A new buzzword has hit the collective consciousness.
“Quiet cracking” describes the feeling of increased disengagement and unhappiness among employees who, amid a weakened labor market, feel stuck at work, Business Insider reported. More than half of employees feel unhappy at work either frequently (20%) or occasionally (34%), research from learning management system company TalentLMS found.
While employee dissatisfaction isn’t new, economic turmoil, AI uncertainty, and return-to-office mandates have pushed the workforce into this new era, according to Rishad Tobaccowala, futurist, business leader, and author of Rethinking Work.
“Right now, [employees] are basically saying, ‘This sucks, but there’s nothing I can do about it,’ so that’s why you have this quiet cracking going on,” Tobaccowala told HR Brew.
Workplace whiplash. Employees are in “a diametrically opposite position” from where they were during the Great Resignation, Tobaccowala said. They went from commuting to the office five days a week pre-Covid, to having flexibility and autonomy during the pandemic, to now being expected to return to the 2019 workplace, and it’s giving them whiplash, he added.
“Three years ago, we were re-imagining work…We were thinking about how we fit work into life,” Tobaccowala said. “Two years later, we find ourselves in this ‘incredible’ world where it’s gone back to, ‘You will come back to work, whether you like it. If you don’t, we will kick you out of your job.’”
Employees are also experiencing whiplash when it comes to their mobility. Many companies went on hiring sprees around 2021, only to revert to layoffs by 2023, he said.
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“In every way, the control has gone back to the company…We have much less, far less flexibility, because you have to deal with high prices, high real estate costs, high food costs,” he said. “In 2021, you thought there was a new world of work, and, in 2025, it’s worse than 2019.”
Waiting for the storm to pass. HR professionals, Tobaccowala said, should remember the pendulum will eventually swing back in the favor of employees.
“[Employees] are basically saying we are locked, because we don’t like what’s happening, but we need to buy some time. We have to figure out how to save some money. We need to figure out how to build our networks. We need to figure out how to leverage technology,” he said. “We need to figure out how we show up, and work, and do things on the side, and then when we’re ready, we’re ready to go.”
In anticipation, Tobaccowala recommended people leaders focus on offering flexibility and personalization at work.
“While in-person interaction is important, you don’t need to basically have it three days a week. You can get away with three days a month, or even 10 days a quarter,” he said. “Younger people may need to be more at work for training or to be with each other. Middle-aged people with parents to look after and kids to look after have to move far away for better schools and affordable housing…You talk about being agile and flexible, but you don’t do that with your talent?”