Saving The Employment Relationship

Quiet quitting continues to dominate the headlines. Today's report in the Wall Street Journal features a Gallup study that suggests nearly half of American workers are "psychologically detached" from their jobs. This study (if true) is troubling for the future of the employment relationship if indifference forms the foundation of that relationship. Indifference can only thrive in a workplace lacking a well-articulated mission the employees believe in. And the feeling of detachment -- that someone can phone it in, do the bare minimum, and disown the results -- is more likely to exist when an employee senses professional or personal disinterest. So how can the employment relationship be saved in this environment? The pandemic-driven transformation of the workplace has created unprecedented employee self-determination that will be difficult to wrest away. Employers should accept that and manage to the notion that employees will use good judgment in doing their jobs (with