Quiet Cracking: The Silent Workplace Crisis and Why HEARTset Leadership is the Antidote
Workplace buzzwords come and go, but some reveal real cracks in the system. The latest? Quiet cracking.
A professional cracking under pressure, including their heart
Unlike quiet quitting, where employees disengage by doing the bare minimum, quiet cracking describes workers who still show up but are silently struggling with burnout, unhappiness, or disengagement. A recent EY survey on workplace well-being found that 1 in 5 employees report being in a constant or frequent state of unhappiness at work. Frank Giampietro, EY’s Chief Well-being Officer, explained that many employees are “either suffering burnout or close to it.”
The term gained traction after being amplified by outlets like Business Insider and Inc. But let’s be clear: this isn’t a new phenomenon. Employees have been “cracking” quietly for decades—masking stress, exhaustion, or loss of purpose while keeping up appearances. What’s different now is that we finally have a name for it and a growing recognition of its impact.
In today’s environment, marked by stricter return-to-office mandates, economic uncertainty, and shrinking opportunities for growth, the cracks are widening. The label quiet cracking simply puts words to something leaders and employees have felt for years: the hidden erosion of well-being in the workplace.
The causes are familiar:
Stricter return-to-office mandates
Performance pressure in a slowing economy
Shrinking promotion and growth opportunities
Less investment in well-being programs
On the outside, employees appear to be doing their jobs. Inside, they are “cracking”: eroding under stress until the damage shows up in morale, productivity, or health.
Why I Created the HEARTset Leadership Framework™
Quiet cracking is more than a workplace trend. It’s a wake-up call.
I developed the H.E.A.R.T.set Leadership Framework™ to give leaders a modern, practical playbook for keeping both performance and people strong. It rests on five pillars:
(Be) Human – Understand yourself and how you show up as a human to lead with empathy, authenticity, and emotional intelligence.
Elevate Others – Create opportunities for growth and recognition of others.
Act – Make decisions in a balanced cadence with clarity, accountability, and courage.
Relate – Build trust and strong connections across your team and the organization to effectively collaborate and leads goals to completion.
(Be) Transparent – Communicate what your team needs to know openly and intentionally, especially during change.
When leaders show up with HEART, they prevent burnout, increase engagement, and build resilience into the culture of their teams. Instead of letting people quietly crack, they create environments where employees feel safe to speak up, supported in their struggles, and energized by meaningful work.
Quiet Cracking is a Leadership Issue, Not Just a Wellness Trend
According to Gallup, low engagement costs businesses $438 billion globally. But the cost goes beyond dollars: it’s the erosion of trust, creativity, and long-term sustainability.
“Leaders who ignore the cracks today will face fractures tomorrow.”
Quiet cracking isn’t about “lazy workers.” It’s about leadership. Leaders who fail to notice—or worse, ignore—silent struggles risk losing their people to burnout before they ever lose them to turnover.
The antidote is clear: leadership rooted in humanity, resilience, and trust. Leadership with HEART.
Try these 3 tips to help your team from quietly cracking before the team breaks:
Go into your 1:1’s with curiosity
When someone goes quiet, don’t assume. Ask.
➡️ Try this: approach them privately with open-ended questions like:
“What’s on your mind lately?”
“What’s feeling heavy for you right now?”
“What’s one thing I could do to make work feel lighter?”
Fix the meeting grind
Back-to-back meetings = stress overload.
➡️ Try one of these for 2 weeks:
Make meetings 25 or 50 minutes to allow recovery space between.
Block one day per week, designated “meeting free” for your team.
Create a maximum meetings per day per team member practice, allowing them to decline once they reach their maximum.
Recognize, routinely
Recognition fuels engagement and trust.
➡️ Try this: end meetings by naming one contribution you noticed.
👉 Want to explore how the HEARTset Leadership Framework™ can help your organization stop quiet cracking before it starts?
