The Quiet Quitting: A Phenomenological Study in Higher Education Institution (HEI)

This qualitative study explores the lived experiences and psychological mechanisms of quiet quitting among faculty members in private Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) within the University Belt (U-Belt) of Manila. Driven by escalating institutional demands, uncompensated administrative tasks, and shifting workplace dynamics, educators increasingly engage in strategic withdrawal—performing strictly contractual duties while deliberately withholding discretionary effort. The primary objective of this manuscript is to examine the key structural drivers, psychological contract breaches, cultural tensions, and coping behaviors that characterize quiet quitting within the Philippine academic landscape. Utilizing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) grounded in constructivist interpretivism, data were collected through detailed, semi-structured virtual interviews with twelve purposefully selected full-time faculty members. The resulting verbatim transcripts were analyzed following standard IPA protocols to capture the nuanced personal meaning-making, subjective interpretations, and shared experiential patterns among participants. Findings reveal that quiet quitting is primarily catalyzed by the heavy "Triple Burden" of simultaneous instruction, research demands, and administrative overreach, further exacerbated by a "competence penalty" where high performers are continuously overloaded without additional compensation. Furthermore, systemic organizational issues such as opacity in promotions, perceived favoritism, and broken institutional promises transform faculty mindsets from relational commitment to strictly transactional engagement. Rather than reflecting professional apathy or personal failure, quiet quitting functions as a critical protective mechanism that allows faculty to establish clear temporal boundaries, reclaim personal agency, preserve mental health, and curb psychosomatic stress. Ultimately, the study concludes that academic leaders and educational policymakers must urgently reconstruct workload allocation policies, remediate psychological contract breaches, and foster transparent governance to restore institutional trust, safeguard faculty well-being, and maintain instructional quality in higher education.