Quiet Quitting: Spot It Early and Address It Effectively

“Quiet quitting” isn’t new, but it’s one of the most damaging things that can happen inside a business. It’s when someone stays in the role physically but checks out mentally and emotionally, dragging down performance, morale, and sometimes even clients.

In this episode, we share how to recognize the signs of quiet quitting, uncover the root causes, and put systems in place that prevent disengagement from spreading across your team.

We cover:

• The difference between occasional disengagement and true quiet quitting
• Early warning signs like loss of enthusiasm, minimal effort, or withdrawal from the team
• Why empathy matters when personal struggles are behind performance dips
• How quarterly reviews, scorecards, and KPIs give you clarity and accountability
• When to use performance improvement plans (PIPs) and when to let go
• Why prevention through strong leadership and culture is the best long-term solution

Quiet quitting doesn’t just resolve itself. It grows. But with the right tools and mindset, you can catch it early, address it effectively, and protect your culture.

Want help building systems that prevent disengagement and strengthen your team culture? Join our free Visionary Founders Club, a community where small and mid-sized business owners connect, share, and grow together.

“Systems and culture, not just motivation, are what stop quiet quitting.” – Anna Angelova

Transcript for “How to Spot and Address Quiet Quitting”

The transcript below was automatically generated. Please ignore any errors or inconsistencies in the text.

Anna Angelova   0:05
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Wherever you are in the world, whenever you’re listening to this new episode of More Than Just Task Management, your favorite daily podcast where we help you build a thriving business with me, Ann Angelova, business coach and consultant.
And my fellow co-host and business consultant, Joris Minas Vand. Hey, Joris. Happy Monday.

Jores Minasvand   0:30
Hi Anna, happy Monday. Hoping to start the week on a very positive note and to help our members identify and deal with quiet quitters.

Anna Angelova   0:39
Yes.

Jores Minasvand   0:48
It’s been a problem. I think the first time I heard that corporations talk about it and start identifying them was early 2000s before it wasn’t very.

Anna Angelova   0:49
Yes.

Jores Minasvand   1:03
Like an obvious problem, but it is a problem indeed or or a solution or an opportunity depending on how we look at it. So I will pass it on to you. I know you’re an expert of this Anna and I will chime in when and if I can contribute.

Anna Angelova   1:21
Oh, you have a lot of experience to contribute, so I’m I’m sure you will and absolutely. So this is something that it hasn’t. It’s not a new thing, right? The quiet quitting, although as a term, I think it’s relatively new, but it’s not a new thing and disengaged team members.
If you go and look back at all those.
State of the Global Workforce reports by I think Gallup does this report. You will see and McKinsey also has some kind of reports like this. You will see how dismal the engagement like the state of the.
Workforce globally like the engagement is like people are generally disengaged at work. It doesn’t mean that they are quite quitting. There is with the disengagement like there are levels and quite quitting is where I they’ve already quit but they haven’t really.
Told you about it. They they are warming the chair and some people were actually going to the extreme where they can even sabotage you. They can not only they’re quiet quitting, but they they are even sabotaging their companies. So these.

Jores Minasvand   2:28
Hello.

Anna Angelova   2:35
It is probably one of the things that’s keeping you awake. You’re disengaged the team and ultimately what do you do about this? And here is where of course when it comes to managing people, it’s all about the process of.
Managing and leading your team, establishing the necessary processes, procedures to be able to really lead an engaged team like a high performing team and.
Key factors in in this when you when you think about managing and leading your team. So key factors are of course the those reviews you have with people and it all actually starts like the whole whole thing actually starts with.
Clear, clear roles and responsibilities for every single person in your team, for every single person on the bus. Clear roles and responsibilities like what is this person responsible for and.
The framework we use, actually everyone has a scorecard and the scorecard starts with the mission. Like how is this position? How is this role helping the company? How is it contributing to?
The common goals we have, why it matters, like why do we actually need to have this role? Why? Why is it here? So having these processes is what will allow you to first of all, like George, you mentioned it yesterday, like having this process with the scorecard, regular reviews with your.
Team members, not once a year, not twice a year, like every quarter, like every quarter you want to review the performance, you want to review what’s going on, of course, having performance improvement plan in place as well.

Jores Minasvand   4:28
Mm.

Anna Angelova   4:37
And this is one thing we’ve talked about that like a scorecard doesn’t just include the SKUs, but it also includes the attitude in a way. So it’s not just the hard skills, but also the soft skills, how people show up.
And having all these processes in place like this is what helps you to like Joris, like you mentioned yesterday, first identify people who are disengaged.

Jores Minasvand   5:05
Mm.

Anna Angelova   5:05
Or even reach the level where they’re quite quitting. Identify them, put them in a performance improvement plan, like find out what’s going on, put them in a performance improvement plan, and ultimately, if things don’t work out, get rid of them.

Jores Minasvand   5:10
Mhm.
Totally agree. Very well put, Anna. I think they used to call them people who quit and stay.

Anna Angelova   5:30
Yes, yeah, yeah.

Jores Minasvand   5:31
Instead of quit and leaving, they quit and they stayed. So all they do is now draw a salary and you’re as mentioned an employer is lucky if the person is not sabotaging, but in a in a way that if they are not producing, they’re sort of sabotaging. But that’s a different story and.
One of the most dangerous, dangerous side effects of people who quit and stay or or quiet quitters is poisoning the pool where people will will who work hard. They don’t know, they don’t really find this person as a as a quiet quitter, but they say, well, my co-worker is getting away with this.

Anna Angelova   6:00
Yes. Oh, yeah.

Jores Minasvand   6:10
And he or she is drawing salary. So why should why wouldn’t I do? And I think the the first step, but it’s which is a little bit difficult, but I think you you made it very easy to identify which is the quarterly reviews and KPI’s.
There are a few aspects of where you can behave of changes that you can identify a quite quitter and in no specific order. One of them is behavioral changes. So they become very active. They’re very, very unlikely to volunteer.
They will not engage in the social team building, you know, activities and overall like decline in their enthusiasm. They don’t. You can see it in their words, the way they sit on their chair, the performance issues, performance patterns.
They’re very easy to identify through these patterns that are like meeting deadlines, but rarely exceeding them, barely do the bare minimum. Quality of their work is barely acceptable. It’s not exceptional anymore.

Anna Angelova   7:15
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jores Minasvand   7:24
Very little innovation or new thinking. It’s just becomes like a drone, like a soldier communication shift. Very short way to the point. No engagement, no enthusiasm in their voice, in their right. Because when you’re enthusiastic in your vocal communication, that comes out in an e-mail when you’re smiling as you’re.
Typing your e-mail, the other person can hear the smile and vice versa. So all of these disappears. And then lastly, which I think it’s a combination of all of this energy and attitude. So very important to again as a business owner, one of your.

Anna Angelova   7:47
Oh, yes.
Absolutely, absolutely.

Jores Minasvand   8:00
Task is to keep a tap on all of these, not just one employee, but all the employees. And I think we’ll be talking about this third Wednesday or Friday, which is the other end of the spectrum to identify someone that’s performing well and you know.
Award. Reward them. So identify the person. Anna, you mentioned very from a positive energy perspective. Don’t just fire them on the first spot because they could also be when we talk about the signs, they could also be a sign of not not necessarily.
Certainly a quiet quitter. It could be that this person is having a real like personal life problem, for example divorce or a family with a health health issue with a family member. So once you identify it, don’t identify them as the quiet quitter.
Probe them, may see what they if there’s an issue, if there is you can help, they can give them some time off to go deal with it. And if that’s not the problem, then you know for sure they’re quite quitters. Then, like I mentioned, there are ways that you will expand on right now or stop talking. I know I said too much.
But you will execute the steps to deal with them.

Anna Angelova   9:18
Yeah.
All the points you mentioned are so valid and I actually wanted to bring this one up. So when it comes to how you approach this like again you want to have the the processes in place where I I I know I did mention a quarterly that those quarterly reviews you have with with each and everyone on your.
Team talking about their performance, what’s going on, how they feel, how they’re seeing their future in the company. Even what you mentioned, like noticing these changes in behavior, changes in how people show up. These should also be included in a way as a checklist.
Not only for your personal use, but also for people who become people managers. As your business grows, chances are that you are not managing every single person on your team, that you have managers within the team that manage people so.
Having this as a checklist where people, you yourself and people can can monitor this and like Joris, like you said, you don’t have to wait for a quarterly review to have a conversation.
And uh, being a good leader, being a good people manager is ultimately noticing this thing and proactively reaching out to the person to understand what’s going on. And like you said, sometimes this is like.
Life. It happens. And Joris, I know you talk from experience because you had someone in your team very recently was going through a divorce and it was a nasty divorce and kids were involved, kids were involved. So it’s really.

Jores Minasvand   10:57
He still is, yeah.
OK.

Anna Angelova   11:04
Personal lives, like there are things that happen in our personal lives. Then there are also things that happen in the world that impact us. So these are in general temporary. They are not prolonged. So temporarily something is going on and then also have.
Again, being open and flexible and having the processes in a way that when something is going on, OK, this is what’s going on, taking into account, help the person go through this process in like through through that stretch.
In a best possible way where this person, the company, people involved in his or her personal life that everyone goes into through this in the best possible way. It goes through this successfully in a way so.
I definitely I wanted to mention this as well and I’m grateful that you you brought it up that sometimes people were disengaged because something is going on in their lives and us as as visionary leaders, as business owners, it’s on us to see this to.
Bring it up and and to talk about this and to set it up in ways that helps everyone move forward. And again, this is that’s why we’re talking about today. What we’re talking about is the processes we’re talking about having these things.
Whether it’s checklists and things to to do so, so you can catch these things, so you can notice them, you can even prevent them like by having actually proper steps, proper ways for hiring, onboarding, leading and managing people and even firing people like letting go of people.
You can actually have like lead your business and manage your business and lead your team in a way that you don’t end up having quiet quitting. Yes, people might disengage a little bit, but then you deal with this properly and.
One last thing actually that I wanted to mention, there are seasonal changes that happen and we all know this, right? We all know this that the summer is a slow time. Christmas time is a slow time at end of year, like December between Christmas, New Year’s like it’s usually a slow time.
Like there are a few times in the year where it kind of naturally we all slowed down. There is something in spring as well happening where it’s also like that a little bit of spring lethargy or a quick changing of the seasons.
So this might be times for you actually for you again thinking about processes and and procedures and how you run your business where you proactively as the leader of this business, you actually proactively.
Have campaigns, internal campaigns for your team so people stay engaged. So people, yes, enjoy the holiday season for example, but at the same time stay engaged. Like this is might be the fourth quarter, like this might be the the end of the game.
So how do you stay engaged while also enjoying the the Christmas time, New Year’s time and all these beautiful celebrations that are going on? So this was the last thing I wanted to mention and also this is something that I’ve learned personally like with Darren Hardy and.
Being part of the Darren Daily e-mail list and listening to some of the things he shares. Like this is one thing that he shares. For example, like with summer, he always does something during the summer to keep his team engaged and celebrate things and even gives them if they achieve their.
Goals. Actually Q2 goals. Everyone gets Fridays off in the summer. So in addition to keeping the team engaged, also celebrating the summer. So how can you have the cake and eat it too? So anyway, this is it. I don’t think there’s anything else.
That’s coming up to my mind at the moment when it comes to dealing with disengaged team members and people who might even be quite quitting Joris.

Jores Minasvand   15:29
Hey.
I love what how you put it. The best cure for this is prevention. So if you put the right systems in place to prevent people from becoming disgruntled.

Anna Angelova   15:38
Yeah.

Jores Minasvand   15:47
You don’t have to do everything that we just talked about. This is just in case it happens, right? But again, working on building the right systems to prevent these things is the best cure for it from my perspective as well and you put it very well. I just wanted to reiterate that.
I know we we we’re almost 25 minutes now, but yeah, put the right care. Care for them before you care for them, before you have to care for them. Because if you are forced to care for them, that’s too late already.

Anna Angelova   16:21
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And oh, thank you. Thank you, Joris. And as a reminder, if you want to continue this conversation and get to get even more involved into this kind of discussions, how, how do you lead your team better all these processes?

Jores Minasvand   16:23
Thanks, Anna. Great session.

Anna Angelova   16:40
That you need to have for your business. So these systems, different systems to have a successful and thriving business. If you haven’t done this yet, we highly, highly recommend you joining the Visionary Founders Club. It’s a free community for business owners, small, mid-sized business owners aspire.
Entrepreneurs as well. We have discussions there, we have weekly trainings as as well. We share additional resources, templates, checklists and things like this. So and and we’re there in the community and if you want to ask questions.
There sometimes people answer it, the others can answer, provide their own experience. We answer as well. So highly, highly recommend the link is in the description of this episode. Go ahead, join the Visionary Founders Club and we would love to see you there.

Jores Minasvand   17:37
Absolutely. See you there.

Anna Angelova   17:40
OK, and tomorrow, let’s not forget tomorrow. Tomorrow we are back with a topic that.
As I said, we’ve touched upon a little bit on this, but we really, really want to dive into it specifically like for when you’re starting your business in your first year, year one, do you really need a CRM, a customer relationship management system? And if yes, which one?
This is something we’ll be discussing tomorrow, the paradox of CRMS, as Joris put it when we kicked out the week yesterday. So if you have been wondering about CRMS, tomorrow’s episode is for you. Again, this is more than just task management, your favorite daily podcast where we help you build a thriving business.
Wishing you a wonderful week ahead and join us tomorrow for another.
Interesting conversation.

Jores Minasvand   18:37
Absolutely. Bye for now.

Anna Angelova   18:39
Thanks, Joris. Bye, bye.

Jores Minasvand   18:41
Bye, bye.