According to employee surveys, there are a few common, identifiable traits possessed by good managers.
First, good managers are good communicators.
Second, good managers set realistic expectations.
Third, good managers pay attention to how their employees are feeling about their jobs. According to Gallup State of the Global Workplace 2023 Report that showed, 59 percent of employees worldwide are disengaged and "quiet quitting" by showing very little effort and productivity and feeling disconnected from their work.
Leah Mether "3 traits of 'good bosses' that employees want to work for" https://www.fastcompany.com/91162548/3-traits-of-good-bosses-that-employees-want-to-work-for (Jul. 29, 2024).
Commentary
If your organization has a quiet quitter, like the article mentions, there are issues for your organization to consider beyond the obvious fact that an employee is quiet-quitting.
A quiet-quitting employee may not be performing any duties adequately, and sometimes, not at all - particularly the duties they dislike. If this behavior is allowed to continue, all the while the employee continues to be paid, that, in effect, rewards the behavior, and rewarded behavior will continue.
Place a quiet quitter on a written, short-time improvement plan, monitor them immediately and carefully, and if they fail to correct themselves and put in required efforts, then consider limiting their negative impact on your organization, including termination.
Quiet quitting is not just an issue in your organization. In a recent report, "62 percent of employees surveyed said they are annoyed by the trend of quiet quitting, with 57 percent stating they had to take on extra work because a colleague had quiet quit." Sean Devlin "Quiet quitting doesn't just affect one person. Here's why" https://www.ragan.com/quiet-quitting-research-employees/ (Oct. 27, 2022).
The effect of a quiet quitter on your good employees cannot be overstated.
According to McKinsey & Company, a leading global management company, in an article about quiet quitters entitled "The Hidden Costs of Quiet Quitting, Quantified", by Tera Allas and Marino Mugayar-Baldocchi (Feb. 28, 2024), "Research suggests that such employees . . . put in less discretionary effort, are less focused on delivering outputs, and may even make customers and co-workers unhappy. Therefore, quiet quitting has material consequences for organi[z]ational performance."
Your good employees, who are invested in the success of your organization and client maintenance, can't help but notice a quiet quitter because the shoddy work, or lack thereof, impacts the projects the good employees are also working on or are responsible for.
These good employees will keep the wheels turning inside an organization – wiring around a quiet quitter – because they want the organization to succeed, the clients to be happy, and the livelihood they are earning to support their families to continue. The good employees will often do so without being told to by a manager, all the while suffering the consequences of their workload plus that of the quiet quitter.
However, good employees will not suffer a quiet quitter forever.
Good employees resent quiet quitters, and lose patience when a manager fails to take the steps necessary and restore the organizational morale, culture, pride, and workloads, especially in a small organization.
Good employees may allow their own performance to drop in response to an unmanaged quiet quitter; however, the worse, and more likely response of a good employee, will be to seek employment elsewhere.
Bottom Line:
Effectively and quickly manage a quiet quitter before the consequences for the organization are too "loud" to ignore.