IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp16240.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does the Tendency for 'Quiet Quitting' Differ across Generations? Evidence from the UK

Author

Listed:
  • Hamilton, Odessa S.

    (London School of Economics)

  • Jolles, Daniel

    (London School of Economics)

  • Lordan, Grace

    (London School of Economics)

Abstract

The post-COVID-19 phenomenon of 'quiet quitting' could be problematic for UK economic growth because unpaid overtime has been a key contributor to business productivity since the 2008 global financial crisis. Here, we explore the extent to which this phenomenon exists in the UK, and whether the tendency for 'quiet quitting' differs across generations. We analysed data from the UK Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) between 2007-2022 to determine changes in hours worked. Quiet quitting was characterised by notable declines in hours worked between 2019-2022, benchmarked against 2007-2018 trajectories. Analyses were demarcated by four commonly defined generational cohorts (i.e., Generation Z [GenZs; 1997-2004], Generation Y [Millennials; 1981-1996], Generation X [GenXers; 1965-1980], and Baby Boomers [1952-1964]). Overall, we found that the UK workforce reduced hours by ~28 hours per year post-pandemic. Hours lost was most notable in 2022, with hours down by ~36 hours. However, in assessing generational differences, quiet quitting was most pronounced in the two younger cohorts. GenZs showed the steepest decline in hours worked, while Millennials worked the least number of hours overall, with no indication of recovery by the end of the study period. Hours declined for GenXers and Baby Boomers, but changes were more moderate, and Baby Boomers showed evidence of a possible rebound to pre-pandemic levels. Given the ~24,568 million UK full-time workers in 2022, our findings equate to over 55 million discretionary hours lost to the labour market per year between 2019-2022, 48.1% of which is accounted for by Millennials. Thus, we evidence that quiet quitting has interrupted the recovery of working hours in the UK to prepandemic levels, and lost hours are especially attributable to younger cohorts.

Suggested Citation

  • Hamilton, Odessa S. & Jolles, Daniel & Lordan, Grace, 2023. "Does the Tendency for 'Quiet Quitting' Differ across Generations? Evidence from the UK," IZA Discussion Papers 16240, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16240
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp16240.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. M. Isabel Sánchez-Hernández & Óscar Rodrigo González-López & María Buenadicha-Mateos & Juan Luis Tato-Jiménez, 2019. "Work-Life Balance in Great Companies and Pending Issues for Engaging New Generations at Work," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-18, December.
    2. Silke Anger, 2008. "Overtime Work As A Signaling Device†," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 55(2), pages 167-189, May.
    3. Hilary Hoynes & Douglas L. Miller & Jessamyn Schaller, 2012. "Who Suffers during Recessions?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 26(3), pages 27-48, Summer.
    4. Anger, Silke, 2008. "Overtime Work as a Signaling Device," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 55(2), pages 167-189.
    5. Bell, David N.F. & Blanchflower, David G., 2019. "The well-being of the overemployed and the underemployed and the rise in depression in the UK," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 180-196.
    6. Dain Lee & Jinhyeok Park & Yongseok Shin, 2024. "Where Are the Workers? From Great Resignation to Quiet Quitting," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 106(1), pages 59-71, January.
    7. Papagiannaki, Eleni & Giraleas, Dimitris & Thanassoulis, Emmanuel, 2021. "Unpaid Overtime: Measuring its Contribution to the UK Industries’Output," CAFE Working Papers 13, Centre for Accountancy, Finance and Economics (CAFE), Birmingham City Business School, Birmingham City University.
    8. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zapf, Ines & Weber, Enzo, 2017. "The role of employer, job and employee characteristics for flexible working time : An empirical analysis of overtime work and flexible working hours' arrangements," IAB-Discussion Paper 201704, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    2. Ines Zapf, 2015. "Individual and Workplace-Specific Determinants of Paid and Unpaid Overtime Work in Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 771, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    3. Zapf, Ines, 2015. "Individual and workplace-specific determinants of paid and unpaid overtime work in Germany," IAB-Discussion Paper 201515, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    4. Frei, Irina & Grund, Christian, 2017. "Antecedents of Overtime Work: The Case of Junior Academics," IZA Discussion Papers 11065, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Daniel Possenriede & Wolter Hassink & Janneke Plantenga, 2014. "Does face-time affect your career?," Working Papers 14-10, Utrecht School of Economics.
    6. Erica Blom & Brian C. Cadena & Benjamin J. Keys, 2021. "Investment over the Business Cycle: Insights from College Major Choice," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39(4), pages 1043-1082.
    7. Alexis Ioannides & Eleni Oxouzi & Stavros Mavroudeas, 2014. "All work and no … pay? Unpaid overtime in Greece: determining factors and theoretical explanations," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 39-55, January.
    8. Carr, Michael D., 2011. "Work hours and wage inequality: Evidence from the 2004 WERS," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 417-427, August.
    9. Mario Bossler & Philipp Grunau, 2020. "Asymmetric information in external versus internal promotions," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(6), pages 2977-2998, December.
    10. Pauline Givord & Lionel Wilner, 2015. "When Does the Stepping‐Stone Work? Fixed‐Term Contracts Versus Temporary Agency Work in Changing Economic Conditions," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(5), pages 787-805, August.
    11. Tekin Akgeyik, 2021. "Fazla Çalışmanın İşyükü ve İşgücü Belirleyicileri(Bir Şirketin Veri Seti Üzerine Ampirik Bir Araştırma)," Journal of Social Policy Conferences, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 0(80), pages 37-65, June.
    12. Argyro Avgoustaki & Hans T. W. Frankort, 2019. "Implications of Work Effort and Discretion for Employee Well-Being and Career-Related Outcomes: An Integrative Assessment," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 72(3), pages 636-661, May.
    13. Argyro Avgoustaki & Hans T. W. Frankort, 2023. "All work intensity is not created equal: Effort motives, job satisfaction and quit intentions at a grocery chain," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(4), pages 869-894, December.
    14. Gustavsson, Magnus, 2013. "Permanent versus transitory wage differentials and the inequality-hours hypothesis," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 121(3), pages 537-541.
    15. Christian Pfeifer, 2015. "Effective working hours and wages: the case of downward adjustment via paid absenteeism," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(1), pages 612-626.
    16. Jorge González Chapela, 2015. "Split or straight? Evidence of the effects of work schedules on workers’ well-being, time use, and productivity," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 6(2), pages 153-177, June.
    17. Natalia Montinari, 2010. "Reciprocity in Teams: a Behavioral Explanation for Unpaid Overtime," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0114, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno".
    18. Mevlut Tatliyer & Nurullah Gur, 2022. "Individualism and Working Hours: Macro-Level Evidence," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(2), pages 733-755, January.
    19. Rafael Gralla & Kornelius Kraft & Stanislav Volgushev, 2017. "The effects of works councils on overtime hours," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 64(2), pages 143-168, May.
    20. Serge Atherwood & Corey S Sparks, 2019. "Early-career trajectories of young workers in the U.S. in the context of the 2008–09 recession: The effect of labor market entry timing," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(3), pages 1-30, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    quiet quitting; generations;

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16240. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.