Nearly 1 in 5 workers are 'loud quitting' at their jobs, a new Gallup poll says — and it's way more extreme than 'quiet quitting'

• Nearly 1 in 5 employees worldwide are "loud quitting" at their jobs, a new Gallup report says.
• This entails taking actions that "directly harm the organization, undercutting its goals and opposing its leaders," Gallup says.

You've heard of quiet quitting, but what about loud quitting?

Gallup's 2023 State of the Global Workplace report, published last week, says 18% of employees surveyed worldwide are doing just that at their jobs. The report from the consulting and research firm said so-called loud quitters are "actively disengaged" at work, as opposed to quiet quitters, who are simply "not engaged." Employees considered "engaged" were said to be "thriving at work." Gallup's report included data from 122,416 employed people ages 15 and up worldwide.

Between the 18% of employees loud quitting and the 59% quiet quitting, Gallup estimates low employee engagement costs the global economy $8.8 trillion and accounts for 9% of global GDP.

Workers were categorized based on their responses to 12 items. These include factors like whether they have the opportunity to do what they do best every day; whether their boss or someone else at work seems to care about them as a person; whether the company's mission makes them feel their job is important; and whether they've had chances to learn and grow at work in the past year.

Quiet quitting refers to doing your job just as advertised, not going above and beyond. While the practice isn't new, it was popularized as a term online last year, particularly on TikTok, as workers sought to set firmer boundaries at work and achieve better work-life balance.

Where quiet quitters tend to be more passive in their disengagement, loud quitters may actively undermine the employer's goals and can damage the brand when it comes to attracting new employees, says Jim Harter, the lead author of the report and chief scientist for Gallup's workplace management and wellbeing practices.

"They're detached from the organization, but also emotionally against the organization, and they'll be vocal about it," he told Insider. "The loud quitting employees are going to be much, much more likely to take another job pretty quickly if it becomes available, and they won't need as much money to do that."

Gallup has monitored the percentage of actively disengaged employees for several years but only introduced the term "loud quitting" in the latest report to refer to these workers.

Employees may loud quit for several reasons. They may be dissatisfied from being mismatched to a role, or they may feel a loss of trust with the employer. But the biggest cause boils down to management, according to Harter, who says bosses explain about 70% of the variance in team engagement.

"The cause of this loud quitting, or even quiet quitting, is really primarily in how people are managed," he said.

In hearing what set engaged employees apart from their disengaged peers, Gallup deduced that managers should aim to have one meaningful conversation a week with every employee they manage to share feedback, give recognition for their work, and discuss goals and priorities. Employees also valued having a say in how they collaborate with their teams, for example in helping decide their working locations in terms of in-person, remote, or hybrid arrangements.

"These are some simple things that could really change and revolutionize management if we get it right," Harter said.