Quiet quitters among athletes are nearly obsolete.
You’ve probably noticed by now that “Quiet Quitting” is having a moment. In case you’ve missed all the hype, quiet quitters are workers (mostly, but not all, young) who have chosen to stop going above and beyond in the workplace. They have their reasons; some started their careers during the pandemic, and it’s not hard to imagine that they’re finding it hard to engage. A recent Gallup poll found that 50 percent of U.S. workers identified themselves as quiet quitters. The ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees is now at 1.8 to 1, the lowest in almost a decade, according to Gallup.
We suspect that quiet quitting is a trend that will disappear soon. If the economy slows down as predicted, the power balance between workers and employers will change dramatically, and no one will want to admit to quiet quitting. But we can’t be sure because we don’t think we’ve ever met a quiet quitter.
In fact, we don’t meet many quitters at all. That’s because our firm specializes in working with collegiate and professional athletes, matching them with jobs across the country. We chose to work specifically with athletes because they have the competitive mindset to succeed. These are people who spent their college years training for hours before and after class, juggling exhausting practice and travel schedules and overcoming injuries to compete at the highest level. People whose love languages are penalty kicks and triple jumps.
They don’t know the meaning of quit.
That’s why sales careers are the most common career path for former athletes (professional and amateur.) In fact, more former athletes choose sales (27%) than coaching (23%) as their post-sports career, according to LinkedIn.
“Sales is the kind of job where you need … a competitive mindset,” Maurice Jones, a career expert and former Secretary of Commerce and Trade for Virginia, told LinkedIn News in April. “You need an ability to frankly receive ‘no’ a lot of times and not be defeated by it.”
Our mantra to employers has been “hire for attitude, train for skills,” because we believe that the qualities that make workers successful don’t usually show up on a resume. Grit, resilience, drive, discipline, teamwork – all the qualities athletes have are part of what made them successful on the field – and what will make them successful in their business careers.
We developed Podium X for universities who wanted to highlight the qualities that make their student athletes special. Podium X is a digital solution, the result of two years of research and development by experts in career services with extensive experience in staffing and recruiting, training/development, talent management, and human resources. The application changes the way athletes prepare for and apply for jobs and launch meaningful careers by creating an online profile.
If your leadership team is concerned about employee engagement, we have a team of former athletes who understand what it takes to succeed in a competitive sales environment. Find them at our sister company: https://www.xpgrecruit.com/athletes/.