Quiet Quitting and Firing: A Game of Expectations (Ep. 107)

The buzz has been around for a bit this summer – first on quiet quitting, then on quiet firing, as if this were some new response to a dysfunctional working environment going through a difficult time.  I need to catch myself on these things – and move away from my Gen X “get off my lawn this has been around forever watch Office Space” initial response (which is accurate) to a “this can be solved if we fully understood what we are talking about” more appropriate response. I explore both on the podcast. As with most buzzwords, much of the commentary is driven by people who don’t understand it – either they have drunk too much of the corporate Kool Aid, are too elevated to understand the working person, or never worked in an office.  But as a person who surely quiet quit in the late 90s and early 00s, I can tell you it’s real, it happens, and it’s also OK.  We need to take an elevated look at what we want from our workers, and how to communicate those expectations. Yes, the individual has a responsibility to execute on what we pay them for. That said, the organization has an obligation to communicate expectations of those employees in an effective way, and treat them with the respect that would encourage them to accomplish it. Much more detail on the podcast, and I’ll put the transcript below so you can read it – but we need to think beyond just doing tasks – it’s an elevated, philosophical view of what drives our workers, where they came from, and what gets them to the finish line. None of it is “wrong,” it just “is.”  I hope you enjoy – lots more to be said – and I’ll chat with you soon! Your Title Goes Here Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings. Click Here for an Unedited Transcript of the Podcast Welcome to bellwether I’m back after a nice short break over the summer episode, 107, we’re gonna cover quiet, quitting, the nice little buzz that’s going around on quiet, quitting, but then also, you know, there’s another aspect called quiet firing, which kind of is like the tail end of this little comment that, that flew across us in this lovely summer of 2022. I’m gonna give you my thoughts because everyone’s got an opinion on it. 0:28 Everyone’s an expert on it, just like every other buzzword. And when you don’t have context and you could tell how many people really either have drunk too much of the corporate Kool-Aid or have never worked in an office. <laugh> giving lots of advice on quiet, quitting, and quiet firing. Um, number one, I, I wanna start with quiet quitting, uh, because it’s not new and everyone’s talking about gen Z doing quiet, quitting, and it’s whole new thing. 0:53 And, um, it’s not new. It’s been around forever. I was doing it back when I was in corporate. Plenty of other people did it when they were in corporate. There’s a whole movie on it from like 30 years ago called office space. If you haven’t seen it, watch it. It’s fantastic. Um, I forget the guy’s name, but it’s Jennifer Aniston. Everyone knows that, uh, everyone knows her. Um, and it’s a lot of, you know, the, the famous line outside of, you know, giving back my stapler and I’ll burn the place down was, uh, the guy basically looks at the consultants and says, look, I could push out 10 more TPS reports company makes a little more profit, but I don’t see another dime. 1:31 Where’s my motivation. And it’s true. It’s the big kind of elephant in the room of, you know, the, the line that comes from corporate that people are hip to is we’re family. And let’s do it for the company and we’re good together and let’s do more and we’re gonna go above and beyond. And we like it, but nobody really gets rewarded for it. It’s this kind of language that comes out this speech that comes out to people to say, we’re going to do this. 1:58 And then when they say, well, can I get a bonus? We’re like, ah, well, sorry down economy. And sorry, we’re laying off 30% of the workforce and sorry, we’re not doing this and sorry, you’re not getting a promotion and sorry. And so people are just, you know, they’re kind of fed up with it. And, um, and that’s just kind of why people just say, screw it. You know, you’re paying me to do a job, I’ll do the job, but don’t yell at me to, to do more than, than what’s expected. 2:24 And it’s an interesting, it’s an interesting argument. And I think it’s a fair argument. Um, I remember applying for a job at a big bank. I got the job, uh, and then they switched the job on me, but whatever. Uh, and I met someone who was gonna be reporting to me and she said, look, my only question for you is this. I don’t want a promotion. I don’t want to do anymore. 2:49 I’m happy where I am. I wanna spend time with my kids. I’ve got all. And this was, maybe this was 10 years ago, at least 10 years ago, maybe 15. I’m happy. I don’t wanna go above and beyond. I don’t wanna work here till eight o’clock at night. I want, I’m happy. I’m gonna do a good job in my role. Are you okay with that? And I said, absolutely, that’s perfect. You know, we’ll constantly talk about, you know, whatever it is that you want. 3:08 And if you want, if that changes, we’ll talk about it. We wanna make sure that we’re getting whatever you need. And I didn’t just say that cause I was interviewing, um, and it was relieving to her, right? Because we constantly say, well, what are you doing? What are your goals this year? How are you going to improve? And we’re force feeding this stuff down. People’s throat, you have to evolve and you have to get promotions. 3:24 But look, when you go up a promotion thing, it’s a pyramid. There’s only so many roles and a lot of people aren’t going to get it. And so why would they go above and beyond? They’re being told what to do. They’re doing work. They don’t want to do. And you expect them to spend extra hours at work, to do stuff, just to kind of move the needle along. Doesn’t really add up. 3:43 Um, it may not be a popular thing to say, but it’s reality. And let’s just cut the BS it’s reality. And, and you know, oh, who’s the shark. There’s one of the guys from the shark tank, the bald guy, um, he calls himself Mr. Lovely or happy or whatever it is. Um, he, he had some video where it was like a diatribe about how quiet quitters, they’re bad for culture and you’re bad for the business and everything else. 4:08 And, um, I, you think they care, right? I mean, telling quiet quitters that they’re bad for corporate culture is like telling heckler it’s bad for people trying to pay attention during a comedy show. Like they don’t care. Uh, and you’re yelling at the wrong people. And rather than yelling at people who are quiet, quitting, which by the way, isn’t a bad thing. It’s just a stupid conversation, right? What is quiet, quitting, they’re doing what you pay them to do. 4:35 And then stopping. That’s not a bad thing, right? It’s why do we expect people to do more than,...