First, there was quiet quitting—the phenomenon when employees do nothing more than the bare minimum to keep their jobs. The term started trending on social media in the early 2020s, when people were determined to reset their work-life balance after the intense demands of the pandemic. In other words, they quit without resigning.
The newer take on this: quiet cracking. “It’s a less conscious version of quiet quitting,” says Tessa West, a psychology professor at NYU who lives in Westchester. “You’re slowly disengaging from work, where you can’t do anything useful, and you don’t realize it.” That’s where the ‘cracking’ reference comes from. “These workers are not trying to quit, but they’re hitting a wall,” she continues. Some level of effort and intention are there, but performance suffers.
It’s not uncommon, either. Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2025 found that in 2024, disengaged workers cost the world economy $438 billion. So, there is definitely incentive for employers to want to step in before their workers fully crack—be it quietly, or at full-volume.
According to West, the best way to keep employees from cracking is to put clear boundaries in place and encourage everyone to stick to them. As a leader, don’t habitually praise or reward people for staying at their desks into the evening, working on weekends and answering emails at all hours as a norm. Her advice: “The best thing bosses can do is to set rules about work hours and show people that if they violate them, it won’t get them anywhere.”
