WANT YOUR MANAGER TO STOP MAKING YOUR BEST PEOPLE QUIETLY QUIT

WANT YOUR MANAGER TO STOP MAKING YOUR BEST PEOPLE QUIETLY QUIT

I went silent. I stopped speaking up. I kept getting my hand slapped (a nice way of slapping me in the face and saying, "Shut up, lil lady") when I offered an opposing perspective. I remember calling out the executive team and saying, “Our strategy is not aligned throughout the business.” The CEO said, “How are we not aligned? That makes no sense”, and moved on, not waiting for a response.

The problem was there was no alignment. Every department was doing something different, not realizing the effect it was having on another department. That is a huge misalignment. This caused productivity and communication issues, which then caused customer issues. No one wanted to hear it because everyone had been doing it this way for years, and no one wanted change (change is for another article).

So I started quiet quitting before quiet quitting was cool. I checked out. Why exert effort when the ears aren't available? I mean, who brings on the HR Hangover all on their own? Often HR does, but I had learned better by now.

Here is the problem with bad managers. They cause another form of quiet quitting.

We started hearing about quiet quitting about two years ago. However, the way you heard about it wasn't the way I am talking about it today. They called quiet quitting the new generation saying F*** you, I am not working anymore; I am just showing up and doing what is in my job description, nothing more, nothing less. They were not really looking for other jobs; they were just quitting under their breath.

The quiet quitting I am talking about is - your bad manager really being the reason they are quiet quitting. They are not saying it is not in my job description; they are saying the boss is an a-hole, and I am just going to keep my mouth shut and let them dig a hole. They stopped bringing things up and stopped caring about much. This is actually a trained behavior taught by the bad manager: “not okay to offer an opinion.”

The difference between quiet quitting in 2022 and now is that your bad manager is causing it, and no one is addressing it. And the manager they report to is also the bad manager.

Failing to address the bad manager issues makes someone a bad manager - it is indeed a trickle-up effect.

Bad managers have been around since the beginning of time. The problem is that now we are aware of what a bad manager is, and yet here in 2026 we are still trying to eradicate bad manager behavior, and my mind is blown - it is so easy to do.

First, have the conversation. Second, have the conversation. Third, have the conversation.

This story should end here, but for some reason that is not easy enough, so I will share more.

• Gallup finds managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement. Gallup's 2015 State of the American Manager report. gallup

• Manager engagement has dropped nine points since 2022, from 31% to 22%. Global engagement fell from 23% in 2022 to 20% in 2025. Gallup's 2026 report links the global decline mostly to managers. galluphrdive

• Non-manager engagement barely moved, from 20% to 19% over the same period (secondary source, but it matches Gallup's chart). The people leading are disengaging faster than the people they lead. leadersrisingnetwork

• Best-practice organizations hold manager engagement at 79%, nearly four times the global average, so this isn't inevitable.

All the hard costs and truths that you should know from Gallup:

• Each not-engaged employee costs the company the equivalent of 18% of their annual salary. Gallup's own example: 10,000 employees at $50K average lose $60.3 million a year to disengagement. gallup

• Gallup estimates the world economy would be $9.6 trillion larger, about 9% of global GDP, if every organization matched best-practice engagement of around 70%. (Secondary source, from the 2025 report.) inclusiongeeks

Let that sink in.

It is not just people sitting in the chair; it is like throwing money in the trash just because someone does not want to address a bad manager. If that bad manager has the highest turnover but the best sales or productivity in the department, do the true cost of that.

1. What are the earnings of the “productive manager”?

2. What is the turnover in the department costing?

3. What is the turnover costing other departments?

4. Subtract that from this productive manager.

When you do the calculations, the business will see how much the bad manager is costing. And honestly, that bad manager may just need a 30-minute conversation about what they are doing wrong. Or they may need a leadership and coaching program to help them make the transition.

If the bad manager is worth keeping, then invest in a program to help them; it is going to save money or make the next-level-up manager realize this is not the best place for this person and have the more difficult conversation.

Do the homework. How much is your bad manager costing you?

If you want to build this with your CEO in the room, that is exactly what the 90-day IMPACT intensive is for: HR and the CEO working from the same ROI language. Find me at www.thestrategichrcoach.com.