Using Longitudinal Trajectories of Working Hours to Search for Quiet Quitters: Characterizing Their Imprints

Abstract

The aim of this study is to provide an academic basis for understanding the phenomenon of quiet quitters and begin to detail the characteristics that distinguish them. The defining behavioural characteristic of quiet quitters is that they reduced the hours they worked over time, especially over the pandemic period. A sample of more than 2500 employees in Australia who had been working full-time toward the end of 2019, before the pandemic, and working full-time toward the end of 2022, after many pandemic constraints had been lifted, was analysed using multinomial regression. There were many variables that distinguished between the trajectories of hours worked between 2019 and 2022. Two groups of employees had dramatically or substantially reduced their working hours and displayed nuances in their characterisation, suggesting that they were quiet quitters. The quiet quitters appear to have experienced powerful imprinting during the time of pandemic constraints, and that imprinting may be working against prior occupational norms. The group most like prototypical quiet quitters are likely to leave their job soon, and many of them are confident they will find a job at least as good as the one they now have, with more flexibility. Having a group of employees with a new approach to work may require revisiting many approaches to management.