Quiet Quitting among Generation Z Employees in Batam: What Really Matters?

Abstract

Quiet quitting has emerged as a growing workplace concern among Generation Z employees, reflecting shifting work values, employment expectations, and psychological attachment to work. This study examines how pay satisfaction, role clarity, and workload influence emotional engagement and quiet quitting among Generation Z employees in Batam, Indonesia. Using a quantitative approach, data were collected from 251 respondents through an online questionnaire and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 4. The findings indicate that pay satisfaction and role clarity significantly enhance emotional engagement, whereas workload has no significant effect on emotional engagement. Workload positively influences quiet quitting, while emotional engagement negatively influences it and fully mediates the effects of pay satisfaction and role clarity. These findings suggest that although workload increases employees' tendency toward quiet quitting, emotional engagement determines whether Generation Z employees remain psychologically connected to their work or gradually disengage. This study extends the Job Demands-Resources framework by demonstrating that emotional engagement serves as a key psychological mechanism linking job resources to quiet quitting, while workload primarily operates as a direct job demand that increases withdrawal tendencies among Generation Z employees.