Picture this. It's Tuesday, the 4th of November. Hazel, our well-being officer, is on her back, paws in the air, making a dramatic point about quiet quitting. I'm staring at last quarter's engagement scores and a stack of exit interviews. Targets missed, energy low, and the break room feedback reads Meetings about meetings, no growth. I only hear from my manager when something's wrong. Here's the real question. Is quiet quitting the problem? Or the symptom that's trying to tell you something? Kettle on. Let's dig in. Welcome. Hello, I'm Kate, and this is Buzzing About HR. Today's episode, Quiet Quitters Symptom or Solution. UK only, plain English, no fluff. It's that post-Q3 dip when the summer buzz has faded and Christmas hasn't yet kicked motivation back in. Perfect time to fix what's creaking before December hits like a freight train. Why this matters right now? Quiet quitting isn't a trend. It's a temperature check. People hit the brakes when effort stops matching reward, growth, or respect. You'll see it in small things first: cameras off, ideas dry. People do exactly what's written in the job description and nothing more. And the weekly joke about meetings that should have been an email turns into silence. And then a resignation. If you only chase the behaviour, be more engaged, you'll get eye rolls. If you fix the causes, workload, pointless processes, missing feedback, muddled goals, the energy comes back without pep talks. State of play, what's really going on? Most disengagement clusters around three gaps. The clarity gap. People don't know what good looks like this month. Priorities change daily, goals are fuzzy, and feedback arrives three weeks late. The fairness gap. Effort and outcomes don't line up with recognition or pay. Promotions feel random. The loudest voice gets the shiny project. The growth gap. Same task, same week, forever. No learning time, no route to progress. Ambitious humans put themselves in neutral to protect their energy. Add a couple of zombie meetings and an inbox that never sleeps, and you've built a machine that turns enthusiasm into apathy. Spot the symptoms in your own business. Let's make this real. And the pastry case looks like it went through customs. Tip jars down, speed is fine, spark is gone. The hair salon, junior stylists, stopped asking to shadow colour corrections. They don't want to be a nuisance. Translation. Last time they tried, they got a sigh and a not now. The trades crew. Your best installer used to pick up small extras to help a job land on time. Now he clocks off on the dot because the small extras quietly became your problem forever. The small manufacturer. Morning stand-up is 10 people, 12 minutes, 0 decisions. By Friday, the list is the same as Monday. People stop volunteering because nothing moves. The agency. Slack channels are busy, but it's all status theatre. Draft sent at 10.58 for an 11 o'clock review. No one pushes for better because last time someone did, they inherited the job permanently. The shop. Mistakes creep in. Morale drops. Over time requests rise. If your head's nodding, you've got signals. And signals mean you can act. What this looks like in real life? Here's the pattern I see again and again. Service team. Tickets flood in. Two stalwarts used to grab stretch work. Now they clear their queue and go quiet. Why? Last time they helped, the extra became their job. No thanks, no training, just more. That's not laziness. That's a boundary after a bad lesson. Sales crew target blown. The debrief turns into a hoodone it. The only recognition is a leaderboard slide and silence. Next quarter. Minimal risk taking. No one sticks their neck out if it's only ever chopped. The classic manager move will revive morale with pizza. Love pizza. But if people don't have time to eat it because the rotor's broken, it becomes a symbol of not listening. Hazel would still eat it, obviously. The grey areas you're worried about. Is quiet quitting just poor attitude? Sometimes attitude plays a part. Most of the time it's a rational response to unclear goals, uneven workloads, or a culture that punishes initiative. Change the system, behaviour follows. Won't fixing root causes take ages? Not if you pick the right levers. A one page plan, weekly prioritization, and proper one-to-one shifts. More than another all hands pep talk. Do I need a big engagement survey? You need a pulse, not a novel. Five or six sharp questions every month beat sixty once a year. Then show people what you changed. That's the magic. Five minute tests, do these today. Calendar autopsy. Scat next week. Are there meetings with no agenda or owner? Kill or fix them. Give people back 30 minutes and watch motivation rise. Chat health check. Look at your team channel. Is it all update sent, noted, FYI? You've got status theatre. Replace one weekly update meeting with a written roundup and clear decisions. Rotor reality, are you changing shifts under 24 hours? That's how you teach people not to care. Give a minimum notice rule and stick to it. Customer lens. How many sorry for the delay emails went out this week? That's a backlog problem masquerading as a people problem. Fix flow, pride returns. Sick day clusters, lots of Monday Friday absences. Before you jump to discipline, check the pattern. Often it's a rotor fairness or workload issue in disguise. What to do this week without drowning in paper? Start with a tiny pulse. Ask three things. What helps you do great work? What gets in the way? What should we stop? Give people seven days. Anonymous and promise to fix one thing within two weeks. Then actually fix it and tell them you did. Bring back real one-to-one's fifteen minutes weekly per person. The script is boring and brilliant. Top three for the week. What do you need from me? Any snags to remove? Capture actions in two lines, follow through, repeat, fix one zombie meeting. No agenda, no meeting. If it must exist, cap it at 25 minutes and end with who's doing what by when. A Friday note that says, Here's what shipped, here's who made it happen, here's what we learned, does more than a poster about values. Give one growth move. A micro course, a shadow session, or an hour a week to learn something that helps the team. Tiny investments beat motivational speeches. How to talk to your team and keep trust. Say what you see, not what you fear. I'm noticing we're flat after Q3. That's on me to fix the system, not on you to fake enthusiasm. Set the new deal. Clear goals. Fewer pointless check-ins. Faster decisions. Real feedback that helps people get better. Ask for one piece of help. If a meeting is wasting your time, tell me and we'll fix it or bin it. Quick QA without the jargon. How do I tell the difference between a disengaged person and a broken process? Change one variable at a time. Clarify goals for two weeks and measure output. If it jumps, you had a clarity problem. If not, sort workload and tools before you reach for performance management. Should we tie engagement to bonuses? Carefully, reward outcomes and behaviours you want more of. Shipping, collaborating, mentoring, not smiling on Zoom. Do we need software for pulses? Number. A short anonymous form is fine. The value is acting fast and telling people what you changed. How do I keep high performers from burning out? Well we fix this. Protect their deep work time. Rotate firefighting. Recognize impact publicly and privately. Sometimes the answer is cash. Pair it with workload changes, or you'll be back here next month. Someone's doing the bare minimum and it's hurting the team. Now what? Be direct and kind. Share the impact, agree on clear weekly outcomes, remove blockers, and review. If nothing shifts after support and clarity, move to your performance process. We're a micro business. Does any of this scale down? Yes. One 15-minute weekly chat, one pulse question a week, one meeting killed, and one visible win every Friday. Small drumbeat, big effect. The do next list, pin this, run a six question pulse by Friday. Share results next week with one concrete action you're taking. Reboot 1 to 1 seconds. 15 minutes weekly. Top three priorities, blockers, support. No status theatre. Kill one zombie meeting or cap it at 25 minutes with decisions captured every time. Post a weekly wins roundup. What shipped, who helped, what we learned. Keep it short, keep it human. Protect deep work time. One hour a day with no pings. Start tomorrow. Tidy goals. One page per person with what good looks like for this month. Fix one friction point from the pulse within two weeks. Say you told us X, we did Y. Add a simple rotor rule, minimum notice for changes. If you break it, you owe time back. That's it. Small levers, big change. And yes, have some cake when you've been that meeting. You've earned it. Back to Hazel, who is now protesting quiet quitting by snoring louder. Here's the truth. Disengagement is data. Listen to it, fix the system and the energy returns. No gimmicks needed. If you want a hand turning the dial in your team, book a discovery call with me. In 20 minutes, we'll look at your current symptoms, pick one quick win, and sketch the next two weeks. No jargon, no waffle, just practical steps that fit your business. Link in the show notes to book your slot. I'm Kate. This is Buzzing About HR, Kettle On, Standards Up. See you next time.