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The phrase quiet quitting has been cast as a generational rebellion, a disengagement crisis, and a leadership failure, all rolled into one. The narrative suggests that half of your workforce has decided to coast, collecting a paycheck while doing the bare minimum. According to new global research from Culture Amp, which analyzed the experience of 3.3 million employees worldwide, fewer than 2% fit into the definition of quiet quittingthat is, employees who lack motivation to go above and beyond but still plan to stay with their company. That finding challenges the viral narrative, suggesting that whats happening inside organizations is more nuanced than a mass withdrawal of effort. So, quiet quitting wasnt the crisis we thought it was, but leaders still face the challenge of unmotivated employees. This data suggests that leaders ought to focus on strengthening the conditions that inspire people to keep showing up with purpose, rather than on rooting out disengaged employees. Heres how you can do that. 1. Listen like a scientist, not a detective Leaders can approach disengagement as something to diagnose and fix, but employees can sense when conversations are driven by suspicion instead of curiosity. If you suspect someones sticking around but not for the right reasons, dont jump to conclusions, says Amy Lavoie, VP of people science at Culture Amp. Approach the situation with curiosity, not suspicion. Ask whats really going on for them. A compassionate, candid conversation often uncovers insights that lead to stronger engagement and performance. In practice, this means asking open-ended questions, such as Do you feel like youre thriving? Why or why not? and listening without defensiveness. When employees feel psychologically safe enough to share whats behind their behavior, leaders can address root causes instead of reacting to surface-level symptoms. That sense of safety is what enables employees to sustain high performance over time. 2. Focus on the 52% who are engaged and committed Heres an overlooked insight: While fewer than 2% of employees are quiet quitting, more than half (52%) are both motivated and committed, which is the sweet spot for engagement. These are the employees carrying organizations forward, yet they often receive the least attention. Recognition and growth opportunities are among the strongest predictors of sustained motivation. As Culture Amps data shows, employees who believe there are good career opportunities at their company and who feel appropriately recognized for good work are far more likely to go above and beyond. Leaders need not wait for performance reviews to celebrate these employees. Recognize them and tie appreciation to future potential. Share something along the lines of, Heres the impact youve made, and heres whats next. 3. Redefine retention: Dont fear turnover, design for flow Job hugging describes employees holding onto their roles out of fear of change, instability, or a tough job market. This can block organizational flow and stifle innovation. Even if employees are performing well, fear-based retention can limit their growth and engagement. Internal mobility programs, mentorship, and career-pathing initiatives can help employees find roles that are more fulfilling and energizing. As Justin Angsuwat, chief people officer at Culture Amp, puts it, Fear drains people. Purpose fuels them. When employees stay, it shapes the energy they bring every day. The goal is to make sure employees stay for the right reasons. Leaders can explore this by asking questions like: What keeps you here, and what would make your work even more energizing? Which parts of your role feel meaningful, and which feel stagnant? If you could design your next step here, what would it look like? 4. Design for energy, not endurance The modern workplace often demands more output from fewer people, creating what Angsuwat calls the productivity paradox: Companies ask employees to deliver more while giving them less to work with. High-performing teams outside of business, like firefighting crews or surgical units, understand that performance is more about balancing focus with recovery. Leaders can apply the same principle by building systems for sustainable energy, such as redistributing workloads, encouraging rest, and rewarding behaviors that support long-term resilience. When energy drives performance, employees motivation naturally rises. 5. Test your assumptions: Use data to guide retention The labor market has shifted, and the employer-employee contract is changing. In this environment, assumptions about who is disengaged or why can be misleading. Culture Amps research shows a steady four-point decline in global motivation since 2021, resulting in tens ofthousands more unmotivated employees in just one year. But data also challenges common assumptionsfor example, remote employees are not more likely to quiet quit, despite many companies fearing otherwise. As Heather Walker, senior data journalist at Culture Amp, puts it, We dont need to feed the drama of division, as if leaders and employees are on opposing sides. In reality, were sitting on the same side of the table, facing the same problem: how to create the conditions for work to succeed. Quiet quitting might make headlines, but its likely not happening in your organization. Whats really at stake is the quality of your employee relationships. Motivation, trust, and energy are renewable if leaders intentionally replenish them. Like this article? Subscribe here for more related content and exclusive insights from executive coach Marcel Schwantes. Marcel Schwantes This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister publication, Inc. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
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Below, Ben Rein shares five key insights from his new book, Why Brains Need Friends: The Neuroscience of Social Connection. Ben is an award-winning neuroscientist who has spent a decade studying the biology of social interaction. He is the chief science officer of the Mind Science Foundation, an adjunct lecturer at Stanford University, and a clinical assistant professor at SUNY Buffalo. He also teaches neuroscience to an audience of more than 1 million social media followers. Whats the big idea? Loneliness is a problem. Many of us feel this, and all of us are seeing it affect society. But why is isolation so harmful? Why are virtual interactions a poor substitute for getting together in person? What does our brain get out of spending time with a friend? The neuroscience underlying our social interactions adds a crucial component to conversations about the loneliness epidemic and what we can do about it. Listen to the audio version of this Book Biteread by Ben himselfbelow, or in the Next Big Idea App. 1. Our brains are wired for connection What does it really mean to be wired for connection? In the ancient world, our ancestors faced tremendous challenges, including food scarcity and predators hunting them. Survival was challenging, but humans work together in groups very well. So, when it came to survival of the fittest, the most social humans were the fittest. As a result, our brains have built-in social reward systems. That means when we connect with others, our brains send powerful signals involving neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin, which make us feel good and want to continue socializing. This was the glue that kept us together millennia ago and, therefore, kept us alive. Our brains still have these systems, which means we have a lot to gain from socializing. This is what it means to be wired for connection. Our brains literally reward us for being around each other. 2. Our neurochemistry faces the challenge of a divided world We are facing a legitimate public health crisis around loneliness. If you look at the data on how much time people spend with others, how many friends people have, how lonely people are, and so on, these metrics are all going in the wrong direction. Between 2013 and 2021, the amount of time the average American spent alone went up by 36 hours per monthalmost a full work week spent in isolation. We are truly becoming isolated. 3. Social isolation is a form of stress When a person is isolated, their body triggers a stress response in which cortisol levels begin to rise. From an evolutionary perspective, this makes a lot of sense. In the ancient world, if you were split off from the group, your chances of survival dropped significantly. Back then, it would have been beneficial to have an alarm system in your brain that warns you of this danger. Our brains still have this system, but in a world where were spending more time alone, thats a problem. Those who are more isolated are 32% more likely to die from any cause. When our bodys stress response systems are constantly being activated, it can result in chronic inflammation and other negative health consequences. Isolation is very bad for us. Studies tracking millions of people have found that those who are more isolated are 32% more likely to die from any cause. Isolated patients with dementia lose their memory twice as fast. And after having a heart attack, the patients who left the hospital and returned to a home where they live alone were more than twice as likely to die in the next three years. This issue needs to be taken seriously. 4. Digital interactions are not the same as interacting in person When we meet face-to-face, many social cues inform our brains about whats happening in the other persons mind. We can hear their vocal tone, read their facial expressions, and feel their body language, thereby understanding their emotions. But when we interact online, whether through texting, FaceTime, or arguing on social media apps, we are not getting the same social cues. I believe that this is impairing our empathy online and leading to undue hostility and aggression. What we know for sure is that interacting online does not provide the same benefits as interacting in person. It turns out social media may not be very social at all. 5. Beyond modern circumstances, our brains have some built-in social pitfalls Research shows that people underestimate how much theyll enjoy social interactions, which can often lead to a night on the couch, even though going out with friends would have been much better for their brains. We also underestimate how much others like us and discount our own social skills. These are just a few of the strange yet perfectly natural biological shortcomings of the human brain that prevent us from connecting with others. Enjoy our full library of Book Bitesread by the authors!in the Next Big Idea app. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
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When work was drying up for freelance writer Megan Carnegie, she found herself compulsively hopping between apps and social media. LinkedIn, WhatsApp, emailsand it was just terrible for my focus, she says. I was anxious about getting work. On a whim, Carnegie (whos also contributed to Fast Company) popped into a store selling secondhand computer equipment and bought an old Nokia burner phone. During the workday, she would use the burner for calls, and in the evening, switch back to her smartphone. With no access to apps and one fewer way to access the internet, her urgency and anxiety dissolved. I just loved the quiet, she says. The effects of social media on mental health have been a popular topic of conversation in 2025. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidts best-selling book, The Anxious Generation, describes the effects on adolescents, including being a significant contributor to anxiety and depression among young adults. Whats less-frequently studied is how it affects people at work. But a new report begins to demonstrate how what we see online can bleed into our professional lives. The new study out of Rutgers University, published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior, found that what you see on social media while at work can shape your mood, motivationeven how you treat your coworkers. Social medias effect on your work Researchers surveyed 133 workers twice a day for two weeks. They asked them to describe the most salient, or memorable, post they saw that day, then describe how they felt and how productive they were at work. Later, the survey was repeated with 141 new participants, this time including their coworkers, who would also rate the subjects behavior and productivity. The researchers segmented posts into four categories: attractive (thirst traps), family (kids first day at school), contentious (politics or rage bait), and accomplished (job promotions). They then measured how these content types affected employees self-assurance, anxiety, productivity, and social withdrawal. They found that while posts about family or friends tend to boost confidence, political rants spike anxiety and make people withdraw. Posts about accomplishments can either spur you or kill your drive, depending on your personality. Those with competitive natures are prone to feeling motivated by achievement-related content, while those who arent particularly competitive are more likely to feel demotivated. The results indicate that some workers might benefit from limiting their social media use at work. But for those whose job involves regularly scrolling social feeds, breaking the habit can prove difficult. The LinkedIn star who barely scrolls, and the PR person who just can’t help it Alison Taylor is an author and professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business who writes about corporate ethics. Despite being named a LinkedIn superuser by the Financial Times thanks to her more than 60,000 followers, she spends very little time on the platform. I wake up, I have coffee, I write the post, I dont worry about it being perfect, I correct typos later, she says. Taylor knows better than to feed the trolls, but she loves a good argument, and cant help but respond to some followers who needle her. While she might come back throughout the day to comment, she goes in and gets out quickly. Its not worth the distraction. As for those whose job involves spending time on social medialike PR reps, marketers, and social media managersthe stress can be inescapable. Some 77% of people who work in social media are burned out, says a reader survey by Rachel Karten, who writes the popular Link in Bio Substack newsletter. Nicholas Budler, who works in public relations for enterprise tech companies, scopes opportunities for his clients all day. The LinkedIn doomscroll has only gotten more endless for me. And its open at work 9-to-5, he says, noting that when engagement is high, it feels good. But when its not, he questions whether social media is worth his time at all. I think you get a bit stressed in general to have social media open at work, Budler says. While he used to do a lot of social media strategy for clients, he does less and less these days, saying, I consider it brain rot. Doomscrolling can carry Budler down a deep, dark rabbit hole of looking through peoples job updates and news. And a lot of that news is not good, right? Especially in media, there are a lot of layoffs, he says. Those leave him anxious. Cutting back on ingrained habits The anxiety and malaise social media can cause is a common problem: In one small survey by the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, 45% of adults reported being stressed at least once a week because of social media, and 16% reported being stressed every day. Frequent social media use has already been linked to increased irritability in adults, as well as worsened depression. Some researchers have even submitted the idea of meta-stress, that is, stressing about the stress generated by social media. Thats made worse by the fact that most adults in the U.S. use social media: 68% use Facebook, 83% use YouTube, and 47% use Instagram, according to the Pew Research Center. Yet theres money to be made in keeping people away from these platforms. Apps like Freedom, AppBlock, and SelfControl block access to certain apps for periods of time. Some cant be disabled until a set timer expires. Many workers told Fast Company that they rely on these apps to keep them from doomscrolling. But even those tools may nt be enough to cut back on deeply ingrained habits. Budler is a prolific social media user in his personal life, with accounts on Instagram, the running app Strava, reading platform Goodreads, and TikTok, the latter of which he says is most addictive. His latest screen-time report on his phone recorded just over 20 hours on his phone in the past week, with 9 of those hours on social media. Rebecca Greenbaum, a coauthor of the Rutgers study, isnt against social media. I think it can be a fun break. It can be a useful break. It can add interestingness to a persons day, she says. But to avoid the mindless, automatic scroll, treat it like the smoke break of the 1980s, she says. Get up from your desk, go elsewhere, and devote a limited amount of time. Its a strategy that works for Megan Carnegie. Im trying to be more intentional about how I use those platforms. The burner has been a good exercise in that. Now Im a bit less anxious about work.
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