Companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars on retaining their employees, but the actions of a poor manager negate the positive effects of the benefits programs.

Unhappy, unhealthy employees affect:

• Absenteeism;
• Performance;
• Customer ratings;
• Quality;
• Profit.

According to the team at the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an organization comprised of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs 45 and younger, the biggest red flags to watch out for in a manager are:

• Micromanagement;
• A one-size-fits-all approach to management;
• Doesn’t lead by example;
• Lack of empathy;
• Focused on blame, rather than solutions and support;
• Uses their team as pawns for their own success;
• Lack of focus;
• Takes credit for others’ work;
• No respect for employees;
• Little to no self-awareness;
• A sense of entitlement rather than a sense of duty;
• Expects all employees to be like them.

According to data collected by Zenger Folkman, a professional services firm providing leadership development, quiet quitting is usually less about an employee’s willingness to work harder and more creatively, and more about a manager's ability instead.

Their researchers looked at data gathered since 2020 on 2,801 managers, who were rated by 13,048 direct reports (on average, each manager was rated by five direct reports), and compared two things:

• Employees' ratings of their manager's ability to "Balance getting results with a concern for others' needs."
• Employees' ratings of the extent to which their "work environment is a place where people want to go the extra mile."

The research term they gave for those willing to give extra effort was called “discretionary effort.” Its effect on organizations can be profound: if someone has 10 direct reports and they each give 10% additional effort, the net result of that additional effort is increased productivity.

"We found that the least effective managers have three to four times as many people who fall in the “quiet quitting” category compared to the most effective leaders," co-founders of Zenger Folkman, Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman, wrote in Harvard Business Review.

These managers had 14% of their direct reports quietly quitting, and only 20% were willing to give extra effort.

For comparison, those who were rated the highest at balancing results with relationships saw 62% of their direct reports willing to give extra effort, while only 3% were quietly quitting.

Instead of focusing on themselves and making ridiculous demands, managers should try to promote open and honest dialogues.

"The most important factor is trust," Zenger and Folkman highlighted. "When we analyzed data from more than 113,000 leaders to find the top behavior that helps [them] balance results with their concern for team members, the number one behavior that helped was trust. When direct reports trusted their leader, they also assumed that the manager cared about them and was concerned about their well-being."

Their research has linked trust to three behaviors. First, having positive relationships with all of your direct reports, then consistency, and finally expertise. "By building a trusting relationship with all of your direct reports, the possibility of them quietly quitting dissipates significantly," Zenger and Folkman highlighted.

"The approach leaders took to drive for results from employees in the past is not the same approach we use today. We are building safer, more inclusive, and positive workplaces, and we must continue to do better."