Young workers are checking out. Quiet quitting, burnout, wage stagnation, and psychological detachment are now the norm.

Let’s get one thing straight: This isn’t laziness. It’s rational surrender in a rigged game.

The Crisis Is Real

Over 50% of U.S. workers now qualify as “quiet quitters” – doing the minimum required, nothing more (Gallup). Burnout is highest among those under 35. Emotional exhaustion, disengagement, and loss of purpose are accelerating (MDPI).

That’s only one side of the coin…

What’s on the other side?

Wage growth for young workers has stagnated for decades. From 1979 to 2013, the hourly wages of middle-wage workers increased by only 6%, while low-wage workers’ wages declined by 5% (while very high-wage workers saw a 41% increase.)

In fact, between 2007 and 2011, the wages of young college graduates dropped 4.6%, with men experiencing a 5.1% decline and women a 4.1% decrease. In contrast, millennials aged 20 to 35 in 2016 had a median net worth of $162,000, compared to $198,000 for Generation X and $222,000 for Baby Boomers at the same respective ages (epi.org).

OF COURSE, young workers are disengaged!

They are being asked to work more, produce more, but get less in return!!!

Surveys show a clear understanding of this reality, as young employees expect little from work. In fact, the top reasons for quiet quitting are: low pay, no advancement, and lack of respect (Pew).

Root Causes

Workloads are rising. Compensation isn’t. That imbalance drives burnout. When young workers are overextended with no upside, they naturally opt out. (Keep in mind, this is not because money is drying up – you can see in the figures above that highest earners are earning much, MUCH more than before – it’s just that young workers don’t know how to tap into that stream of wealth. They don’t know about high-value jobs or how to get them…)

Pay is frozen. Real wages are flat. Promotions are rare. Raises lag inflation – and by a lot. Workers, OBVIOUSLY, see the pattern and disengage.

Cultural shift. After multiple crises, young people aren’t chasing titles or loyalty. They’re minimizing exposure to systems they don’t trust.

China: A Preview of the West’s Future

In China, the collapse came a little faster. Youth unemployment passed 21% in 2023 (Reuters). The “996” schedule – 9am to 9pm, six days a week – burned out a generation.

Many responded with “tang ping” (躺平): lying flat. Rejecting hustle culture (Wikipedia). Opting out. Workers just keep telling media, “I don’t want to work” often citing a mixture of depression, pessimism, and even nihilism…

U.S. workers aren’t there yet – but they’re on the same road. If wages stay flat and work demands keep rising, today’s quiet quitting becomes tomorrow’s lying flat.

If You’re Disengaged, It Makes Sense

If you’re quiet quitting… If you feel burned out, cynical, or detached from work – it’s more than understandable.

The frustration is real. And the system is definitely broken.

At the end of the day, in our culture: You were promised meaningful work, growth, and fair pay. Instead, what you got was bureaucracy, micromanagement, and stagnation.

And it’s important to recognize that disillusionment isn’t failure. It’s a signal. Something’s wrong – and your reaction is valid.

But checking out isn’t the way forward. There IS a much better path out. You just haven’t been shown it yet…

You’ve Been Trained to Obey, Not Advance

This generation was raised in sandboxes (helicopter parents and systemic adult interference). Every step managed, every outcome optimized, every move confined by rules…

As a result, the behaviors of this generation are not tilted toward success – at least not for success in our brutally competitive and repressive corporate world.

Think about it…

This generation doesn’t explore the internet, it scrolls social media platforms or worse, asks AI for answers!

It doesn’t make playlists, it queues whatever’s trending on Spotify.

It doesn’t problem-solve, it waits for instructions…

Seeing a pattern yet?

This generation has been, unfortunately and to no fault of their own, trained to “follow instructions”.

Here’s the catch: There are no publicly available instructions for social mobility – because the moment such instructions become public, they stop working!

Remember: The corporate world is a zero sum game. Not everyone will win. Not everyone can win…

And also remember: In the modern world, instincts have been calibrated for compliance, not for success, and definitely not for the cultivation of power. Waiting for direction never generates power…

Here’s the crux of the problem in simpler terms: This generation wants… It needs… Authorities to show them the career way up. But, no authority will ever do that!

No manager is secretly mapping your career growth. No employer is investing in your untapped potential. And they never will!

Keep in mind, none of this diminishes the genuinely terrible economic and social conditions this generation inherited. And this is not to say that “you’re in your place because you aren’t looking hard enough.”

Instead, it is to say that: “you not only are stuck in deplorable economic and social conditions, you have also been culturally conditioned to get stuck in it, and have been robbed the mental frameworks required for finding the path out!”

Tough stuff…

The bottom line is this: No one is going to show you the path up. You’re expected to figure it out yourself. Unfortunately, and ironically, you were not only not taught where to look, you weren’t even told that you need to be the one doing the looking, and that you’ll find your answers in hidden corners, or in elite in-groups who keep their history of rags to riches to themselves!

But… Before we get carried on about the endless list of problems with this generation – or any other generation for that matter; let’s talk a little bit about the employer’s perspective about the subject of your employment, as well as, quiet quitting.

The Employer’s Perspective

Making money is harder than ever. Markets are saturated. Global competition is brutal.

Employers are under pressure to do more with less. Every hire is a cost. Every promotion carries considerable risk.

As a result, they prefer workers right where they are – cheap, replaceable, compliant. They don’t want to cultivate anyone. They won’t be opposed to you cultivating yourself if it serves their interest as well, but they won’t make the effort or point the way.

If someone shows up, does the job, and doesn’t complain – they’ll be kept exactly where they are. That’s efficient. That’s profitable.

There’s no incentive to invest in growth unless they’re afraid of losing you. (i.e. afraid means, scared of losing you because losing you will immediately, and ideally permanently, hurt their bottom line.)

In that context, a previously compliant worker quiet quitting, is literally the weakest move they can make!

Let’s unpack this…

The Critical Flaw With Quiet Quitting – It’s Not So Quiet

Everyone can tell when you’ve checked out. It’s visible in meetings, in your emails, in your body language.

Workers who lack the spirit of professionalism (see Secrets to Six Figures) get passed over repeatedly, even when opportunity is right in front of them, within their grasp. They miss out, and miss out “bigly” (yes it’s still funny.)

But it’s even worse than that…

Early in your career, having one or two bosses who believe in you, who will vouch for you, and who will help you get ahead is ESSENTIAL. They become your references, your advocates for promotions, raises, and better assignments. Without that support, you remain stuck or even slide backward.

Quiet quitting signals to leadership that you’re disengaged and unreliable. It cuts off access to the career paths you need.

You Can’t Hurt Them by Hurting Yourself

It’s also worth noting that quiet quitting does not harm your employer or the corporate system. It only damages your own career and income.

If you stop taking initiative, skip important tasks, or withdraw from responsibility, your reputation will suffer. Meanwhile, colleagues who do the minimum plus small extra efforts – even when those efforts are token insincere BS efforts – they get recognized.

They may be generating as much value as you do. Perhaps even less value! But… They get promotions, raises, and better opportunities; often without much more skill or talent than you have. Simply because of those token, often disingenuous efforts. (Remember: the corpo world IS literally just like high school, but just a bit worse…)

Your silence (the “quiet” part of your quiet quitting) is a type of withdrawal that closes doors. You lose chances to build relationships with key decision-makers, or cultivate benefactors with power. You become invisible when it matters most.

This self-sabotage slows your career, caps your salary, and traps you in mediocrity. But, ironically, it does nothing to disrupt the system exploiting you!

There’s a much better way to “check out, do less work, but still continue to grow your career”…

It starts with a change in attitude.

Protect Yourself First

Pulling back doesn’t have to mean disappearing. If you’re quiet quitting, or even if just scaling back your engagement with work and have some “me time” – you still need to keep one foot in the game so you don’t erase yourself.

When you only do the bare minimum, your achievements might vanish – but your reputation shouldn’t.

Therefore, whatever your level of engagement, you need to ensure your “appearance of work” is seen, credited, and defensible, even on “quiet mode.”

  • Build a Signature Skill: Master one critical task or tool so that without you, projects grind to a halt. This is often more than enough to keep you sufficiently visible. (Ideally, this should cost you barely any time, but be glaringly visible – running meetings, owning the weekly metrics dashboard that execs rely on, being the gatekeeper for a critical vendor relationship, or administering permissions to a tool everyone needs but no one else understands, etc.)
  • Document Every Win: Log ANY results you can take credit for, even if you’re barely associated with it as a bullet point each Friday. No achievement, or activity that can be spun as an achievement, should slip through the cracks. (You don’t need to share this with anyone, but it doesn’t hurt to publicize it – in status reports, conversations, emails, etc.)
  • Automate Visibility: Set up shared dashboards or status reports that broadcast your existence in real time. The most important part of doing this is making sure your name is on recurring outputs.
  • Focus on High-Visibility Work: Pinpoint the 20% of tasks driving 80% of your visibility and deprioritize the rest. (Remember, it’s not about results, it’s about visibility.)
  • Set Boundaries that Serve You: Block off your work hours in your calendar and avoid after-hours pings. But… If you do get after-hour requests, be extremely accommodating, and also, immediately make sure everyone is made aware of you going above and beyond… (This is just like: it’s better to send that email Saturday morning, rather than Friday afternoon.)

Develop Leverage Over Your Employer

Of course, while protecting yourself through visibility will keep you employed, it won’t nescessarily get you ahead.

To get ahead, you need power…

Luckily, power has very little to do with value or effort. And even when egregiously checked-out, you can tilt power in your favor.

Two things can be true at once: Quiet quitting won’t help your career. You can help your career while quiet quitting to compensate for your lack of engagement, by developing leverage and power.

The principles we talk about in “leverage” are all at play:

  • Monopolize a Business-Critical Process: Your most important job is to get your employer dependent on you. Take charge of something they can’t do without you – even if you lack the skills. Your goal is to make it such that your absence becomes a business risk.
  • Work Across Teams: Contribute to projects in multiple departments – removing you triggers more than one team’s alarm. This contribution should be as surface level as possible so that it doesn’t generate actual additional responsibility.
  • Secure Signed Promises: Push for written agreements on raises or promotion triggers. What’s written down can be used as ammunition in future.
  • Form a Worker Alliance: Rally peers around common issues – a consensus, especially and organized consensus, forces corporations to behave. This doesn’t have to be a union, but it can be.
  • Build an Outside Safety Net: Your ability to walk away will give you power. It will also reflect in your attitude, and influence all of your professional relationships. (A boss can tell if you feel that they need you more than you need them; especially when it is true.)

The Real Solution is Moving Up the Value Ladder

It’s OK to hate your job. You’re right to resent the current economic conditions of employment.

It’s OK to hate being stuck at the bottom of a hierarchy.

It’s OK to want to give less, much, much less than you take – especially when you are being overtly exploited.

That’s all fine. We agree with you.

But… Giving up won’t set you free. On the contrary, it cements your serfdom. Quiet quitting is a dead end.

The only real way out is to get to the next level. In fact, you need to claw and climb up to the next level. That requires mastering high-value skills, securing influential sponsors, and cultivating resources.

This is not a trivial task. It’s not some “autopilot crypto passive investment hack” – because it’s not a scam, it’s a real task that pays big rewards when you do it right.

Your task is to move up in the world.

There are many ways to do this, and if you don’t know where to start, you could take a look at Launch Your Career or one of our events. These show you how to position yourself for promotions, negotiate on your terms, and unlock high-value (six figure, seven figure and even higher level roles… if you actually do the work and follow the instructions.)

But even if you’re not ready to take that step yet… Please recognize that you don’t have to settle. And you don’t have to quiet quit in dejection.

The path up exists. Many of us have taken it. Many more of us are taking it and sharing their stories in our in-groups.

You also can take it, own it, and claim the power you deserve.

And a parting hint: The higher up your role, the less work you actually do – you won’t need to quiet quit. You can just quiet sit in your corner office 😉