Former Tinder Executive Links “Quitting” Patterns in Dating and Work

Former Match.com executive and workplace connection advisor Lakshmi Rengarajan has highlighted striking similarities between behaviors in modern dating and today’s workplace culture. Speaking at the Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit, she argued that ghosting in dating and quiet quitting at work are both forms of emotional disengagement driven by similar causes.

Rengarajan explained that people often ghost in dating not because they don’t care, but because they lack the tools or language to express discomfort, uncertainty, or rejection. The same pattern appears in workplaces, where employees quietly quit – remaining in their roles but withdrawing emotionally – when they feel burned out, frustrated, or unequipped to communicate openly. In both cases, she said, the root issue is often an inability to handle complex emotional moments rather than outright indifference.

She noted that dating apps were among the first widespread digital environments where people developed “split personalities” between their online and offline selves. This dynamic has now extended to work, where colleagues are primarily known through Slack messages, emails, Zoom calls, and shared documents. The rapid shift to remote work during the pandemic intensified this change, leaving many unprepared for constant digital availability.

Rengarajan pointed to the erosion of small, human workplace interactions – such as holding the elevator, helping with a presentation, or casual conversations – that once helped build genuine connections. Similar situations have caused a clear level of dating app fatigue among many users, due to algorithms and swiping systems removing the human connection that they may have been relying on to keep engaged with their dating app of choice.

Younger workers, particularly Gen Z, are increasingly questioning how constant screen-based interaction affects their emotional well-being, both in dating and professional life. Rengarajan suggested that companies need a deliberate “connection strategy” that considers team dynamics rather than assuming relationships will form naturally in digital environments.