How to respond to ‘quiet cracking,’ a new workplace threat

Business leaders have always had to be attentive to small but important shifts within the workplace that may affect employee performance—troubling trends that have increased since the pandemic. Now there’s another problematic development for leaders to monitor. In addition to rising burnout, disengagement, and intentional idleness from quiet quitting, researchers have identified a new office condition they’re calling “quiet cracking.”

According to learning management system company TalentLMS, quiet cracking is situated somewhere between burnout, suffered by some ambitious but overloaded workers, and the quiet quitters who are actively slacking their way out of jobs they no longer want. Instead, people quietly cracking gradually become mired in feeling both unappreciated by managers and closed off from career advancement while doing work they otherwise like. The resulting unhappiness and frustration slowly builds until demotivated employees have to force themselves through the workday, causing their attention and productivity to drop.

“Quiet cracking is the erosion of workplace satisfaction from within,” according to a recent TalentLMS survey on the new threat to worker happiness and employer staffing stability and effectiveness. “Unlike burnout, it doesn’t always manifest in exhaustion. Unlike quiet quitting, it doesn’t show up in performance metrics immediately. But it is just as dangerous.”

The reason, the study said, is that a large portion of the workforce is already experiencing the “persistent feeling of workplace unhappiness that leads to disengagement, poor performance, and an increased desire to quit” that quiet crackers deal with. TalentLMS’s survey of 1,000 U.S. employees found 54% saying they’d experienced one or several aspects of quiet cracking recently, with 20% saying they’d “frequently” or “constantly” battled these challenges.

Despite its rising prevalence and widespread effects, quiet cracking is tougher for employers to notice, because it develops gradually. Employees generally don’t recognize initial dissatisfactions or frustrations as anything more significant than passing gripes—until they’ve become too deep and ingrained to shrug off. At that point, workers generally keep their problems to themselves while they start spinning their wheels doing jobs they’re losing interest in yet stick with, fearing it will be too difficult to find a new one.

Though they come to work on time each day and try to complete tasks as best they can, the malaise sufferers feel generally undermines their effectiveness. That creates another form of disengagement that a recent Gallup study said costs global businesses $8.8 trillion annually in lost productivity.

Is there any good news as quiet cracking emerges as another challenge to the workplace? TalentLMS says there is, with survey replies from people suffering from it offering ideas on how companies can prevent or remedy it.

Respondents typically said they didn’t feel bosses appreciate them, don’t listen or notice them, and aren’t providing any paths for advancing in their work and careers. Addressing those complaints is an obvious way to keep them from morphing into quiet cracking.

To do that, TalentLMS advises employers “double down on learning and development” and adopt the view that “training is more than a skill-building tool—it’s a confidence booster.”

Respondents who experienced quiet cracking said they’d received less direction and instruction at work in the prior year. The analysis portion of the survey urges companies to provide workers “structured, ongoing learning paths.” Businesses can also encourage staff to define some of the themes and content of those programs themselves, and not only have leaders make those programs available but also create time on the job that people can use to pursue them.

TalentLMS also urges employers to train managers who tend to shape company culture to regularly seek out feedback from employees. When possible, those consultations should be conducted in one-on-one meetings to allow staff to express their concerns more freely—especially those contributing to any quiet cracking underway. 

Finally, the study recommends publicly recognizing employee work and achievements as a low-cost, high-impact method for boosting workplace morale and self-esteem. That appreciation shouldn’t be pro forma or forced, but can respond to even relatively routine efforts that nevertheless benefit the company’s activities.

Those measures to address quiet cracking may seem like even more effort for employers already trying to minimize the instances and effects of burnout, disengagement, and other workplace challenges. But TalentLMS says constructive responses will be worth it in terms of staff satisfaction and productivity.

“Quiet cracking isn’t just a well-being issue—it’s a business issue,” the study concludes. “When employees quietly crack, they take productivity, creativity, and loyalty with them. Addressing quiet cracking doesn’t require overhauling your entire strategy—but it does require listening, acting, and investing.”

—By Bruce Crumley

This article originally appeared in Fast Company’s sister publication, Inc.

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