Workers in Britain have become less engaged with their jobs over the past decade and less willing to put in extra effort, according to a Resolution Foundation report. The thinktank says this shift may help explain the UK’s weak productivity growth since the pandemic.
The findings are consistent with the idea of “quiet quitting”: doing the required work but declining additional tasks or work outside normal hours. The term gained popularity on social media after the pandemic, amid concerns about high demands, low pay and squeezed living standards.
In a survey of 4,656 adults, the share who said they were willing to go the extra mile for their employer fell from 69% in 2015 to 55% in 2025. Meanwhile, one in four respondents were not even “fairly” satisfied with their role, the lowest level recorded. The proportion who said they had an interesting job also fell, from 74% to 63%.
The report said workers were more focused on pay than they had been a decade earlier, which it described as perhaps unsurprising given flatlining living standards. It also said the decline in engagement may have contributed to weak productivity growth, which slowed after the financial crisis and weakened again following the pandemic.
Hannah Slaughter, the Resolution Foundation’s principal economist, said lower engagement was bad for workers and could also hurt productivity and labour supply, both of which matter for improving living standards.
Sir John Curtice, a politics professor and co-editor of the report, said the findings did not show that young people had become more “work-shy” or that workers in general were less willing to change jobs. However, he said employers may need to offer jobs that are financially rewarding and have flexible hours to keep workers fully engaged.
Sources: BBC News UK.