human resources Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include ' ...

, quiet hiring refers to the practice of having an

employee Employment is a relationship between two party (law), parties Regulation, regulating the provision of paid Labour (human activity), labour services. Usually based on a employment contract, contract, one party, the employer, which might be a cor ...

take on a new responsibilities or a role within their company due to need. The role may be temporary or permanent, and the reassignment may not align with employee interests. Quiet hiring often occurs during economic slowdowns as a cost-saving measure. Quiet hiring may negatively impact employee engagement with reassigned employees

quiet quitting Work-to-rule, also known as an Italian strike or a slowdown in United States usage, called in Italian a ''sciopero bianco'' meaning "white strike", is a job action in which employees do no more than the minimum required by the rules of their co ...

or mentally checking out. Quiet hiring may promote the utilization of nontraditional labor pools and allow workers to gain new skills and try out new roles for career development. Quiet hiring encourages the promotion of internal employees over external hiring. The term arose following the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Great Resignation The Great Resignation, also known as the Big Quit and the Great Reshuffle, was a mainly American economic trend in which employees voluntarily resigned from their jobs ''en masse'', beginning in early 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among t ...

in response to

and

quiet firing Work-to-rule, also known as an Italian strike or a slowdown in United States usage, called in Italian a ''sciopero bianco'' meaning "white strike", is a job action in which employees do no more than the minimum required by the rules of their co ...

, though the practice was previously in place.

References

Labor relations 2023 neologisms Work Labor {{psychology-stub