How the 'Quiet Quitting' Movement Could Cause a Risk To Cybersecurity

In the past several months, you've probably heard the term 'quiet quitting'. which is a growing trend among Millennials and Gen Z. It implies that rather than putting in extra effort at your job, small business, or in your personal life. You do just the bare minimum to get your job or tasks completed. It can cause problems with cybersecurity because criminals count on employees and individuals to be negligent when it comes to reading emails, responding to texts, and answering voice calls. It only takes one minor mistake to have your identity stolen or to have your whole office network shut down by a virus. When it comes to the cyber defense of your home or office devices, you and your workforce need to always stay vigilant against the latest threats. Check out these tips to help reduce quiet quitting and revitalize yourself and your workforce.

Some say quiet quitting is a response to low work wages, poor working conditions, stress, and a lack of work/life balance. The rise and grind culture is giving way to burn out and many of you are near or facing burnout in life and in your career. There are a lot of things that you're dealing with in your personal and professional lives and it's easy to see why quiet quitting is trending more and more. Many cyber threats like data breaches and ransomware attacks occur because you clicked on something you shouldn’t have.

You have to look at the bigger picture too. Most cyber security organizations require their staff to stay extra vigilant when it comes to protecting people from cyber threats. Imagine the cyber security team for your job, your social media, email, and financial institutions quiet quit. You'd have staff members who view regular updates to software and hardware as mundane and not needing to be performed every day. There's the possibility they could become negligent in the viewing of sensitive data and not monitoring incoming and outgoing network traffic which would put a large amount of our data at risk.

As you can see, quiet quitting affects all of us. So what can we all do to help quell the swell of quiet quitting? Well, a lot of it depends on how we view our work/life balance at home and at work.

At home:

• You can't pour from an empty pitcher. Always make sure you are well mentally and physically.

• Let go of the term perfection. Your house isn't always going to be clean, the same thing with your car or your kids' rooms. You aren't always going to be on your A game. You will have ups and downs. Accept it and move on.

• Set standard hours for your life. If you're working from home, set standard hours and find a place in your home that is considered the office so you can walk away. Same with your life. Set standard hours and try to keep up a routine.

• Unplug. Your tech devices want to keep you plugged in 24/7. Make a conscious effort to walk away from your devices. Less tech means less eye strain, less back strain, and less stress.

At work:

• Keep a happy office. Treat everyone fair and always ask how they are doing mentally and physically. Technology is one of the biggest stressors at work so make sure your workforce is working on the latest tech and make sure they always receive adequate training on their devices.

• Make sure they are being compensated fairly. Yes, you want to be profitable, but never at the expense of your workforce. They have financial goals they want to achieve, places to go, and financial obligations to have to fulfill. Keep their pockets full, fairly.

• Work boundaries need to be fair. Your workforce doesn't want to spend every waking hour at your office. When interviewing potential hires, create boundaries and keep them. Trust me, they want to work, but want to have a life outside of work as well.

• Be there for them. If you have members of your team that need to talk, always be there for them. Sometimes things and situations in your office can be stressful and it is great to have people others can rely on to help them during difficult times.

I hope you can use these tips to understand a little more about quiet quitting and how it can affect all of us when it comes to cyber threats and cybercrime. If you need further assistance, please reach out to me with any questions you might have. I am always happy to help!

Want to ask me a tech question? Send it to burton@callintegralnow.com. If you prefer to connect with me on social media, you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and watch great tech tip videos on my YouTube channel. I love technology. I've read all of the manuals and I want to make technology fun and exciting for you. 

If you need on-site or remote tech support for your Windows\Macintosh, computers, laptops, Android/Apple smartphone, tablets, printers, routers, smart home devices, and anything that connects to the Internet, please feel free to contact my team at Integral. My team of friendly tech experts are always standing by to answer your questions and help make your technology useful and fun. Reach out to us a www.callintegralnow.com or phone at 888.256.0829. 

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