Why Generation Z is Quiet Cracking and What You Can Do
Does this scenario sound familiar? The subscription renewals department at a company near my home began to miss their numbers recently. The next quarter, the team missed them by a lot. Susan, the department manager, was baffled. Some of her staff were missing work, and even those who still came—acted lethargic.
These young teammates who were once passionate, now seemed lethargic.
The fact is, Susan was witnessing a phenomenon called “quiet cracking.” It is the silent deterioration of employee engagement and the surge of burnout. Team members feel they’ve been given too much to do, and eventually they snap. But the snap doesn’t occur instantly. Burnout doesn’t happen overnight, but over time. Once it reaches a tipping point, it shows up like the cracks in a windshield. What starts as a crack in the glass can expand until the entire window is shattered. In fact, once a windshield’s crack is large enough, you can’t patch it up. You must replace it.
Gen Z is Vulnerable to Quiet Cracking
While this can happen to any worker, Generation Z feels most vulnerable. Many of these young employees are getting used to a full-time workload. They’re often assigned menial tasks, and they’re added until the worker fails at one. Stress increases. Pressure builds. People feel taken advantage of. In interviews with young Gen Z employees, they said the most common factors were:
Unrealistic deadlines
Lack of support
Poor work-life balance
More tasks without a pay raise
These start as invisible fractures, but the cracks are real, and if leaders don’t spot them or begin to explore and talk about how their teams are doing, the cracks just get bigger and bigger. With quiet cracking on the rise and a growing list of companies conducting layoffs, leaders must find a way to stop the bleeding. This is both an emotional and financial issue.
A new study from Two Cents, a company that consults with Google and Pinterest, reveals how Americans actually feel about their role in society, including insights like:
74% say they’re not chasing peak performance, they just want to feel okay.
1 in 2 say they are not burned out, but they’re done giving more than they can give
1 in 5 Gen Z workers feels like their work doesn’t matter
The New York Post reports:
❝This workplace epidemic is affecting many, as more than half of employees have experienced quiet cracking at some point in their careers, according to data from a talentLMS survey.❞
How do you recognize it? Quiet cracking is the slow realization that you’ve lost any motivation for work, you can’t connect the dots between your job and the organization’s mission, and you’re not receiving needed affirmation from your boss.
What Can Be Done About It?
Whether you’re an employee or employer, this is worth your attention. Quiet cracking will only get worse if left ignored—which may lead to revenge quitting, something Gen Zers know a thing or two about. Content creator Ben Askins says, “Revenge quitting is on the rise. This is the new idea of people choosing to quit their jobs in the most inconvenient way possible to disrupt the business. It’s a form of protest against what they perceived as unfair treatment.” Below are some basic steps you can take to bridge this gap.
1️⃣ Talk to each other about it.
Cracking can often be mended through relationships. We can’t afford to avoid the topic. Regardless of whether you’re the boss or the employee, bring it up in a meeting. Employees can acknowledge their struggle, without threatening anything; all parties must be honest about their current state. Candid conversations can prevent reaching an impasse or a total shatter. Keep the lines of communication open between labor and management.
2️⃣ Create a game plan together.
If burnout is simmering inside a team member, meet to develop a plan to either reduce the workload, delegate some tasks, offer PTO or consider a role change. Offloading some of the tasks to other team members with the capacity to complete them can be a temporary solution. When you develop a plan together, everyone feels a sense of ownership.
3️⃣ Practice a three-step exercise.
I led an exercise that helped our team combat burnout or quiet cracking. Our team met in front of a whiteboard, and we listed all the projects on deck and all the goods and services we were providing to our clients. Then, one by one, we answered the question:
What needs a facelift?
What needs an overhaul?
What needs a funeral?
Unlike “quiet quitting,” where employees disengage as resistance, “quiet cracking” is about survival. Let’s make sure we pursue candor, not slander, and keep a bridge between us all.
Did you enjoy this?
Then I can’t wait to make my new book
available to you this fall:
The Future Begins with Z:
Nine Strategies to Lead Generation Z as They Disrupt the Workplace.
Release date: November 4
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