A few weeks ago, I wrote about my experiences at the 2025 Black Hat Conference, with some special emphasis on the people and career side of the cyber event. There continues to be a lot of discussion around tech and cyber jobs in the era of AI advancement, and these career topics have resurfaced in multiple ways in the past week.

One hot topic is “quiet cracking,” which is a new take on the burnout theme. According to Forbes, here’s how the new term has emerged:

“When headlines introduce new workplace trends, they often capture our attention because they name something many people have long felt but struggled to articulate.

“The Great Resignation, characterized by workers’ abrupt departure from their places of employment that peaked during the pandemic, and quiet quitting, the silent disengagement employees felt when overworked and undervalued, are well-known examples.

“Now, another phrase has entered the conversation: ‘quiet cracking.’ It’s forced me to reflect on the conditions that lead so many employees to engage in either a flee response by quitting or a fight response by staying and struggling silently.

“Unlike quiet quitting, which was framed as a conscious choice or act of resistance, quiet cracking captures the experience of employees who feel stuck in their jobs but can’t leave. They push forward despite exhaustion, stress, and even panic attacks because the alternative feels riskier.”

What grabbed my attention was this article from MSN.com: ‘Quiet cracking’ is the dangerous new trend affecting millions of workers — why it’s happening and how to spot it:

“The newest trend, ‘quiet cracking,’ coined by TalentLMS, describes ongoing burnout and stagnation leading to disengagement and poor performance. Their research shows 20% of employees experience it frequently, and 34% occasionally. …

“While quiet quitting refers to workers who purposely slack off at a job they no longer want, quiet cracking refers to those who ‘gradually become mired in feeling both unappreciated by managers and closed off from career advancement while doing work they otherwise like,’ according to an article from Inc.

“Or, as TalentLMS puts it, people who feel ‘some kind of workplace funk.’”

DIGGING DEEPER ON QUITTING TERMINOLOGY
Back in September 2022, I wrote this blog on “quiet quitting,” and offered some tips on how to improve employee engagement — even with a majority of remote workers.

When I first heard this new term, my response was that this is just a new twist on the same big burnout theme, or dissatisfaction with your current job. It was a nice way for someone to sell more books with fresh academic terms.

But the more I look at the topic, I do see distinctions between these trends. For more details on the topic and one excellent example, this article describes someone who experienced ‘quiet cracking’ 15 years ago, before it was a buzzword.

Here’s an excerpt: “There were many reasons why I felt I couldn’t leave. Some of them were financial. I think this is why it’s coming up again — I bet it happens anytime when the job market gets tight. People start feeling they can’t leave their jobs. We get ourselves into various levels of financial commitments and mortgages, and we start to feel trapped.

“The Great Recession was in 2007. I started really hitting it maybe a year later, so the market wasn’t fully recovered. That played a part in it, certainly.

“Another part was that I was doing an MBA program, and I had some commitments to the job around paying.

“I also felt a fair amount of responsibility for the people who worked for me. One of the misalignments with my organization was that I had some different feelings on how people should be treated. I felt I had to stay to protect those people.

“Whether I was successful in protecting them or not, I don’t know. But I did feel that pressure.”

I wrote a LinkedIn post about this “quiet cracking” trend, and here are some of the comments/responses:

Coach Dave: “Quiet cracking is everywhere right now! I hear it from my clients, at networking events, and while talking to friends. It starts with ‘I feel lucky to have a job but…,’ and then it gets to the trapped part. Don’t crack, start leaving.”

Robert Roach: “Never heard the term before but it happens all the time. Best to not quit without any income. I would think any smart professional would wait until the right opportunity. They might have the corp/jobsite profiles and resume updated but might need to finish the degree, cert, or obtain training before actively applying elsewhere.”

David Masamitsu: “People stay in bad jobs or limiting jobs until their own personal limits are reached. It is the same phenomenon as ‘quiet quitting.’

“Some of the articles blow sunshine at the manager and suggest that ‘this’ is what you can do to alleviate the problem. I would point out to the manager who reads it that if they were already engaged with their employees they probably would not be facing the issues of quiet quitting or quiet cracking.

“When I was first made a department manager back in the 1980s, I sat down one on one with my employees and developed a career growth plan with them. It was required at the time.

“The flaw was that the company had no way of guaranteeing it would have an appropriate position open at the time the employee had accomplished the steps and proven they were ready for a promotion.

“The world had not gone certification crazy back then, but I had been good about providing them with the career step opportunities on their plans.

“I documented their readiness in my recommendation letters when they left or when slots were not open.”

ADDING AI ANXIETY PRESSURES
But jumping back to our current job market and the AI moment we are in, “Robert Kiyosaki warns of ‘massive unemployment’ ahead — why he says ‘smart’ Americans will be hit extra hard.” Here’s an excerpt from that article:

“Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki has a sobering take on one of today’s hottest trends: artificial intelligence (AI).

“’BIGGEST CHANGE in MODERN HISTORY,’ he declared in an X post on July 1. ‘AI will cause many “smart students” to lose their jobs. AI will cause massive unemployment. Many still have student loan debt.

“Kiyosaki isn’t alone in sounding the alarm. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic — the AI company behind the large language model Claude — recently warned that AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and push the unemployment rate as high as 20%.”

These two trends are happening at the same time, which means many people fear leaving their current tech or cyber job while many companies are laying workers off.

The good news for public-sector tech and cyber managers is that I believe this situation can help fill vacant cyber jobs and open the door to talented experts joining a government near you.

FINAL THOUGHTS
One kind of funny twist to this topic — but also a warning — came when I posted the LinkedIn article and received a comment from a person who claimed he was Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart. The comments (which he deleted later) said: “Your profile really stood out to me I can see your experience is impressive. We’re currently hiring across several teams at Walmart, including for Director roles. Our hiring manager, Lisa B., is actively reviewing candidates and moving quickly. If the timing feels right, feel free to reach out to her directly at ‘walmart.jobs.hrdept@gmail.com’ and kindly mention that you were contacted by me. Would love to see you take the next step!”

I responded to this comment with this:

“Hi Doug – Your message (and email provided) is interesting to me, but not for the reasons you mention or on this thread topic. Why?

1. The real Doug McMillon (CEO of Walmart) has over 1.15 million followers and can be seen on LI here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougmcmillon/
2. The email you provided is on Gmail. Not right for Walmart jobs.
3. This is a scam to get people to think they are applying at Walmart. Who knows what could happen next?
4. How many other CEO profiles are also cloned?”

Most important for readers, don’t send an email to that fake email address.

I share all of this because bad actors are sending job offers and more to unsuspecting people on social media websites like LinkedIn, and even posting private messages with the same. I was able to spot this fake by finding the real profile for the Walmart CEO, and also by realizing that he would never send that message as a LinkedIn comment and he would never use Gmail as a point of contact email address.

Message: Beware of fakes, and double check identities and hiring processes!