57% of Quiet Quitters Say Their Work-Life Balance Has Improved

Staff Report

Tuesday, December 13th, 2022

Amid the Great Resignation, millions of Americans left their jobs in search of greater satisfaction at work. For those that stayed, another movement, quiet quitting, took hold. A new LendingTree survey finds that setting these professional boundaries may actually be beneficial for both employees and the companies they work for.

Key findings:

Of the 30% of workers who are quiet quitting, 57% say that their work-life balance has improved. This figure jumps to 65% for working parents with kids under 18.
Approximately 59% of quiet quitters said they were already doing so before they learned about the term, but 26% said they started checking out after learning about the movement.
Setting boundaries with work has proved beneficial for some workers as 40% of quiet quitters say they are more engaged at work than in the past.
Described as a trend in the workplace where employees refuse to go above and beyond without additional pay, 59% of quiet quitters say they were doing so before the term was coined. The movement is primarily driven by younger workers with 40% of Gen Zers and 33% of Millennials admitting to quiet quitting.

"The last thing anyone wants is to feel taken advantage of in their job, and laying down some guardrails when it comes to your job responsibilities can help you make sure that doesn't happen," Matt Schulz, LendingTree Chief Credit Analyst, says. "That doesn't mean that you should never put in extra hours or that you can't ever help out with things that are a little out of your job description every once in a while. It just means you're willing to speak up when you feel something is out of bounds."

Layoffs hitting the headlines are also of concern as some workers fear that disengaging at work may come back to haunt them. Over a quarter of quiet quitters don't feel secure in their role, compared to just 10% of non-quiet quitters. This unease has some quiet quitters hesitant to cut back on their work as 36% say they work more than their required hours and 42% don't use all their PTO.

Of the 2,000 surveyed by LendingTree, 36% of workers say they're actively searching for a new role compared to 56% of quiet quitters. "If you can't resolve your issues with your employer, it may make sense to find another job that you might find more engaging or motivating." Schulz says, "However, you can't know if a problem is fixable if it's never really openly addressed in the first place."