By Salma El-Sakka
The "quiet quitting" trend where employees do only the bare minimum may be contributing to the UK's productivity slump, according to a new Resolution Foundation report.
Declining worker engagement
A survey of 4,656 adults shows the share willing to go the extra mile for their employer fell from 69% in 2015 to 55% in 2025. Job satisfaction has hit a record low, with only one in four workers saying they are even "fairly" satisfied. The proportion who find their job interesting dropped from 74% a decade ago to 63% today.
Impact on productivity
The thinktank said this decade-long shift may have contributed to weak productivity growth, which has slowed since the financial crisis and weakened further after the pandemic. Workers are also more focused on pay, which the report called "perhaps unsurprising" given flatlining living standards.
Expert commentary
Hannah Slaughter, principal economist at the Resolution Foundation, said the trend is "self-evidently bad for workers" and does not bode well for productivity and labour supply. Sir John Curtice, politics professor and report co-editor, added that the findings do not mean workers have become more "work-shy", but employers must offer financially rewarding jobs with flexible hours to fully engage staff.
