How to Prevent Quiet Quitting: An HR Playbook for Re-Engaging Teams

What is quiet quitting? (Short Answer)

Quiet quitting refers to employees who are doing only the bare minimum to fulfill the requirements of their job and not putting in any discretionary effort.

It happens because employees feel disengaged and disconnected from their work.

You can prevent quiet quitting by:

• Improving manager–employee relationships
• Creating more opportunities for peer connection and learning
• Offering growth opportunities to everyone with mentorship

The number of people who are checked out at work is rising. In 2023, Gallup reported that at least 50% of employees were “quiet quitting,” and their 2026 numbers show more of the same: Only 20% of global employees are engaged—a low level of engagement that cost the world economy an estimated $10 trillion in lost productivity in 2025 alone.

But here’s the thing: Quiet quitting is a signal of disengagement and not the root problem. Rather than simply pointing a finger at employees who aren’t working hard enough, it’s worth taking a look at the systemic issues—like the "isolation tax"—that are making disengagement so prevalent in the workplace.

Throughout the rest of this article, we’ll explore how to re-engage disengaged employees before quiet quitting takes hold.

Quiet quitting vs. loud quitting: What’s the difference?

You’ve probably seen one of those viral videos of an employee who was so fed up with their working conditions they decided to publicly shame their employer and quit via social media. This type of “loud quitting” gets a lot more attention, but it’s not nearly as common as quiet quitting. Gallup finds that only 18% of the workforce are actively disengaged loud quitters.

But as we mentioned earlier, it’s a bit misguided to place the blame for these employee engagement trends solely on employees. The real reason for quiet quitting is a breakdown in feedback, growth, or connection (and sometimes all three!). As leadership expert Peter Economy writes in Inc., “When employees perform physically but mentally withdraw from their work roles, it’s a symptom of much deeper organizational dysfunction.”

Let’s take a closer look at the ways companies are failing their employees and causing the quiet quitting trend to take root. 

What causes quiet quitting in the workplace

One main reason for quiet quitting is that employers mistakenly believe there’s a singular employee experience. The reality is that employee experience can be quite nuanced. Here’s how McKinsey puts it: “corporate leaders first have to grasp that their workforces are not monolithic when it comes to employee experience and that the tactics to increase performance require a more segmented approach. Leaders can then apply differentiated strategies to groups of employees that boost levels of satisfaction and commitment, performance, well-being, and, ultimately, retention and engagement.” 

When evaluating your company’s employee experience, you might find it useful to consider three different levels: managers, organizational, and individual. With this perspective, we can start to identify a few of the main causes of disengagement and quiet quitting.

Manager-related causes

Managers have a big impact on employees’ everyday work environment, and managers’ missteps (even when they have the best intentions) can easily lead to employee disengagement. 

• Poor feedback

Feedback can help workers identify their areas of strength and focus on what to improve. But if managers haven’t received training, they might give feedback that’s too vague, negative, or outside the recipient’s control. Ashley Goodall, co-author of Nine Lies About Work said on a Harvard Business Review podcast, “we tend to use our mistake fixing tools to be our excellence building tools, and then we’re sort of surprised when it turns out they don’t work that way.” 

• Lack of support 

Everyone is under pressure in the workplace, but individual contributor employees rely on their managers to help keep them on track and connect their work to larger organizational goals. When managers fail to help their team members see the big picture, it’s easy for them to feel disconnected at work. 

As Gallup reports, “The manager must now hold one meaningful conversation per week with each employee—15 to 30 minutes, about goals, customers, wellbeing and recognition. This is the activity that prevents employees from feeling disconnected from the organization. We find this single habit develops high-performance relationships more than any other single leadership activity.” 

• Micromanagement  

Most people intuitively recognize that micromanagement creates a poor work environment. Having too much oversight from a direct manager robs people of their autonomy, which can quickly zap their motivation. A 2025 study published in PLOS One found a connection between autonomy and positive emotions and creative performance. In other words, people perform better when they’re not micromanaged.

Organizational causes

The next layer to consider is the organizational layer—the systems and norms that exist throughout a company. Here are a few ways problems at the organizational layer can lead to disengagement.

• Lack of growth opportunities

Does your organization offer employees opportunities to learn and grow their careers? This is a proven way to boost employee engagement, and a lack of learning and development opportunities can drain workers’ goodwill towards their employer. According to LinkedIn, seven in ten people say learning improves their sense of connection to their organization, and eight in ten say it adds purpose.

• Weak recognition systems  

We’ve already seen how a lack of feedback (or poor feedback) at the manager level can lead to disengagement, but this can also happen at the organizational layer if companies don’t have good systems in place for recognizing their employees. Gallup finds a clear connection between recognition and employee retention: Employees who receive high-quality recognition are 45% less likely to have left their organization two years later. 

• Unclear expectations

Senior leaders are often involved in conversations about company strategy, but these big picture ideas don’t always make it down to the individual contributor level. For example, the workforce experience company Perceptyx found that in 2024, fewer employees responded positively to questions like “I feel valued as an employee” or “Senior management communicates a clear vision” than in the previous year. Their analysis of the situation? “This is a crisis of meaning, not a performance crisis. Employees have what they need to do today's work, but many don't see why they should keep doing it for their organization.”   

Individual experience-related causes 

There’s also a layer of individual experience that’s worth considering when looking at causes of disengagement at work. 

• Loneliness 

There are a number of reasons why loneliness is becoming a more common issue in the workplace. When teams are remote or distributed, there are fewer opportunities to gather in person and foster casual connections. With growing pressure to use AI tools, workers may engage in fewer team meetings or brainstorming sessions. And workers who are just entering the workforce may have less experience socializing since the pandemic lockdowns impacted their social lives at a critical time. No matter what the cause, EY finds that more than 80% of global employees have felt lonely at work and nearly half say they’re likely to leave a job if they feel lonely at it.  

• Burnout  

Layoffs, a tight labor market, and advances in AI over the past few years mean that workers who still have jobs are expected to do more than ever, even though their teams are smaller. This high-pressure, low-support environment leads to workers pushing themselves too far, which is why Glassdoor reports that employee burnout reached an all-time high in 2024. Employee engagement consultant Leah Phifer explains that there’s a connection between systemic burnout and quiet quitting, also known as cynicism or “the inability to find meaning or see progress at work.”

• Feeling undervalued or misaligned with their role 

Feeling valued at work can manifest in different ways. Sure, workers would like to be compensated well, but it goes beyond financial rewards. They want to feel that their work is aligned with their current strengths while also giving them the opportunity to grow. Perceptyx found a connection between employees’ intent to stay at a company and their belief that they can achieve their career goals, see development opportunities available to them, and think their current role sets them up for future success.

5 warning signs of quiet quitting managers often ignore

We’ve explored the different aspects of the employee experience that can lead to disengagement and quiet quitting. But how do you know if your employees are experiencing them? Here are a few of the early, subtle signs of disengagement to look out for:

• Reduced initiative: Are team members less proactive in bringing ideas or solutions to the table? Have they stopped participating in company initiatives that fall outside of their job description? 

• Lower participation in meetings/collaboration: Do you notice a change in the frequency or tenor of team members’ contributions during meetings or willingness to partner with others?  

• Minimal communication: Have team members stopped or significantly reduced the frequency or volume of their in-person or virtual conversations?  

• Avoidance of growth opportunities: Do team members opt out of stretch assignments, workshops, conferences, or other chances to develop their skills?  

• Weaker connection to team/work: Is there a noticeable change in how team members talk about work or behave around their coworkers? Have they made any remarks about feeling disconnected or distanced?  

Keep an eye out for these signs since they can serve as an early detection signal set.  

Why traditional engagement tactics miss the root problem

You’ve likely participated in a company happy hour or annual pulse survey. While these typical engagement tactics may give employees a temporary boost, they’re unlikely to make a lasting impact on disengagement or employee retention. Here’s why:

• They emphasize perks rather than real engagement. Employees might appreciate a night out bowling or a massage, but these don’t actually change how they feel about and experience work on a daily basis. 

• They send one-time surveys that don’t close the feedback loop. Sending out a survey seems like a great way to get insights into employee engagement and sentiment, but if you don’t follow it up with any actions, you risk eroding employees’ perception of your company even more.  

• They take a one-size-fits-all approach to engagement. Generic engagement initiatives that treat all employees as a single entity stand little chance of having an impact. Get to know your employee base and think about the best ways to segment them to give your employee engagement initiatives a greater sense of success.
• They leave manager accountability out of the equation. Managers play a significant role in the way their team members experience and feel about work. If you fail to include managers in your employee engagement initiatives, you’re unlikely to see a lasting impact.   

Remember: As you explore employee engagement tactics, you’ll be much more effective if you consider the individual, manager, and organizational layers.

How to prevent quiet quitting: A 4-step re-engagement playbook

We’ve looked at the causes of quiet quitting and why traditional tactics don’t work. Now let’s explore how you can take a structured, repeatable approach to identifying and reversing quiet quitting before it becomes a major issue.  

Step 1: Audit the manager-employee relationship

We’ve made this point a few times already, but it’s so important it’s worth repeating: Managers have the power to both positively and negatively impact an employee’s experience more than nearly any other factor. This means that HR and L&D teams looking to prevent quiet quitting need to start by assessing what’s happening with their managers.

A few ways to do this:

• Ensure all managers receive training that covers essential skills like communication, giving feedback, and handling difficult conversations. 
• Set the expectation that feedback and recognition should be part of regular conversations; not just something that happens during annual reviews. It’s worth noting that managers also need regular feedback—and many of them aren’t currently getting it. Gallup reports that fewer than one in four employees have formally rated their manager’s performance.
• Build regular touch points into the calendar so managers can talk to their team members about their short and long-term goals, stretch assignments, and growth opportunities. 

Step 2: Implement peer-to-peer connection bursts

We’ve seen that loneliness is a growing concern that leads to disengagement and quiet quitting. As Beth Clark, Senior Learning & Development Manager at Teladoc Health puts it, "Meeting random people that you don't work with regularly is very hard to do post-pandemic. We used to have the ability to connect with someone at the water cooler, get to know them, and start to think, 'this person could be really helpful for me in X, Y, Z.' Or, 'I could really support this person, because I have this experience' ... that part is really difficult to do now."   

You can boost engagement by creating opportunities for peer-to-peer connection bursts, including:

• Lightweight, low-commitment coffee chats
• Peer mentoring groups that work through a common problem together
• Reverse mentoring where a more experienced employee is mentored by a younger or less tenured employee  

Setting up systems that allow employees to opt in and get matched (by the way, this where mentoring software can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you!) can help bring back some of the spontaneity that’s missing from many workplaces today.                                                                                                                                                 

Step 3: Democratize growth via mentorship 

Another way to drive growth and connection is through mentorship programs that are available to all employees. Keep in mind that mentorship doesn’t necessarily have to follow the experienced mentor/less experienced mentee model—it can occur in several different formats, including peer to peer or reverse mentorship.

SHRM is clear about why mentorship is so necessary: “Mentorship programs serve a dual purpose: They accelerate individual career growth and they strengthen organizational agility during periods of disruption. For CHROs, investing in mentorship isn’t just a retention tactic—it’s a long-term strategy to future-proof talent pipelines, foster resilient leadership, and build a culture of trust that can weather uncertainty and change.”

Step 4: Close the feedback loop 

Each of the steps we’ve outlined above—auditing manager-employee relationships, implementing peer-to-peer connection bursts, and democratizing growth via mentorship—will only be effective if you collect feedback from employees on how these programs are landing. 

Remember: If you’re going to collect feedback, you need to be prepared to act on it and keep employees informed of the changes you’re making based on what they’ve shared. Otherwise, you risk eroding their trust and exacerbating the quiet quitting trend. 

Ready to get ahead of quiet quitting? Download the Employee Engagement E-book for actionable guidance and real-world examples you can put into practice at your company. 

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How mentorship and connection reduce quiet quitting 

Let’s not sugarcoat it: The majority of workers are facing challenges and stressors that can easily spiral into burnout, disengagement, and quiet quitting if left unchecked. Gallup sums up these record lows in engagement and satisfaction as “The Great Detachment.” But the good news is that you have tools as an HR or L&D leader to help mitigate these issues. 

One of the most effective is mentorship, which helps scale the number of anchors an employee has in your company. Mentorship creates belonging, growth, and accountability for employees by pairing them with others who have similar experiences and it reinforces the idea that employees are not alone in their challenges. Plus, it boosts resilience (which is especially important given the challenges of today’s workplace): SHRM reports that more than half of workers (54%) feel strongly motivated to persevere through career adversity when they have a mentor or sponsor. 

The power of mentorship mini case study: CDM Smith

Engineering and construction firm CDM Smith wanted to promote employee growth through mentorship, but this was increasingly difficult as the company grew geographically dispersed. Their legacy mentorship program, Career Compass, was impactful but limited in scale. By partnering with Together, CDM Smith created a scalable, data-driven mentorship program. 

The program’s structured approach has helped employees track progress and take ownership of their professional development. “It gives employees clear direction for career advancement,” says Jason Beck, Manager of Learning Systems at CDM Smith. Employees report setting actionable goals, identifying strengths and weaknesses, and aligning daily work with long-term aspirations.

And the results are undeniable: Career Compass powered by Together had a significant impact on employee retention, resulting in $3.2 million in cost savings. Data from September 2024 to July 2025 showed a 5% higher retention rate for program participants and 157 fewer staff losses. “Employee turnovers cost $20,584 per employee in offboarding, lost productivity, hiring and interviewing, onboarding, and ramp-up costs,” says Beck. “Those retentions saved the firm millions.”

The power of mentorship mini case study: Wellabe

Insurance company Wellabe had been relying on manual processes to run their mentorship program, which limited the number of participants and made collecting data a huge headache. When they chose to partner with Together, they created a mentoring ecosystem that became a core pillar of their employee experience and retention strategy.

Here’s how Senior L&D Specialist Joey Spivey describes the transformation: "Mentorship at Wellabe isn't a side initiative anymore. It's a strategic driver of engagement, culture, and performance."

The data backs this up: Wellabe’s employee engagement jumped from 69% to 92% favorability after revamping their mentorship program and their voluntary turnover rate held steady at 6.4%, even during a period of significant organizational change. 

How HR teams can scale connection and engagement

It might feel like the lack of open jobs at the moment is motivating for employees, but don’t let these tough market conditions lull you into a false sense of security. As Gallup reports, “Disengaged employees are more likely to be looking for another job when job markets are good and come to work disconnected and unproductive when job markets are tight.”

You can't manually fix a culture of quiet quitting at scale—but you can systemize the connections that drive engagement. When you invest in structured mentoring programs that match the right people at the right time, peer relationships that extend beyond a single team or manager, and ongoing development, you send the signal to employees that their growth really matters to your organization.

That’s where platforms like Together come in. Rather than leaving connection and employee development to chance, Together provides HR and L&D teams with the infrastructure to run mentorship programs at scale. And we give you visibility into engagement, pairing quality, and growth over time.

Quiet quitting won’t simply go away on its own. You’ll only successfully tackle this trend with scalable, repeatable systems that foster human connections and make work worth showing up for fully.

See how Together provides the infrastructure you need to build connections and improve engagement. Book a demo