Internal Engagement, Not Quiet Quitting

When employees are fully engaged in their work life, they contribute beyond their immediate role or team, collaborate across groups, and are open to innovation. They feel committed to the company, have fun and take pride in their work.

Internal engagement happens when individuals focus on preserving their professional brand, reputation, and values, withdrawing from external interactions. Their trust and loyalty are confined to areas they consider safe.

This is different from “quiet quitting”.  Quiet quitting has a petulant aspect of hard feelings in response to a breakdown in a person’s relationship with their boss or company.  Quiet quitting is about work to rule – doing exactly what you were hired to do without going beyond the requirements of the job with a certain level of resentment and hurt. (This is a whole separate topic, but it’s important to note the distinction.)

Moving to internal engagement is preceded by a disconnect.  If the disconnect is with the leader, the company at large is at risk of losing that engagement and the employee.  If the disconnect is broader, they may limit their engagement to their leader, team and their own work.  This can happen in different levels, depending on where the disconnect has occurred.

When an employee shifts from full to internal engagement it is a thoughtful decision to narrow support, enthusiasm and loyalty, to maintain the quality of their work, and the reputation of their professional brand.  The individual may still put in extra effort and time into projects, but it is clearly defined within their new parameters of participation.

Internal engagement is almost always a precursor to departure.  You can expect that the employee is making plans to leave the department or organization, but they are doing so thoughtfully and on their own terms.  It can be a long or short game, but there are still plans in place.

Bringing someone back to full engagement takes a lot of proving work (not just words of appeasement) to repair a disconnect and broken trust.  This may require a company to deal with a damaging co-worker or leader or address larger issues of policy or workplace culture.  Given that it takes time to make those repairs, it might not be feasible to bring someone back from this state.  However, people often move to internal engagement in the hopes that something will change and they can stay and revert back to full engagement.

Leaders who stay connected with their people can spot changes early and act before internal engagement becomes too entrenched.

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