Workers' Willingness to Go the Extra Mile Falls from 69% to 55%

Only 55% of British workers say they are willing to go the extra mile for their employer, down from 69% a decade ago, according to a Resolution Foundation survey of 4,656 adults. The thinktank says the shift is "consistent" with the viral concept of "quiet quitting" — and it may be dragging on the country's economy.

The report, co-edited by politics professor Sir John Curtice, connects a decade of declining work engagement to the UK's stubborn productivity weakness. Productivity growth has slowed since the financial crisis and weakened again after the pandemic. The Resolution Foundation argues that fading worker commitment "may have contributed to weak productivity growth" over the past ten years.

What is quiet quitting?

The phrase spread on social media shortly after the pandemic. Frustrated by high demands, low pay and a squeeze in living standards, online posts urged workers to do only what their bosses asked — and nothing more. Workers still show up, but they stop helping with additional tasks or checking emails outside work hours, prioritising work-life balance and "acting your wage".

The Resolution Foundation's data suggests the trend is more than a TikTok talking point. Across four separate measures of engagement, British workers in 2025 are less committed than their counterparts in 2015.

How far has engagement fallen?

The survey results quantify a broad-based decline:

• Willingness to go the extra mile for an employer has dropped from 69% in 2015 to 55% in 2025 — a 14-percentage-point fall, meaning roughly one in seven workers has disengaged over the decade.
• One in four workers is not even "fairly" satisfied with their role, the lowest level on record.
• 63% of workers say they have an interesting job, down from 74% ten years ago.

"Workers today are indeed a little less committed to their employers, and a little less intrinsically drawn to work in general, than workers were a decade ago," the report states.

Workers are also more focused on pay than in the past. The thinktank called this "perhaps unsurprising... given the flatlining living standards of the past decade".

Why does this matter for the economy?

Hannah Slaughter, principal economist at the Resolution Foundation, framed the stakes in direct terms. "This is self-evidently bad for workers, but it also doesn't bode well for productivity and labour supply, both of which are vital for lifting living standards in the years ahead," she said.

The mechanism is straightforward. If fewer workers put in discretionary effort, output per hour stagnates. If dissatisfaction pushes people to disengage rather than leave, labour supply suffers too. Both forces compound the productivity problem that has haunted the UK since the financial crisis.

Is this about lazy young workers?

No — and the report is explicit on that point. Sir John Curtice said the analysis does not show that young people have "become more 'work-shy', nor have workers in general become more reluctant to change jobs". The decline in engagement cuts across the workforce, not along generational lines.

Curtice did draw a practical conclusion for employers. "But if workers are to be fully engaged in their work, it has seemingly become more important for employers to provide jobs that are both financially rewarding and have flexible work hours," he said.

What should employers take from this?

The findings carry a caveat: the report says disengagement "may have contributed" to weak productivity — it does not claim quiet quitting is the sole or even primary cause. The causation could also run the other way, with unproductive, uninteresting jobs producing disengaged workers.

What is beyond dispute is the direction of the numbers. Engagement has fallen on every measure the Resolution Foundation tracked, and satisfaction has hit a record low. Employers who want discretionary effort back now know the price the research points to: better pay and more flexible hours. Whether they will pay it, with living standards flat for a decade, is the question that will shape the next set of numbers.