The STAY Handbook is out: a practical guide to quiet quitting for youth workers and young people
We are pleased to announce the publication of the STAY Handbook, the main result of STAY – Skills for Thriving, Agency and Youth Engagement, an Erasmus+ small-scale partnership coordinated by Rafíþróttasamband Íslands (Iceland) with Pannonia Consulting (Croatia) and PILCROW.
Quiet quitting (staying in a job, a course or a volunteering role but doing only the bare minimum) has become a well-known idea among young people, above all through social media. Behind it there are usually very everyday problems: unclear expectations, little or no feedback, no visible path to learn and grow, and a tiredness that keeps building up. The STAY Handbook starts from that reality. It does not treat quiet quitting as laziness but as a signal, and it offers youth workers and young people concrete ways to respond before disengagement settles in.
Two audiences, one guide
People who work with young people (youth workers, mentors, coaches and educators) will find a clear explanation of what quiet quitting is and where it comes from, a set of early warning signs, micro-skills and ready-to-use conversation scripts, step-by-step session plans for group work, and a framework for knowing when and how to refer or escalate a situation.
Young people aged 18 to 28 will find practical tools to recognise what is happening to them, put what they need into words, set healthy boundaries and prepare an honest conversation with their manager or mentor. The annexes include printable worksheets and checklists.
Together with the Risk Scanner
The handbook goes hand in hand with the Engagement & Quiet-Quitting Risk Scanner, our free online self-assessment tool that turns a few questions into a personalised report with recommendations. The two work well together: the scanner to open the conversation, the handbook to guide what comes next.
The handbook is available in English, Spanish and Croatian. If your organisation uses it in its work, we would love to hear about it: write to montse@pilcrow.es and tell us how it went.