What is Loud Quitting?
Loud quitting occurs when employees openly express dissatisfaction before formally resigning, often through complaints, conflict, or disengaged behavior. If quiet quitting represents employees silently pulling back from extra effort, loud quitting is its outspoken counterpart. In this case, disengaged workers check out, but they also speak out.
For Human Resources and business leaders, loud quitting is a warning sign, not just a dramatic exit. Left unaddressed, it can disrupt teams, harm employee morale and job satisfaction, and signal deeper cultural issues.
In this article, we’ll break down what loud quitting involves, how it shows up at work, what causes it, and how HR and managers can spot it early and take action.
What is Loud Quitting? Defining Loud Quitting
Loud quitting refers to the practice of employees openly displaying dissatisfaction through complaints, conflict, or visible disengagement before formally leaving the company.
Unlike quiet quitting, where employees withdraw effort and emotionally check out while staying silent, loud quitting is vocal and active. These departing employees may voice frustrations publicly (even in social media) push back against leadership, or undermine team morale on their way out.
Key traits of loud quitting include:
- Increasingly negative or emotional outbursts
- Not wanting to work together, or a sudden drop in teamwork
- Publicly voice concerns about too much work, the management, or what the company values stand for
While loud quitting may be uncomfortable, it often reflects deeper organizational issues that leaders can’t afford to ignore.
What Loud Quitting Looks Like in the Workplace
Loud quitting is rarely, if ever, subtle. It often plays out in ways that are disruptive, and not just for managers, but for the entire team. Some behaviors may come off like personal frustration, but when patterns emerge, they point to deeper employee dissatisfaction that could be taking a toll on a bigger part of the workforce. Some signs that a loud quitting episode is about to flare up are:
- Visible disengagement: Employees may start skipping meetings, missing deadlines, or showing up late with little explanation. Their minimal effort is noticeable, not hidden.
- Negative attitude or gossip: They may express cynicism, spread negativity, or talk behind leaders' backs.
- Open complaints or conflict: Loud quitters often voice dissatisfaction directly, whether in meetings, in group chats, or in front of clients.
- Sabotaging projects or workplace culture before resigning: In extreme cases, disgruntled employees might withhold information, resist collaboration, or make choices that damage trust because they’re already on their way out.
Quiet Quitting vs Loud Quitting
While both behaviors reflect disengagement, the motivation behind them—and their effect on the workplace—are very different. This is an easy matrix of how the two kinds of quitting play out.
Aspect | Quiet Quitting | Loud Quitting |
Motivation | Passive withdrawal, which means doing what's needed and not putting in any extra work | Active expression: letting everyone know you're unhappy and frustrated before you leave |
Visibility | 🔕 Often subtle or unnoticed | 📢🚨 Easily seen by leaders and peers |
Negative impact on Employee Engagement | Could slowly, yet not always, make a team less productive and less interested in their | Can stop people from working together, cause tension, and lead to other employees leaving their jobs |
Effect on Morale | Quiet quitters bring down morale over time, especially if it becomes the norm. | Quickly lowers morale because of bad moods, arguments, or public complaints |
Why Loud Quitting Happens
Loud quitting is often the final stage of prolonged disengagement. Here are some of the key underlying causes:
Burnout and unmet expectations
Ongoing pressure, long hours, or lack of resources without adequate support can lead employees to burnout. When people think that promises about work-life balance or job flexibility aren't being kept, they get cranky. Loud quitting may become a way to let out what’s been ignored for too long.
Lack of recognition or career growth
People who work hard without getting any credit may start to feel like they are invisible. If they see no path forward (no promotions, feedback, or career development) they may act out as a form of protest or resignation. Loud quitting is sometimes a final attempt to be seen.
Toxic management or team culture
Micromanagement, favoritism, exclusion, or poor conflict resolution can prompt employees to feel strained.
Feeling unheard or disrespected
People lose their faith when they feel like their concerns are not being heard when they raise them. Over time, they may stop trying to work things out and start showing their anger more openly through sarcasm or outright venting. Loud quitting can feel like the only way left to send a message.
How to Spot Loud Quitting Early
Loud quitting doesn’t usually start with a dramatic outburst (that's actually the end of it, and it means it's too late). Here’s how HR and managers can identify it early:
Pay attention to changes in behavior
Pay attention to changes in tone or commitment. An employee who used to be collaborative and proactive may become withdrawn, irritable, or actively disengaged months before they actually spark off an episode.
Look for public venting and negativity
Loud quitters often express dissatisfaction in visible ways. They vent in meetings, send passive-aggressive emails, or deliver sarcastic remarks in group settings. While this might be dismissed as personality or stress, it might be a loud quitting episode in the making.
Look out for employees who don't listen to feedback
When employees coast their way into (and out of) team meetings, it may mean they’ve mentally checked out. It's very unusual for an employee to skip a meeting with their manager, but they might not heed the advice or feedback from a manager, or give short, defensive responses instead of listening. That's a loud quitting scene that's ramping up.
Keep an eye out for survey results
Suppose a company uses employee survey tools and realizes that some employees are not shy to admit they are not engaged, are unhappy, or have a dismal employee net promoter score. In that case, it might mean they're preparing a loud exit on their terms.
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How HR and Managers Should Respond
The common-sense conclusion is that many of the signs that a loud quitting episode is about to start might... fizzle out and end up being nothing else. But HR reps who want to work on their retention strategies can try these practices to prevent loud quitting:
Start with 1:1 conversations
If they realize an employee is angry and is about to start a loud quitting episode, managers should create space for open communication. And in the 1:1 meeting, employees must feel heard and managers must listen actively. So it's a good idea to kick the meeting off with an open-ended question so that the employee can vent.
But some employees feel heard when they can communicate their thoughts in a different setting, and might actually prefer to give anonymous feedback. So if there's a case of many employees complaining about an excessive workload, and these employees don't open up in a 1:1 meeting, then an anonymous survey can do the job.
Learn about the root causes and not just the symptoms
Hr reps should address underlying issues if they want to work on a broader retention strategy and not in a simple, one-off quitting case. If one employee is loud quitting, others may be quietly disengaging too. HR should look beyond surface-level behavior and examine team dynamics, workloads, and leadership practices. Are people feeling overworked, overlooked, or unheard. If HR reps can get metrics on employee sentiment, they can start tweaking their policies, and they can set up a positive work environment that leads to engaged employees.
Try employee exit interviews
If the employee is already halfway out the door, offer a friendly offboarding process. Exit interviews should focus on understanding what went wrong. HR teams can draw on that employee feedback to work on new retention strategies.
Loud Quitting FAQs
Q: What are the common signs of loud quitting?
A: Some common signs are public complaints, disagreements with team members, rude or negative comments in meetings, and pulling away from working together or the company culture.
Q: What are the risks of loud quitting for organizations?
A: A loud quit can hurt team morale, slow down work, cause more people to leave, and hurt the company's reputation, especially if the employee's anger is a sign of larger problems with the culture or leadership.
Q: Why do employees loud quit instead of just leaving?
A: Employees may feel unheard, disrespected, or frustrated by unaddressed concerns. Loud quitting becomes a way to make those issues visible before they exit, especially if previous attempts to speak up were ignored.
Q: What is a “loud quitting incident”?
A: When an employee quits their job in a public or unpleasant way, it's called a “loud quitting incident.” Employees witness this act, which could even get attention from the media or insider blogs. They draw attention to issues like a lack of employee advocacy, unfair work responsibilities, and low job satisfaction. These incidents can be a wake-up call for global employees who will now demand better health care or start looking for a new job.
Q: How can companies prevent loud quitting incidents or “bare minimum Mondays”?
A: Companies must show their organization's commitment to employee well-being by addressing concerns before they even become a crisis. For example, companies can avoid “bare minimum Mondays” by making sure that Mondays are a day in which employees can perform influential, significant work. When people quit out loud and receive (unwanted) media attention, it reminds companies to act quickly to avoid legal problems and keep their employees engaged.
Q: How does a positive work culture help stop loud quitting, quiet quitting, burnout, and job searches?
A: A positive work culture can play a significant role in dealing with quitting, burnout, employees searching for new jobs, and turnover. When companies focus on resolving conflicts and listening to workers' needs, quitting rates can drop. However, if ignored, burnout can push employees to leave. This might harm the former employer with legal consequences or media attention. Conversely, a healthy culture mitigates these risks. It makes new hires feel welcome and keeps workers happy. Since many companies take advantage of a global economy and hire remote workers, the optimistic, welcoming work culture could mean these employees are engaged even if they have an ideal setup—remote working, far away!—to quiet quit.