How One Unseen Employee Can Undermine an Entire Team
This Silent Problem Can Become an Expensive One. Disengagement rarely announces itself.
It doesn’t begin with missed deadlines or open conflict. It begins with something far quieter — a hesitation, a retreat, a dimming of energy. A single employee starts to withdraw, and the change is subtle enough to overlook. But the impact never stays contained.
Like a line of falling dominos, one person’s disengagement has the power to shift the emotional tone of an entire team.
In Madison’s earlier research — Are You Driving Employees Toward Quiet Quitting? — we explored how employees often reduce effort when their emotional needs go unmet. In Quiet Cracking, we went even deeper: high performers remain productive but become increasingly disconnected, unhappy, and exhausted beneath the surface.
