Quiet Quitting After Covid-19: Antecedents and Gender Differences

Abstract

Following Covid-19, quiet quitting has attracted significant media attention. This study uses organizational citizenship behaviours to contextualise quiet quitting and examines its antecedents using two New Zealand samples: 791 employees and 228 managers. Drawing on the organizational citizenship behavior literature, we find empirical support for quiet quitting across both individual and organisational dimensions. We also develop and validate a new measure of re-evaluating work post Covid-19, which is strongly associated with quiet quitting. Most antecedents show significant direct relationships in the expected direction, with regression results indicating consistent variation across samples and dimensions. Gender moderation analyses reveal strong effects for organisationally directed quiet quitting, although mixed patterns emerge across specific antecedents for men and women. The findings suggest organisations should prioritise meaningful work and adequate pay to reduce quiet quitting, and strengthen organisational identity and supportive cultures, as quiet quitting is more prevalent toward organisations than co-workers.