A Company Sells You the Cure for the Crisis It Just Named

A Company Sells You the Cure for the Crisis It Just Named

TalentLMS coined "quiet cracking" for eroding, unrecognized workers, and its own survey shows the recommended fix is also the product it sells.

Stavros Roussos

A hairline crack in an otherwise pristine white wall, no people, a literal visual for the piece on quiet cracking and the workers holding steady on the surface while coming apart underneath

Photo Lallaoke / Unsplash

A training-software company diagnosed a workplace crisis, named it "quiet cracking," and recommended, as the cure, more of the training software it sells.

TalentLMS found 54 percent of workers describe their relationship with their employer this way, on one online panel of 1,000, single wave, no peer review, no margin of error attached. The wound is probably real: Gallup, with nothing to sell, puts US engagement at 31 percent in 2025, down from 36 in 2020. What is new here is the branding, not the erosion. And search the coverage: not one cracking worker is quoted, only the vendor's CEO. The people holding steady while coming apart get diagnosed, priced, and sold a course.