In 2023, Gallup discovered that around 59% of the global workforce was quiet quitting.
It sounded dramatic, but it really wasn’t. But it wasn’t great news for organisations either.
Employees stopped answering questions that didn’t need to be answered right away. Stopped stepping in just because something was broken.
They did their jobs. But the extra stretch, the part where you absorb more than you’re asked to, went away.
That’s because it’s hard to stay fully invested when things keep shifting. Teams change. Priorities move. Hybrid work makes it harder to tell when the day actually ends. Layoffs are unpredictable in an already competitive work environment.
Now we have quiet thriving. Which focuses on something else entirely. We’ll define what it is in this article and show you how to navigate this shift in the workplace.
What is Quiet Thriving?
Quiet thriving doesn’t look dramatic from the outside. Here’s what a “quiet thriving” employee will do:
- Protect their time without disconnecting from work.
- Stop saying yes to everything.
- Become more deliberate.
- Still care about doing good work, but they pay attention to where their effort actually goes, and what comes back from it.
The biggest shift here is boundaries.
They stop letting their day get filled with reactive work. They don’t volunteer for tasks that drain them without building anything in return. And they notice which parts of the job give them energy, even small ones, and try to stay closer to those over time.
Their communication styles change, too. They speak up earlier, ask questions before something drifts too far.
Skill-building becomes a priority. They recognise that their career progression is separate from the goals of the company, so they steadily learn new tools and get better at what they already do.
Research supports what this feels like in practice. Job crafting (the act of reshaping your tasks, your relationships, even how you think about your work) has been shown to improve motivation and results, as outlined in Harvard Business Review.
The same pattern shows up in Deci and Ryan’s work on autonomy, competence, and connection. When those are present, people grow inside their work instead of just enduring it.
How Can Engagement Change in the Modern Workplace?
Hybrid and remote work changed everything about engagement in the workplace.
There are more tools and channels than ever. There’s flexibility too. You could work somewhere for years and never show up in person.
But none of that has fixed the basics.
If people don’t trust their manager, if they don’t understand why decisions were made, if their effort goes unnoticed, no platform solves that. Even if they get to work in their pyjamas.
Bryan Henry, President of PeterMD, sees what happens when performance expectations stay high while clarity stays low. In fast-moving teams, he notices that people don’t burn out from hard work alone.
Henry says, “Most disengagement starts as confusion. People can handle pressure if the target is clear. What breaks them is being asked to move fast while the definition of success keeps changing. If you want someone to stay invested, tell them what matters this week, what can wait, and what ‘done’ actually means.”
The hardest part now is making engagement feel real when people aren’t in the same room and making it consistent instead of dependent on one good manager.
Let’s talk about the levers that matter the most.
How conversations are run
One-to-ones can’t be status updates disguised as care. When they become a predictable space to talk about growth, friction drops.
Christopher Skoropada, CEO of Appsvio, has seen how quickly teams lose momentum when 1:1s become performative. People show up, give the safe update, and leave with the same friction they came in with.
Skoropada says, “If a one-to-one is just a checklist, you’re not learning anything. The useful version is where someone can say, ‘This part isn’t working,’ without it turning into a personal failure. You don’t get engagement by asking how things are going. You get it by making it normal to name the problem early, while it’s still fixable.”
When leaders explain the “why” behind changes instead of dropping announcements into Slack, speculation slows down. And when there’s a clear, low-risk way to raise concerns, people use it. If there isn’t, they stop trying.
Growth has to be built into the week, not tacked on
Micro-learning works when it’s part of the workload, not something people squeeze in at night. Mentoring only sticks when managers protect time for it. Internal mobility matters more than perks, letting someone test a different project or shift focus without resigning first changes how long they stay.
Career paths need to show options, not just promotions. Not everyone wants the next rung. Some want range.
Ryan Walton, Program Ambassador of The Anonymous Project, works closely with people navigating periods where progress stalls and pressure accumulates.
Walton says, “People don’t disengage because they stopped caring. They disengage because they’re carrying too much and don’t feel safe admitting it. The fastest way to lose a team is to pretend everyone has the same capacity during a disruption. The fastest way to keep them is to make it normal to ask, ‘What’s weighing you down right now, and what can we adjust?’”
Work has to be designed
If meetings swallow most of the day, focus disappears. If response times are undefined, everyone feels on call.
Leaders who talk about balance but never disconnect themselves undermine everything else. Protecting real downtime and building breathing space into intense cycles isn’t soft. It’s structural.
Jeffrey Zhou, CEO and Founder of Fig Loans, sees a clear pattern: when expectations are vague, employees protect themselves by doing the minimum that won’t get them in trouble.
Zhou says, “If everything is urgent, nothing is sustainable. People don’t quit because they’re lazy. They pull back because they’re trying to survive a system that never stops asking. The fix is rarely a perk. It’s defining what actually needs a fast response and permitting people to let the rest wait.”
Work design focuses on autonomy, clear feedback, and variety in tasks. Decades of research on job characteristics tie these to satisfaction and performance. Add psychological safety (Amy Edmondson’s work makes this clear), and teams raise issues earlier and solve problems faster.
Practical Steps for Employees
You don’t have to wait for leadership to redesign the company.
Start with your own week
The biggest shift comes from noticing where your energy actually goes. For a couple of weeks, pay attention. Not in a spreadsheet. Just mentally track it. Which tasks leave you sharper? Which ones drain you before lunch?
The goal isn’t to eliminate everything tiring. It’s to edge the balance. Trade one recurring task. Batch the admin instead of scattering it. Push one small piece of your day toward work that builds something in you.
That 10–15% shift matters more than it sounds
Job crafting doesn’t require a formal programme. Sometimes it’s as simple as asking to take on a different slice of a project, or swapping responsibilities with a teammate because you’re both stronger in different areas.
Sometimes it’s reframing routine work as deliberate practice for a skill you’ll need later. The research calls it job crafting. In reality, it’s adjusting the edges of your role so it fits better.
Protect one block of real focus each day
Close the extra tabs. Mute notifications. Pick the task that actually moves the needle instead of the one that feels urgent. Even 60 minutes changes the tone of a day.
One-to-ones are another leverage point. Don’t walk in empty. Bring specifics: what’s working, what’s stuck, what you want to get better at. If you don’t steer that conversation, it becomes a status update.
Establish boundaries
Simple ones work best. No meetings after a certain hour. A defined response window. Not checking messages during dinner. Say it early. Repeat it if needed.
Most people adjust faster than you expect if you’re consistent.
Moving Forward
If you’ve felt your own engagement slip, start with one adjustment. Just one.
And if you lead a team, pick a single habit and improve it. Consistency matters more than scale.
You’ll see both patterns around you. People pulling back, others rebuilding momentum.
Sometimes the most useful step is simply starting the conversation with your manager, or with your team, about what would make the work feel sustainable again.
You can explore more examples and practical approaches through Engage for Success.
Author: David Abraham – Program Manager, Human Rights and Criminal Justice, CELSIR
Photo credit: StockCake
