trained for it. The job could have turned out to be less satisfying than what they were expecting.  They may have difficult co-workers that make their days in the office miserable, or are simply impossible to collaborate with.  There are a multitude of reasons for job dissatisfaction in this post-Covid era.  

I can state from first-hand experience that Quiet Cracking is not the right approach.  About 18 years ago I was working in a technology company with a very tough work environment.  I respected the company founder/CEO, as he started the business from scratch with very little initial capital, and grew it into a multi-million enterprise. The company had grown to a couple of hundred employees, and they were manufacturing and selling their own developed products, to customers all over the world.  The success of the business, and its’ survival of many ups-and-downs, was due entirely to the tenacity of the founder/CEO, and his refusal to quit when things got tough. But the founder/CEO was very demanding, very blunt, and harsh with his criticisms when things didn’t go well.  It created a very challenging work environment.  While I learned a lot working there, I quickly realized this environment wasn’t for me.  I was at peace at the end of the week, on Friday night, when I knew there were two days off from this job.  My stress level would rise on Saturday and rise even more as Sunday drew to a close.  By this point in my career I had a decent nest-egg and didn’t have to work in this environment, but I chose to stay there for four years before moving on to another opportunity.  I was Quiet Cracking 18 years before Quiet Cracking was a thing! 

But why did I stay so long in such an environment?   Primarily, I didn’t want to be seen as a job-hopper, and I believed staying in a job for three-to-four years was the right thing to do. Also, it was my first time working in a company that manufactured its’ own

products, so I was learning a lot about production and operations. That was my rationale at the time, but looking back in hindsight, I should have left sooner and avoided a couple of years of stress.  But, I was forewarned about the tough work environment and to some extent I knew what I was getting into.  I’ll admit I downplayed the “tough work environment” warnings.  So, I was in this situation because of my own decisions, and decided to grind-it-out. 

My advice to anyone going through Quiet Cracking is that the pain you're suffering from now by staying in that miserable job, is much greater than leaving that work situation and having to make some financial sacrifices.  But if you make the decision to stay in that job, continue to do your best work and put in an honest effort. Because, worse than Quiet Cracking is “Quiet Quitting”. 

Quiet Quitting is when someone is not enthused or motivated in their job, but does not leave their job.  Instead they do the bare minimum required, and do not demonstrate any energy or enthusiasm for their work, and interact as little as possible with their co-workers.  I cannot emphasize enough that Quiet Quitting is much worse than Quiet Cracking.  Having over 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur and business leader, a Quiet Quitter is not fooling anyone. Your immediate supervisor may tolerate your Quiet Quitting because they are focused primarily on near-term tasks getting done. But, if company leadership is capable and doing their jobs, they will see right through you floating through your work day.  I would always tell my managers that the pain from being short-staffed is much less painful than having substandard employees. A Quiet Quitter will have a toxic attitude that poisons the work place for the other employees and may even create more work and stress for the dedicated employees who do like working in your company.  An employee who Quiet Quits will tarnish their reputation and may get fired. When you’re a Quiet Quitter, you’re still taking a pay cheque, but doing substandard work. All employees should have pride in their work.  As is the case with Quiet Cracking, you’re better off leaving a job you’re unhappy with, rather than taking up space.  

One other trend is “Quiet Vacation Time”.  This is taking time off without getting prior approval from your supervisor.  It could be a few hours during the day to go shopping or go to a yoga class at 2pm.  With a lot of people now working from home, part-time or full-time, there is less supervision of workers whereabouts, than there was pre-Covid. Quiet Vacation Time can only be seen as an abuse of the trust a supervisor has with their employees, and seen as not being available for your co-workers.  A contrarian view is that as long as their work is getting done, and they are available for co-workers when needed, who cares if they’re at their desk or not.  This may be true to some extent, but I would argue that these Quiet Vacation people are not as productive as they should be and there are times when supervisors or colleagues can’t find them when needed.  Or if they are getting their work done and still have time to tend to personal things during the workday, why aren’t they taking on more work?

Why is all this “Quiet” activity happening?  A lot of bad habits were formulated during Covid-19 pandemic work times, and a lot of pandering occurred by employers towards employees. The employers felt they had to do anything to keep employees, and keep them happy.   Placing employees on a pedestal in this matter led to a common attitude adopted by many workers, that they could do no wrong, and as a result they took many liberties, like unauthorized time off, less than full efforts, indifference towards their work duties and employers. There no longer seems to be any workplace loyalty, despite the measures employers took to keep employees happy and safe during Covid-19 pandemic era.  Employees forget that the pandemic era was an anomaly, and not the norm.  But many employees have assumed that flexibility and lighter supervision, to be the norm. Companies are now wishing to return to pre-Covid work standards. More and more employers are requiring more time in the office, with many demanding a return to a full five days in the office.  While most people worked in an office full-time, pre-Covid, I remain surprised at the resistance to full-time RTO (Return To Office), which was the standard that many employees signed up for when they first took these jobs, pre-Covid.  How can full-time attendance in the office be a problem now? Workers are used to part-time attendance in the office and don’t want to give-up their Quiet Vacation Time. So they Quiet Quit, or feel their employers are being unreasonable and are Quiet Cracking.  

It doesn’t have to be this way.  Employers need to communicate to employees that culture and trust among the team cannot be built remotely or over video conferencing. They need to clearly communicate performance and attendance expectations, but be prepared to move on from those employees who won’t abide by the company’s policies. Similarly, employees should communicate with their supervisor and company leadership about the issues that are bothering them, and the freedom and flexibility they’ve come to value. At the same time if an employee is truly not happy in their job, do everyone a favour, most importantly yourself, and actually quit that job that makes you so miserable. Actually quit, instead of some “Quiet” protest or suffering.    The statistics show us that this “Quiet” movement is exacting a price not worth paying.