Quiet quitting: how companies can capitalize on the employee trend

As shared in the previous post here (Quietly quitting the rat race to live life on their own terms), Gallup’s latest engagement survey says at least 50% of employees fall into the disengaged category. Disengaged is where Gallup puts the “quiet quitters.” We prefer to call them Rat Race Rebels.

As discussed previously, the Rebels do their jobs. No less and no more. They set boundaries and won’t work beyond forty hours for free. Elise Freedman, Senior Client Partner at Korn Ferry, says quiet quitters decided, “I want to prioritize my well-being overall and things outside of work." (Source: CBS MoneyWatch)

They quit the rat race of working extra hours for free in the hopes of being promoted up the career ladder someday. And, they’ve been warned in recent years that there is no career ladder. It’s more of a lattice now, but they’ve been pushed and pressured to keep working long hours anyway. They have opted out.

Another interesting point from Gallup’s September 6, 2022 survey is the cause of increased disengagement. Gallup says employees are more disengaged since the pandemic because they do not have…

1️⃣ Clarity of expectations

2️⃣ Opportunities to learn and grow

3️⃣ Feelings of being cared about by the company

4️⃣ A connection to the organization's mission or purpose

People don’t want to sacrifice their health and personal lives and feel used just so upper management gets its bonus or so the business owner can send demanding emails from another exotic vacation. They don’t want to come in on Sunday to create the unnecessary TPS cover sheets! (Office Space reference, anyone?)

That makes sense. Doesn’t it?

Everyone cheered when Peter and his colleagues took out their frustration about the corporate coldness on the copier in the movie Office Space because we could relate. Finally, someone rejected the ridiculous and offensive. That’s what the Rebels are doing now. Well, they’re being quieter than beating up the copiers.

The gigantic problem is: many companies and leaders make people feel used. People are rejecting that treatment in 2022.

We have been talking about the importance of expectations, opportunities, care, and purpose for twenty years! Companies and leaders who focus on those four things make sure employees do NOT feel used.

Thankfully, many companies cared about their people and culture long before the pandemic. They showed it when the pandemic began by prioritizing employee health and safety over all else right away. Those companies are listening to employees and being as flexible as possible to accommodate schedule and location preferences.

Other companies are just starting to recognize the importance of seeing employees as people and seeing the bigger picture of all the people together.

What caused this newly found interest in people and culture?

The sudden interest was caused when turnover and time-to-hire reached levels that seriously jeopardize financials. The combination of the Great Resignation and quiet quitters broke the system that companies relied upon for years.

The fact is, many companies depend on the free labor the Rebels are no longer donating to their employers. Companies plan project timelines, budgets, and client deliverables around free labor they do not have access to now.

What can companies do now? Can companies inspire the Rebels back to their old productivity levels?

Probably not.

However, companies can capitalize on the phenomenon so it works better for the company and the employees. It cannot be one-sided in favor of the company. If you truly care about your people, you can execute the five actions below genuinely.

Here are five actions companies can take to capitalize on the Rat Race Rebel phenomenon:

ACTION #1: Re-engage managers. Managers have borne the brunt of the pandemic inside most companies. They had to figure out new processes, systems, and communications. Plus, they had to deal with the emotional and physical toll of the pandemic on employees. All while taking care of themselves and their own loved ones health and needs. It was a lot. Managers are burned out. Re-engage them. Show you appreciate them by listening to their needs and suggestions.

ACTION #2: Clarify manager responsibilities. The managerial role is likely different now than it was pre-pandemic. The workflow, schedules, and location of workers may have caused the need for managers to shift how they plan, organize, and lead. Clarify the company’s expectations of them, and be sure they have the resources needed to succeed.

ACTION #3: Outline a vision. There are two parts to this one. First, for the company: Be sure there is a short-term and long-term vision for the company. Ensure everyone knows how their role contributes to it. Second, for individuals: Invite employees to create a vision for their own lives. Thinking through short-term and long-term aspects of life like financials, for example, may inspire some Rebels to boost engagement. They won’t work twenty hours extra weekly for free, but they may work five and ask for a training course if they envision a career path for themselves. (Tools leaders can use with their teams for this vision exercise were shared with Voyage VIPs this week. If you would like the resource also, please click here to join as our guest.)

ACTION #4: Boost accountability. Everyone should understand the work contract and agree to it. Train managers on delegation, expectations, and communication so accountability is possible. This is key to helping the company benefit from the gifts the Rebels bring to their work.

ACTION #5: Teach managers to coach. Coaching is a new hat managers need to wear now, and it takes practice. One thing managers need to coach people on is the impact of being a Rat Race Rebel.

For example, if someone opts to work from home every day while everyone else on the team chooses to come into the office, they choose to miss daily interactions with coworkers, spur of the moment invitations, and informal mentoring, which may lead to being less prepared for more responsibility, job changes, or promotions. Managers should coach people so they know the consequences of their choices and so managers can support their choices. Lack of coaching can be perceived by the employee as disinterest, which leads to greater disengagement and turnover.

Many managers have given up on the Rebels, but the Rebels could benefit the company. They bring more outside experiences, greater creativity, emotional stability, and less stress. It’s worth it to re-engage managers and help them engage the Rebels and everyone else.

People want clarity, growth opportunities, connection to meaningful purpose, and to know you care. The five actions shared here will help companies and leaders show people they matter more than management’s bonus. When you move the needle of engagement, you capitalize on the quiet quitter trend other companies resent. While your competitors are holding meetings about how to get back at the Rebels, you’re figuring out how to meet them where they are. You will win.

New employee habits call for new management practices. The same old ones won’t work anymore.

(If your company needs a management skill refresh to meet needs of today’s employees, we’ve got you covered. Click here to schedule a call to learn more.)

Beware! Your top people are being poached!

The issue most on the minds of leaders I have heard from lately is the "Great Resignation." Leaders are afraid their top performers will leave, and they have run out of ideas to inspire them to stay.

Of course, leaders always worry about their top performers, but lately that fear is reasonable. People changed during the past two years, and what entices them to choose a workplace is different for many now. On top of that change, strategies companies are using to fill vacancies have changed too.

The latest strategy to fill all those empty spots across organizations is poaching. Perhaps you have experienced it or even recommended the strategy to your company's recruiters? Going after top talent gainfully employed by a competitor used to be a subversive maneuver. Not anymore.

Now, recruiters pursue top performers like a high school kid asking a date to the prom.

There are big gestures and lots of woo'ing over time.

Poaching entices relatively happily employed people to leave for greener pastures, even when their current pasture is pretty green already. People are flattered by being pursued, and they have more confidence to speak up about what would make them leap firms. People are stating their demands, and companies are delightfully meeting them. Everything from location to hours to salary to equipment to team members and more—it’s all on the table.

Poaching is on the rise, so watch out before it’s too late.

The best thing you can do to prevent poaching is make your top performers less susceptible to poachers. Keep woo'ing them throughout their employment journey.

Companies make a gigantic mistake when they stop woo'ing people once they are on board.

Someone told me recently about her experience with her new employer. Four people who love the company were on the interview team that took her to lunch. They talked about being on her team and working with her. It turned out they are on the company team but not her immediate team. They were on the interview team because of their acting skills and exaggerated the role they would play in her job. Figuring that act out a few days into the job made her question her decision to join the company.

Another recent example was that a manager in a mid-sized company was not ready for the new hire, so the new employee sat in the lobby for an hour waiting for his boss to arrive. The manager said, “I forgot you were starting today.” In the interview, however, the manager spoke about how much he cares about his team.

Those two examples were of companies abandoning their woo practices on day one. That’s when it is most egregious and hard to overcome. It also happens when the business landscape changes and leaders are challenged. Some panic and stop taking care of their people out of fear for their own jobs.

The smart leaders have figured out they need to keep woo'ing after day one for people to stick around.

To identify opportunities to engage with employees, outline your employees' journey. Armed with an understanding of their journey, identify where you can beef up intentional connections. Where along the journey can you offer professional development (which people crave!), skill development opportunities in the work, networking opportunities, and opportunities to contribute to the local community?

Be intentional about your connection and engagement. Tie your actions to what they want.

The Platinum Rule is more important here than the Golden Rule. While the Golden Rule tells us to treat people how we want to be treated, the Platinum Rule is to treat people how they want to be treated. Put the Platinum Rule into effect in good times and bad. People really notice how you treat them when times are tough for the company or for them personally. For example, your company policy may allow for one week of leave for new fathers. How do you handle the new father whose baby needs extra medical attention at birth, so one week with the family is not enough? People > policy. Treat people with care, especially when they need help.

That's the secret to retention: care. It is really hard for a poacher to compete against a genuine relationship of care.

Is consensus over-rated?

Consensus is great, right? Building consensus leads to better ideas, work efficiencies, and higher morale. Consensus is so important, there are courses taught on the subject and consultants earn big bucks when they facilitate consensus-building sessions for companies across the globe.

When there’s consensus, everyone is happy with the solution or action. Everyone buys in when they have contributed, which leads to higher productivity. Plus, there is a sense of camaraderie as people work together on the shared goal.

But there is a downside to consensus.

The most significant downside to consensus-building is the time it takes. It takes time in meetings, whether one-on-one or with groups, to build consensus. But, even beyond that, keeping the consensus as solutions are implemented is time-consuming. I wonder if too much time is spent here on reaching consensus.

Who says we have to be 100% happy with every solution we have to implement?

Can’t we implement solutions even when they are not our idea or preference? Is the expectation of joy for every minute of our day too high?

When too much time is spent gaining agreement for too many solutions, consensus can prevent accountability.

For example, let’s say two technical staff members explore an idea for a new product your company could offer. They do the relevant market research, calculate forecasts, and build the prototype that gains approval of their director to proceed. If the product fails or succeeds, the buck stops with the two staff members. Accountability doesn’t mean they get fired if it doesn’t work. It means they need to explain where the research and forecasts erred. They don’t get to say, “Well, it failed but Bob approved it!” On the other hand, if the product is a wild success, accountability means they get rewarded for success.

Consensus is not needed for everything it is used for all the time. Don’t use it to get out of making decisions that are your responsibility. Instead, get ideas and input from others, then make the decision. Also, resist the temptation to insist on consensus when you are invited to give input and ideas. Feel free to share then let our colleague decide.

When consensus leads to lack of accountability and to procrastination, the good part of it is lost.

The slippery slope from confidence to arrogance

There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance. The topic has been on my mind, and I wasn’t sure where to draw the line, so I briefly researched and asked a dozen people for their perspectives.

According to dictionaries and different people, the difference between confidence and arrogance has to do with how one views others.

Confident people believe in themselves. They know they are competent, and their belief is not dependent on others. They may enjoy feedback and recognition, but they do not require it in order to feel good about themselves.

Arrogant people’s confidence depends on others’ weaknesses. They even point out others’ errors and faults to make themselves appear better. One colleague said, “Arrogant people only feel smart if someone else feels stupid.”

The tricky part about confidence and arrogance is that the line is so thin between them, it makes for a slippery slope. Confidence often turns in to arrogance after success.

Success requires confidence. Success requires the confidence to take risks regarding investments, innovations, and interactions. However, success can cause insecurity: when will the next risk pay off? What if the next one does not turn out well? What if that was a one-time success? The insecurity wears a mask called arrogance, hence, the slippery slope from confidence to arrogance.

Each article I read about arrogance described it as a cover for insecurity. Isn’t that interesting? The very thing arrogant people despise, weakness or insecurity, is what they are covering by putting others down to prop themselves up.

One of the most highly regarded experts on arrogance is University of Akron Dean Stanley Silverman who spent four years working with a research team to quantify arrogance.

"Here's what happens," Silverman said. "I'm worried that other people are going to realize that I'm not very competent at my job, so I'm going to put other people down, criticize others and belittle my employees because somehow I think I'm going to look better that way. If I put down everybody around me, it makes my candle shine a little brighter." (SOURCE: www.cleveland.com)

The following eight behaviors are how arrogant people make their candle shine brighter:

1.     Drop names. 

2.     Look for criteria other than business performance to use when measuring success. Since business performance might not be so good, arrogant people focus on their degree, school, or job title.

3.     One-up others. Arrogant people have the best of the best and worst of the worst of whatever experience is being discussed. They have the best book published, the worst cold the doctor has ever seen, the best behaved child, the worst boss. They did the biggest project with the most difficult client for the most money ever. Confident people don’t need to brag. They let their work speak for itself.

4.     Have an answer for everything. Arrogant people will rarely say, “I don’t know but will find out.”

5.     Interrupt frequently because they are not really listening.

6.     Avoid eye contact because they don’t care about others unless they need something from the person.

7.     Arrive late to meetings because their time is more valuable than everyone else’s.

8.     Blame others for errors or low performance. It’s never their fault the team is struggling.

 

What other behaviors do you attribute to arrogance? The more we know, the better able we will be to ensure we are not sliding down that slope. 

1.     Recognizing our own arrogant behavior can help improve our relationships with our colleagues. The following eight suggestions also can help if you have to work with arrogant people:

2.     Point at them and declare, “I know why you’re so arrogant: because you are weak!” in your best eight-year-old nah-nah-nah voice. Just kidding—don’t confront them. They will see it as a compliment and it will just waste your time.

3.     Build your own confidence so you do not have time to give attention to negative people.

4.     Spend free time with positive people who do not diminish your accomplishments or try to impress you. Minimize the time you spend with the arrogant person.

5.     Admire and recognize the accomplishments of others. When the arrogant person sees you acknowledge someone else, he might alter his behavior in his quest for approval.

6.     Keep secrets to yourself. Anything you tell an arrogant person could end up as fodder for her own esteem-boosting if she resorts to putting you down to pull herself up.

7.     Do not badmouth the arrogant colleague. Some people actually believe any press is good press. Also, gossiping can lead to wasting too much time on a topic not worth it.

8.     Include others in your conversations with the arrogant person. “Russell, we have heard your view. Now it is time to hear from Sally.”

9.     Most importantly, realize their arrogance is not about you.

What else have you done to work successfully with arrogant people?

Since this topic has been on my mind, I asked a group of business professionals recently how many of them have ever worked with an arrogant colleague. Every hand raised high. When I asked if they were the arrogant person, all hands went down.

"If you're being arrogant, you're going to derail your own career," said Stanley Silverman, an organizational and industrial psychologist. "It's just a matter of when. Nobody is irreplaceable."  Even when an arrogant person is more skilled, the confident person will win out because they can work better with others internally and externally.

When it comes down to it, performance matters. No one will work their hardest for someone who puts them down or tries to make them feel inferior. The good news is that if you’ve begun the slippery slope from confidence to arrogance, you can get back on track and salvage your reputation.

 

The beginning of the end of employee coddling

You’ve heard the news by now that Yahoo’s new CEO, Marissa Mayer, declared the end to working from home for Yahoo employees. They have been given three months to get their homes in order and get back to the office.  Yahoo says the return to work is to build collaboration and form a unified Yahoo. Is Mayer risking too much with this change or is the change a slick move?

Keep in mind that Mayer was hired to “right the ship”. Yahoo has been going downhill fast (one recent CEO there was fired for lying on his resume and others failed), and she’s there to turn it around. Clearly, what they are doing now is not working, so changes are necessary.

Wouldn’t it be silly to keep doing what they’ve been doing when what they’ve been doing is not working? Wouldn’t it be silly to retain the flexible work location just because Google and Facebook offer it to their people? Yahoo is not their peer and its people are not holding up their end of the bargain by actually working while at home.

I’d bet Mayer didn’t issue the change without identifying the most important contributors and how they work. Unfortunately, she found out that most of the people working from home were complacent. Complacency ruins companies. She’s not going to let Yahoo go down without a fight.

On the other hand, research shows that flexibility is important to workers today. Companies that offer flexibility enjoy lower turnover, higher employee satisfaction and engagement. Mayer might be jeopardizing the highly productive, engaged, and motivated employees in an attempt to boost collaboration or rid the company of underperformers.

Some people have noted that top talent won’t join Yahoo now because they will not have the flexibility to work from home. That’s a risk Mayer is willing to take. Frankly, I doubt top talent would be focused only on this one issue. They will come for other perks, if the company turns itself around.

Much of the world is up-in-arms about this edict, proclaiming it takes working women back fifty years, but let’s recognize the positives of the strategy too:

·         The change is not odd. It makes sense that an industry that relies on innovation, which is built on collaboration, would want people to be together.

·         It sends the positive message that people are so valuable, they need to collaborate more. If you don’t want to, feel free to exit may be the underlying message, but the outward message is positive.

·         It’s a great way to get rid of the complacent people taking advantage of the flexible option without having the cost of layoffs.

·         It shows analysts and customers that Yahoo is not afraid to make bold moves.

·         The change is temporary. They’ve said it is necessary “right now”, which leaves it open to change in the future or on an as-needed basis.

This might be the tipping point for coddling. In some places, employee engagement has run amok and people have taken advantage. Companies are waking up to the fact that they pay good money and it is reasonable to expect something in return. When people don’t hold up their end of the bargain, companies are going to coddle less and open the exit doors more.

As companies wake up to their power, complacent employees will be the most vocal protesters. Mark my words: the coddling days are coming to an end. The days of genuine caring will continue, just the coddling will stop.