What Is “Quiet Quitting” And When Did It Become A Thing?
Quiet quitting is the latest workplace buzzword. Although it sounds like it refers to someone resigning from their position, it describes a rebellion against the hustle culture of going above and beyond what a job requires. For companies that buy and sell liquidation stock, excess inventory and closeouts, this is a problem. We are in a business that requires a lot of work. A lot of EXTRA work and that takes time and comittment. If a business is closing a warehouse or shutting down a 3PL there is a ton of work involved in helping them through the liquidation process. “Quiet Quitting” simply won't work. Companies filing bankruptcy, liquidating inventory, or for that matter making a major change to the way they do business requires employee's going above and beyond. The amount of work involved in the liquidation process for emptying a warehouse and selling excess inventory and closeouts can be a massive undertaking. The COVID-19 pandemic not only disrupted everyone's lives with restrictions and a lock down on public gatherings; it also made some people rethink their career choices. During what's known as the Great Resignation, 71.6 million people left their jobs from April 2021 through April 2022, which averages 3.98 million people quitting monthly, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In June 2022, the number of people quitting reached 4.2 million. Closeout brokers and closeout liquidators have been affected by this just as much as any other inventory. The shortage of employees has forced businesses around the glove to shut down operations, completely liquidate their entire inventory, and many are shutting down 3PL warehouses because there are no people willing to work in them.
Not only are people resigning from positions, they also want to limit their workloads. Enter quiet quitting -- the new way of doing a job's bare minimum. Quiet quitting doesn't mean an employee has left their job, but rather has limited their tasks to those strictly within their job description to avoid working longer hours. Employees responsible for buying and selling closeouts cannot operate this way because the job takes 100% effort, 100% of the time. Distributing liquidation stock, overstock inventory and closeouts is a specialty that requires more effort than many other job positions, and it cannot be done without full commitment. They want to do the bare minimum to get the job done and set clear boundaries to improve work-life balance. These employees are still fulfilling their job duties but not subscribing to 'work is life' culture to guide their career and stand out to their superiors. They stick to what is in their job description and when they go home, they leave work behind them and focus on non-work duties and activities. Closeout brokers are helpful to businesses that find themselves in situations where they have too much stock sitting in the warehouse and need to liquidate inventory to make room for new merchandise or create cash flow. However, quiet quitting could be a sign that an employee is not happy in their position or is experiencing burnout. Quiet quitting is a way the employee deals with burnout to help alleviate stress. It may also mean they are ready to change positions or may be currently looking for another job. If a company is shutting down their 3PL warehouse or considering shutting down operations they may find they can learn about the liquidation process and closeout process if they were to contact an inventory liquidator.
Across generations, U.S. employee engagement is falling, according to survey data from Gallup, but Gen Z and younger millennials, born in 1989 and after, reported the lowest engagement of all during the first quarter at 31%. Jim Harter, chief scientist for Gallup’s workplace and well-being research, said workers’ descriptions of “quiet quitting” align with a large group of survey respondents that he classifies as “not engaged”—those who will show up to work and do the minimum required but not much else. More than half of workers surveyed by Gallup who were born after 1989—54%—fall into this category. Liquidation stock and excess inventory may be a problem for large retailers stuck with too much inventory due to the supply chain disruption and One factor Gallup uses to measure engagement is whether people feel their work has purpose. Younger employees report that they don’t feel that way, the data show. These are the people who are more likely to work passively and look out for themselves over their employers, Dr. Harter said.
Some online commenters pledged to relax on social media when they had downtime at work. Others say they will follow their job descriptions to the letter, instead of asking for additional assignments. If you sell surplus inventory and closeouts it may be difficult to do the bare minimum due to the amount of excess inventory in the market.
A new crop of quiet-quitting videos is starting to pop up, denouncing the move as a cop-out, not a cure-all for burnout or discontentment at work. Companies that liquidate inventory do not have a high turnover because it is an interesting business and employees often stick around for years or decades. Liquidation buyers are a special breed of people who enjoy the rush and thrill of the deal.
People who coast have been fixtures of the office for decades, but many of today’s less-invested employees have been able to skate by thanks to remote work, said Elise Freedman, a senior client partner at consulting firm Korn Ferry. If the economy sours, Ms. Freedman said, less-engaged workers may be more at risk of layoffs. “It’s perfectly appropriate that we expect our employees to give their all,” she said.
Also, if the ecomomy sours and goes into recession, the closeout business will be busier than ever because business will be shutting down, companies will downsize their warehouses and demand for goods will weaken as importers are forced to liquidate excess inventory to make room for new products.
Josh Bittinger, a 32-year-old market-research director at a management-consulting company, said people who stumble on the phrase “quiet quitting” may assume it encourages people to be lazy, when it actually reminds them to not work to the point of burnout. It is easy to burnout because the last 3 years of Covid have been so hard on a lot of employees. Closeout merchandise has become available again after the supply chain was disrupted for so long. Closeout websites and closeout wholesalers are busier now than they were in the past 2 years, and this can lead to burnout, too.
After years of saying “yes” to everything, in hopes of standing out, Mr. Bittinger said he’s learned to say no more, reserves evenings for himself and avoids checking email on vacation. “I get my job done, my projects done. I’m performing well and I get good feedback,” he said. “And I’m able to still take time to just step away from everything.”
It might be because of the great resignation trend, which empowered employees to demand more from their work experiences and work-life balance. But it’s also likely a byproduct of the psychological fallout from living through the coronavirus pandemic, and the subsequent burnout that affected millions. Regardless, giving 110% is out the door because workers want to avoid exhaustion and ditch stressful jobs that expect them to do more than what’s in their job description. And it’s Generation Z workers — those aged up to 24 years old — who seem the keenest to embrace it. This is the same generation that had better find a way to save for the future. Buying excess inventory and selling overstock inventory has been a great way to make money, but you have to be willing to put in the long, hard hours.
Deloitte Global’s “2022 Gen Z and Millennial survey found that these generations are striving for balance and advocating for change like never before. The report revealed that good work-life balance and learning and development opportunities were the top priorities for respondents when choosing an employer. It also showed that 45% of Gen Zers feel burned out due to their work environment and 44% have left jobs due to workload pressure.
The reasons for Quiet Quitting can vary, but the most common are being dependent on income or lack of job alternatives, but a more distant start date with a new employer can also be a reason. Thus, Qui If anything, it seems like quiet quitters are just striving to set healthy boundaries between their jobs and their personal lives. Fully logging off at the time you’re supposed to: great. Not doing free labor for your employer: also great. The main confusion seems to be what any of that has to do with “quitting,” as opposed to just … meeting your job expectations? The emergence of the quiet-quitting phenomenon isn't a fluke, experts say. It is partly a byproduct of the COVID-19 pandemic, when millions of workers lost their jobs as the disease shuttered the economy. Although most have found new jobs or been rehired, the nation's workforce remains smaller than prior to the health crisis. That is putting more strain on existing employees, who are often asked to do more for the same pay.
If you are interested in liquidating excess inventory or if you are shutting down operations you may find help from wholesale liquidators. You can do a Google search for the following terms to try to find a reliable closeout partner: closeout websites, inventory liquidators, shutting down warehouse, buy excess inventory, obsolete inventory buyers and sell closeouts. Need space in warehouse for new products, getting rid of old inventory.
Merchandise USA has been an inventory liquidator for more than 38 years and we specialize in all closeouts and overstock of housewares, home décor and sporting goods closeouts. You have many closeout wholesalers to chose from, but make Merchandise USA your #1 choice for one of the largest closeout distributors in the United States.
