#260 – The Heartless Hustle of “Quiet Cutting”

Back in post #120 (The Great Dehumanization), we wrote about the mass exodus of workers being called the “Great Resignation”.  At the time, we though it could more appropriately be called the “Great De-Humanization“, not only for what caused it but also for what it was causing.

A study at the time concluded that “toxic work culture is the single best predictor” of which organizations suffered the most attrition.  It seems people left organizations with business as usual cultures that were de-humanizing.  Sadly, because God made people to work, and we are less fully human when not reflecting our God-given creativity and productivity through work, the de-humanizing impact was exacerbated by the resignations.  People who resigned left one de-humanizing situation (a toxic work culture) for another de-humanizing situation (no work).

In post #136 (Is “Quiet Quitting Unhuman?), we reflected on the viral concept of Quiet Quitting that followed the Great Resignation–doing just enough at work to get by. We said Quiet Quitting was “unhuman” and a consequence of the de-humanizing effects of business as usual. 

Recently, a new “quiet” hashtag was born–“Quiet Cutting”.  We believe it is de-humanizing in its own way and reflective of the “heartless hustle” of business as usual business in the way of the kingdom of the world rather than the Kingdom of God.

The New “Business as Usual” Hashtag

A January 13, 2025, Wall Street Journal article titled “Balance of Power Shifts Back Toward Bosses” proclaims that “Quiet Cutting” has replaced “Quiet Quitting”:

“Quiet quitting”—workers who slacked off rather than quit—has been replaced by “quiet cutting”—employers who cut jobs without actually announcing job cuts.

According to the WSJ article, Quiet Cutting reflects a shift in leverage back to employers, with employers getting stricter about requiring workers to come back to the office and cutting various benefits introduced to attract workers during the tighter job market.

From 2020 to 2022, pandemic labor shortages pushed wages up sharply, and those who left one job could easily find another. The rate at which workers quit surged, and unemployment fell in early 2023 to 3.4%, the lowest in more than 50 years. . .. The share of employees lost to attrition—quits, dismissals, retirements—in the U.S. was down by 12 percentage points in 2024 from 2023.

Quiet Cutting is also a reflection of business as usual being characterized by a “Can We” rather than a “Should We” culture.  In a “Can We” culture, leaders ask “Can we get away with this behavior or this action?”  In the “Should We” culture pursuing faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing, leaders ask “Should we engage in this behavior or take this action–is it the right thing to do?

It seems leverage has shifted enough that the answer to the “Can We” question goes beyond even “Yes, we can cut benefits and require people to come back to the office.”  “Quiet Cutting” says “Yes, we can do those things, and we can even use them to cut costs by getting people to quit.”  The WSJ article notes:

While a shift in leverage to employers might have shown up in layoffs or wage cuts in the past, now it is more subtle, often in changes to working conditions. For example, knowing that some workers will quit rather than return to the office, some companies are ending remote work as a way of trimming payroll.

Where the Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting were employee responses to business as usual and its de-humanizing characteristics, Quiet Cutting is a reflection of business as usual itself.  Most importantly, it is a reflection of the characteristic of business as usual we call Profit as Purpose, which reduces people to tools of production to be manipulated and managed toward the end of profit.

Like a person, an organization can have only one ultimate ambition or identity — one true “heart” (recall Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters”).  If profit is the end, people become a means to that end.

The time is always right to do the right thing. (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Heartless Hustle

If you have been reading our posts, you know that the right WHY is central to leading with faithful integrity in alignment with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities toward Biblical flourishing.

Business a better way requires heart change in an organization, and a key heart change is reversing the roles of people and profit, prioritizing the flourishing of God’s creation (particularly people) and putting profit in its proper place as a necessary means toward that end rather than the end toward which the organization is managed.

When an organization puts in places practices, or takes positions, that care for (or appear to care for) people (or the broader creation), it is important to look behind the actions and words to find the real WHY.  Is it driven by heart, hype or hustle?

You might be wondering what we mean by heart, hype and hustle as the potential WHY’s behind an organization’s actions and words toward caring for people.

Heart.  In order for actions or words that “care for people” to come truly from heart, we believe the organization must embrace the heart change that moves it from business as usual to business a better way.  It must have shifted profit from being its purpose to being a means (and a very necessary means).

Like a person, an organization can have only one ultimate ambition or identity — one true “heart”.  That true heart may be hidden among other “priorities” in good times, but it is THE priority that remains “when push comes to shove.”

If an organization is still stuck in business as usual with Profit as Purpose, then its caring actions or words are likely hustle or hype.

Hype. What we mean by hype is when an organization’s actions or words toward caring for people are really about impressing or placating third parties such as employees, customers, vendors, owners or regulators.

It is not about caring for people because they are the organization’s priority and because it is the right thing to do.  It is about caring for people (or at least appearing to care about people) because the organization’s leaders have determined that the appearance of caring for people will influence third parties in a way that is good for the goals of the organization–the bottom line (or the stock price) in the case of business as usual.

The Bible warns about hype in Luke 16:15:

You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

Hustle.  What we mean by hustle is when an organization’s actions or words toward caring for people, particularly employees, are really about hustling to attract or retain employees.

It is not about caring for employees because they are the organization’s priority and because it is the right thing to do.  It is about caring for employees because the organization’s leaders have determined that the actions or words are ultimately good for the bottom line.

It is the appearance of caring for people for the purpose of manipulation and furthering a purpose that is not about the people.  As we have pointed out in prior posts, business as usual and its assumptions of Scarcity and Self-Interest call for control and manipulation.  People are particularly vulnerable to workplace manipulation through hustle when work as usual has led them to view work as an Idol and Identity–their source of worth and value.

Hustle occurs when businesses are trying to avoid the cost of employee attrition or when they need to make special efforts to attract and retain employees in a tight labor market (such as existed recently during the Great Resignation) or a tight labor sector (as has existed in the technology sector).

Technology companies became famous for the perks and freebies offered to employees.  During the tight labor market created by the Great Resignation, companies began offering additional benefits, including the flexibility to work remotely, to attract and retain employees.  The real WHY behind these “caring” actions and initiatives became evident as the economy declined and the labor market loosened in 2022.

In post #159 (Caring for People–Heart, Hype or Hustle?), we cited several articles chronicling the cutback of benefits:

Companies Are Cutting Back on Maternity and Paternity Leave“, WSJ

The Bosses Are Back in Charge“, WSJ

Bye-bye massages and free food: Big Tech cuts back perks.” Financial Times

Lackluster earnings reports show Big Tech’s golden age is fading”, Washington Post

At the time, it appeared that some of these actions had been in response to pressure from activist shareholders to cut costs and return greater value to shareholders.  Quiet Cutting goes one step further.  It goes beyond “managing” people as a cost of production and enters the domain of “manipulating” them in the hope some will quit.   We believe that is a “heartless hustle”.

The Importance of Heart

As it says in 1 Samuel 16:7:

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart”.

We devoted post #158 to faithful integrity.  At the core of faithful integrity is an alignment of organizational purpose, values and culture arising from a commitment to Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities that leads a person or organization, instinctively, to do the right things, in the right ways and for the right reasons.

Doing the right thing for the wrong reasons looks good and probably “does good”, but it is missing business a better way–it is missing God’s heart for our work.

One of our favorite cultural commentators, Seth Godin, summarized the idea that a faithful leader must choose the purpose they will serve:

There are two paths, really: “I will serve just enough to make the maximum profit” or “I will profit just enough to provide the maximum service.”

Caring for people can occur along either path, but if the heart of the leader and the organization is to “serve just enough to make the maximum profit”, then that caring is likely to be the product of hustle.

As we said earlier, the heart of an organization may be hidden among other “priorities” in good times.  But the real heart of an organization–people or profits–is exposed in tough times.

While we can be optimistic because every leader of every organization was created in the image of God with hard-wired  “first-order beliefs” such as the Golden Rule, the pull of business as usual is powerful.  In the words of Max Depree:

Unless somebody articulates something different, you are going to adopt a secular standard without even thinking about it.

Leading with faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing requires a radical change in how you understand business and work and “do” business–“renewal” of the leaders’ minds and “heart” change in the organization. It’s essential to breaking your organization free from the kingdom of the world into “the reality” of God’s Kingdom.

Perhaps the most dangerous “heartless hype” is when it comes from an organization that tries to look “faithful” without a faithful WHY–without heart change.  Its efforts to look “faithful” can become hypocrisy that reflects poorly on Biblical faith, which does not glorify God.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23:27-28)

Given that this is the week we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., it seems only appropriate to end with our favorite MLK quote:

The time is always right to do the right thing.

PERSONAL NOTE (from PM):  Quiet Cutting seems particularly pernicious and “heartless” because, by getting people to quit an organization escapes the need to pay severance or continue benefits.  They eliminate the benefits AND they eliminate the cost of the person AND they eliminate the cost of a layoff.  I am not an employment lawyer, but there is a line that “Quiet Cutting” must be careful not to cross, and that line is “constructive dismissal”.  Crossing that line could turn “quiet” into “loud”.  Any leader thinking of engaging in the heartless hustle of “Quiet Cutting” should think carefully and consult with employment counsel.  Any faithful leader should first examine their heart and pray about how to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons.

ESSENCE: We have written about the cultural phenomena dubbed the “Great Resignation” and “Quiet Quitting” and how they were reactions to the de-humanizing effect of business as usual.  Recently, a new “quiet” hashtag was born–“Quiet Cutting”.  We believe it is de-humanizing in its own way and reflective of the “heartless hustle” of business as usual–business in the way of the kingdom of the world rather than the Kingdom of God.  Quiet Cutting involves taking away employment benefits or bringing people “back to the office” in the hope that they will quit, avoiding the need to cut costs through layoffs.  Where the Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting were employee responses to business as usual and its de-humanizing characteristics, Quiet Cutting is a reflection of business as usual itself.  Most importantly, it is a reflection of the characteristic of business as usual we call Profit as Purpose, which reduces people to tools of production to be manipulated and managed toward the end of profit.  It is not leading with faithful integrity toward Biblical flourishing and reveals that the benefits being taking away probably never came from a heart of caring for people–they came from “heartless hustle.”

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Photo Credit: Original photo by Photo by Cristofer Maximilian on Unsplash
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