In human resources, performance punishment also known as quiet promotion refers to the burdening of high-performing employees with additional work, often without compensation or promotion. [1] [2] [3]
Performance punishment can lead to occupational burnout, resentment, and a sense of being undervalued leading to morale loss. [1] Performance punishment of high-performers may also limit opportunities for improvement of low-performers and alternative growth opportunities for high-performers. [4] Performance punishment allows for performance deficits of low-performers to be ignored. [5]
Performance punishment can be mitigated by having work fairly distributed, promoting skills development, and transparent communication. [6]
The term quiet promotion arose in response to the Great Resignation following the COVID-19 pandemic in response to quiet quitting. [7] [8] Quiet promotions may due to a staffing shortage or cost-cutting measures. [7] [9]
The Peter principle is a concept in management developed by Laurence J. Peter which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to "a level of respective incompetence": employees are promoted based on their success in previous jobs until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent, as skills in one job do not necessarily translate to another.
A performance appraisal, also referred to as a performance review, performance evaluation, (career) development discussion, or employee appraisal, sometimes shortened to "PA", is a periodic and systematic process whereby the job performance of an employee is documented and evaluated. This is done after employees are trained about work and settle into their jobs. Performance appraisals are a part of career development and consist of regular reviews of employee performance within organizations.
Discipline is the self-control that is gained by requiring that rules or orders be obeyed, and the ability to keep working at something that is difficult. Disciplinarians believe that such self-control is of the utmost importance and enforce a set of rules that aim to develop such behavior. Such enforcement is sometimes based on punishment, although there is a clear difference between the two. One way to convey such differences is through the root meaning of each word: discipline means “to teach”, while punishment means “to correct or cause pain”. While punishment might extinguish unwanted behavior in the moment, it is greatly effective long-term due to consequences being understood and societal retribution to wrongs committed, while discipline usually is the process of training self control.
Work-to-rule, also known as an Italian strike or a slowdown in United States usage, called in Italian a sciopero bianco meaning "white strike", is a job action in which employees do no more than the minimum required by the rules of their contract or job, and strictly follow time-consuming rules normally not enforced. This may cause a slowdown or decrease in productivity if the employer does not hire enough employees or pay the appropriate salary and consequently does not have the requirements needed to run normally.
The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people with limited competence in a particular domain overestimate their abilities. It was first described by David Dunning and Justin Kruger in 1999. Some researchers also include the opposite effect for high performers: their tendency to underestimate their skills. In popular culture, the Dunning–Kruger effect is often misunderstood as a claim about general overconfidence of people with low intelligence instead of specific overconfidence of people unskilled at a particular task.
In human resources, turnover refers to employees who leave an organization. The turnover rate is the percentage of the total workforce who leave over a certain period. Organizations and wider industries may measure their turnover rate during a fiscal or calendar year.
Affective events theory (AET) is an industrial and organizational psychology model developed by organizational psychologists Howard M. Weiss and Russell Cropanzano to explain how emotions and moods influence job performance and job satisfaction. The model explains the linkages between employees' internal influences and their reactions to incidents that occur in their work environment that affect their performance, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. The theory proposes that affective work behaviors are explained by employee mood and emotions, while cognitive-based behaviors are the best predictors of job satisfaction. The theory proposes that positive-inducing as well as negative-inducing emotional incidents at work are distinguishable and have a significant psychological impact upon workers' job satisfaction. This results in lasting internal and external affective reactions exhibited through job performance, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment.
Onboarding or organizational socialization is the American term for the mechanism through which new employees acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and behaviors to become effective organizational members and insiders. In other than American English, such as in British and Australasian dialects, this is referred to as "induction". In the United States, up to 25% of workers are organizational newcomers engaged in onboarding process.
Organizational behavior management (OBM) is a subdiscipline of applied behavior analysis (ABA), which is the application of behavior analytic principles and contingency management techniques to change behavior in organizational settings. Through these principles and assessment of behavior, OBM seeks to analyze and employ antecedent, influencing actions of an individual before the action occurs, and consequence, what happens as a result of someone's actions, interventions which influence behaviors linked to the mission and key objectives of the organization and its workers. Such interventions have proven effective through research in improving common organizational areas including employee productivity, delivery of feedback, safety, and overall morale of said organization.
Employee retention is the ability of an organization to retain its employees and ensure sustainability. Employee retention can be represented by a simple statistic. Employee retention is also the strategies employers use to try to retain the employees in their workforce.
The full range of leadership model (FRLM) is a general leadership theory focusing on the behavior of leaders towards the workforce in different work situations. The FRLM relates transactional and transformational leadership styles with laissez-faire leadership style.
The Great Resignation, also known as the Big Quit and the Great Reshuffle, was a mainly American economic trend in which employees voluntarily resigned from their jobs en masse, beginning in early 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the most cited reasons for resigning included wage stagnation amid rising cost of living, limited opportunities for career advancement, hostile work environments, lack of benefits, inflexible remote-work policies, and long-lasting job dissatisfaction. Most likely to quit were workers in hospitality, healthcare, and education. In addition, many of the resigning workers were retiring Baby Boomers, who are one of the largest demographic cohorts in the United States.
Chelsey Glasson is an American user researcher, author, and workers' rights advocate. She sued Google, her former employer, for pregnancy discrimination, which ended in an undisclosed settlement after two years of litigation. She has successfully lobbied for pregnancy anti-discrimination and labor rights laws in Washington State. Her memoir, Black Box: A Pregnancy Discrimination Memoir, was published in 2023. She enrolled in law school in 2024.
A lazy girl job is an easy, usually white-collar, job with good pay where an employee can quiet quit. The term was coined in 2023 by Gabrielle Judge, also known by screen name "antiworkgirlboss" on Instagram, in response to hustle culture, the Great Resignation, and worker exploitation. Although the trend is centered around women, she says men can have lazy girl jobs too. Judge explained the term was a marketing gimmick in order to raise awareness about "toxic workplace expectations" and is not about celebrating laziness.
Bare minimum Monday (BMM), also known as minimum effort Monday or minimal Mondays refers to an initiative by employees to do the minimal amount of work necessary on Mondays, which mark the start of the work week. This may also involve starting the work day later and prioritizing self-care activities. In doing so, employees alleviate the stress and anxiety associated with the beginning of the work week by making Mondays more manageable and less overwhelming.
In human resources, resenteeism refers to a form of professional dissatisfaction wherein individuals choose to remain in unfulfilling jobs breeding resentment and a sense of entrapment. This is because they either unable to find a more applicable position, or are concerned about the perceived risks associated with changing employment. Individuals experiencing resenteeism will have poor employee engagement and may appear disillusioned, embittered, miserable, and unhappy. Resenteeism arose following the COVID-19 pandemic and the Great resignation where people reevaluated their work-life balance in the face of cost-of-living increases and is an extension of quiet quitting. Resenteeism is a form of occupational burnout.
Loud quitting refers to a type of employee disengagement in which individuals openly share their discontent, desire for change, and intention to leave. These individuals may refuse to do tasks that they deem unnecessary and by sharing their contempt with colleagues, may spread their disenchantment and disengagement. Loud quitting may arise from perceived workplace inequities, subpar compensation, and an unresponsive employer.
In human resources, quiet thriving refers to employees who actively craft their job in order to stay engaged and improve their mental state. Quiet thriving provides employees with a sense of agency that builds resilience and allows employees to find purpose in their roles and reduces occupational burnout. Quiet thriving may lead to additional career opportunities.
In human resources, quiet hiring refers to the practice of having an employee take on a new responsibilities or a role within their company due to need. The role may be temporary or permanent, and the reassignment may not align with employee interests. Quiet hiring often occurs during economic slowdowns as a cost-saving measure.
In human resources, rage applying refers to the application to a large number of jobs, typically online, when an employee is fed up with their current role. An individual may be prompted to begin rage applying after they've been denied a promotion or raise, feeling unrecognized, or under appreciated. Rage applying is a response to quiet quitting and may be felt as a form of empowerment or revenge against an employer. Rage applying can also allow an individual to understand their current market value.