{"text":[[{"start":9.96,"text":"British workers are increasingly disengaged from their jobs and have become less willing to go the extra mile to help their employer, according to a survey that lends substance to claims that productivity has suffered from a wave of so-called “quiet quitting” in the aftermath of the pandemic."}],[{"start":27.32,"text":"Analysis of data from the British Social Attitudes Survey, published on Tuesday by the Resolution Foundation think-tank, shows employees have become more disengaged in the past 10 years and less willing to put in extra effort. There is also a sharp drop in the proportion who want full-time hours, driven by men."}],[{"start":46.28,"text":"One-in-four workers were not even “fairly” satisfied with their main job — the gloomiest in the survey’s 35-year history and up from one in five when the question was last asked in 2015."}],[{"start":58.02,"text":"The proportion willing to work harder than required to help their employer succeed, which had previously risen steadily since the 1990s, fell from 69 per cent in 2015 to 55 per cent in 2025, with the biggest drop in commitment seen among managers and professionals."}],[{"start":null,"text":"
"}],[{"start":76.04,"text":"The idea that workers have been “quiet quitting” — a supposed post-pandemic trend of people limiting their efforts to essential duties — “is quite literally what the evidence shows”, said Hannah Slaughter, principal economist at the Resolution Foundation."}],[{"start":90.12,"text":"The BSA’s findings fitted the post-pandemic zeitgeist of people “feeling they want to prioritise other things in their life”, Slaughter said, and “could have knock-on implications for productivity”, helping to explain its recent weakness."}],[{"start":103.68,"text":"Data problems make it hard to tell how UK productivity growth has evolved since Covid but the latest revisions still point to a period of extreme weakness with only tentative recent improvement."}],[{"start":114.56,"text":"Slaughter said the post-Covid shift towards working from home could help explain why people felt less committed to their employer."}],[{"start":121.26,"text":"But she noted that people could also be less willing to make extra effort because employers were already asking more of them — even as opportunities for advancement, better pay or more autonomy are drying up."}],[{"start":132.96,"text":"There are longstanding concerns over work becoming more intense and less secure in low-paid sectors, Slaughter noted."}],[{"start":138.6,"text":"But the BSA’s findings also show a sharp rise over the past decade, from 25 per cent to 36 per cent, in the share of managers and professionals who find it difficult to take an hour or two off for personal reasons — consistent with hybrid workers feeling that they are “always on”."}],[{"start":155.22,"text":"At the same time, the share of workers who saw opportunities to advance in their job fell from 35 per cent in 2015 to 25 per cent in 2025."}],[{"start":165.56,"text":"Slaughter said it was striking how “broad-based” the sense of disengagement was across age groups and occupational groupings, with the sharpest fall in willingness to work harder seen among managers and professionals."}],[{"start":177.32,"text":"However, the fall in job satisfaction was much larger among men than women, as was a shift in preferences towards part-time over full-time hours."}],[{"start":187.2,"text":"Among men aged 30 to 49, the proportion wanting to work full-time fell from 86 per cent in 2015 to 67 per cent in 2025, the survey showed, with no significant difference between fathers and men of the same age without children."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":202.88,"text":"There was no significant change over the decade in the share of women wanting full-time hours in any age group. However, there was a sharp drop — likely to reflect better access to free childcare and flexible working — in the share of mothers who did not want to work at all."}],[{"start":222.76,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1793683365_4981.mp3"}