By now, you’ve probably heard of the term “quiet quitting.”
Google defines quiet quitting this way: “When an employee does the bare minimum required for their job, without putting forth extra effort or enthusiasm.”
I am working with multiple clients and all of them have a quiet quitter on their team. Your dealership could have quiet quitters on staff, too. And they are only one job offer away from leaving your company.
With all of the challenges in today’s labor market, it’s very difficult to find good employees in any industry, including ours.
It’s important that you retain, inspire and motivate your employees every day. Ignoring the problem of quiet quitting will not make it disappear.
Let’s look at several examples of quiet quitters:
A top-performing sales representative who has decided to leave your business who has decided to leave your business without informing you and will be difficult to replace.
- A successful counter sales associate who’s also looking for another job.
- A somewhat productive technician who was discovered to be looking on a popular job search website while on the clock.
- A very productive store manager who’s ready to throw in the towel due to an owner who’s out of touch with what’s needed to keep him on-board.
I hope these examples help you see that you may have one or two quiet quitters on your team. Therefore, from here on please take what I have to say to heart and then do something about it.
As we mentioned above, there is some truth to the Google definition. However, we have also identified several examples of top performers who are quiet quitters and are looking to leave. Spotting a quiet quitter is not easy, but asking the following questions can help. Are the leaders of your business, including your store managers, being intentional with each interaction with every employee?
Are they aware of how they are influencing every team member? Many leaders have blind spots and are not aware that they are either being a “door mat” or a “tyrant.” This awareness is a necessity if you want to know who your quiet quitters are.
Knowing your employees
Do you really know your people? Many store owners think they know their team members, but lets face it — most do not.
I can always tell when a business owner or leader needs help in this area: they do not know how to ask good questions.
You must know your people and make them feel like they are part of something bigger. If you want to really know your people, you have to know everything about them: family, hobbies, hopes, dreams, skills, strengths and weaknesses and what they want to get from working for your company.
At the end of the day, you have to know that you are meeting their often-unexpressed needs.
Every time I perform an evaluation on a business, I find that there are many employees who could do more and want to do more to contribute to that business. Some need more training. Some were sidelined when they displayed some personality trait or made a rookie mistake. Sometimes these mistakes were made due to lack of or improper training. If your dealership has an A, B, C or D rating system for how much each employee contributes to your success, it’s easy to determine where to spend your attention to make an employee produce at the highest level.
The value of huddle-ups
Knowing who your under-performers are and why they are not meeting expectations can be a challenge. But it’s possible to identify who is or isn’t living up to your vision or mission if your vision and company’s mission are communicated multiple times during the week. This is most often accomplished in a huddle-up meeting.
During a huddle-up, I can always tell who is engaged and who is disengaged by their facial expressions, especially when a challenge is presented to them. The engaged employees are thinking, “Game on!” The disengaged employee — the quiet quitter — looks at me like I am full of nonsense.
What we often find when we ask questions and then question their answers is they are not in the right seat on the bus.
Elevate and inspire
As competitive as the job market is in 2025, all tire dealership owners and leaders must re-think how they look at employees who may not be hitting on all cylinders. I have found that most businesses do not know how and when to write up employees effectively and do more harm than good with this practice.
On the other hand, some fire employees too quickly and too often.
As a business owner, you should never have to use the words, “You’re fired.”
Why? Because it’s important that you maintain a stellar reputation in your area as a great place to work and a fair place to work. If the guidelines have been set forth through a written job description agreement signed by both the manager and employee and behavior can be modified using this amicable document, then you never have to fire anyone.
If done correctly, most people can be elevated to an entirely different level if they are properly motivated and inspired.
This takes time and energy, but the payoff in extra effort is well worth it. A great business seldom has to place an ad for a job opening because if you have the reputation as a stellar employer with your internal customers — your employees — they will recruit new employees in the same way your external customers are ambassadors for your business. I know one such owner who has above-average employees seeking him out. He seldom has to look for technicians. If you do everything you need to retain and develop people, you will be ahead of the game.
Rehabbing quiet quitters
So you’ve identified a quiet quitter on your team and have decided to continue to employ him. You often will need to use a performance improvement plan (PIP).
Even though I recommend hiring a third party to execute this type of a plan, it’s not impossible for an owner, manager or other leader to utilize this valuable tool.
It’s important to note that PIPs require weekly or bi-weekly communication, a possible book study and some “heavy lifting” from the employee who needs to change his or her behavior and/or habits.
Executed correctly, I have seen this work like magic and improve the performance of many who were within days/hours from being let go.
A less harsh option is an individual training plan. This tool can be just as valuable as a PIP and should be used for the quiet quitter who sincerely wants to “do more” for your company. Both are designed by you and the employee, who must agree to be stretched and grow in the current or future role.
Surveying your people
I recently conducted a survey of business employees and found at least eight out of the 25 employees who responded were quiet quitters. I have one client who has our company come in and survey their people every 24 months and we usually see two or three people who fit the definition mentioned at the beginning of this article — not bad considering more than half of this client’s team were quiet quitters about eight years ago. If you do try a survey approach, I would recommend using a third party. If you own a large company that requires the survey be completed electronically, I would also recommend a third party to gather the results in an unbiased way.
You’ve heard the old saying, “It takes one to know one?” This is something I’ve learned a little about during my career in sales and leadership. In the late 1990s and early-2000s, I was working in sales for a freight carrier that had $1 billion in annual sales. I had a great territory, a company car, a big expense account and a nice office. I also kept a box under my desk. The box had the initials J.I.C. written on the outside of it. The initials stood for “just in case.” This meant that I could pack up my personal items and get my stuff out of the office quickly. Why?
The reason was simple. Management had no clue how to connect with, inspire and motivate a team. They never had any formal coaching or training and were unaware of what the sales team needed to grow with them and for them.
Because of this, I eventually left. And after I left, a few others followed and found jobs at my old company’s competitors. It’s important that you grow as a leader and manager and work with your team every day. Communicate and challenge them with your vision and always be aware of their response based on their ability. In these trying times, it can be the difference between growing your sales and profit or shrinking sales and profit.
Don’t let quiet quitters tilt your business in the wrong direction.
