🤫 Is quiet quitting really that bad? | Ep2 OoO

🤯 Quiet quitting: It’s your manager’s fault

👩‍🎓 President Biden: Forgiving student loan debt

Hey! Welcome Back -

It’s episode 2 of Out of Office – and our best one yet.

This week I’ve got some great insights to share with you on two fairly problematic topics dominating the world of remote work right now.

Everyone’s talking about quiet quitting, and no-one’s talking about how universities have monopolized job preparedness for so long.

I’m hot on the trail of both stories this week.

Let’s dive in -

🤐 Quiet Quitting: A 🖕 for Middle Management

It’s the latest Gen Z catchphrase popularized by the TikTok crowd, and it packs a real punch for employers.

If you haven’t heard of it yet, it’s a concept that promotes the idea of staying in a bad job – and instead of leaving - just doing the bare minimum to get by.

‘Quiet quitting’ is the newest modern plague apparently sweeping workplaces everywhere.

👻 Symptoms of quiet quitting

• Not quitting when you want to leave
• Deciding you’ve had enough ‘going the extra mile’
• Not being treated right by your employer
• Not enjoying your job in the slightest anymore

The bare minimum is described as your exact job description. You get to work on time, you leave on time. You take every single company mandated break.

You do everything you’re supposed to do, and nothing more.

👿 Employers are furious.

Kathryn Dill and Angela Yang report for WSJ:

“Some critics say they fear quiet quitting is corrosive to workplace cultures—and the bottom line—because it’s demoralizing to efficient workers to see others phoning it in without penalty.” 

Two Key Perspectives

After meditating on both sides of the story, I’ve decided that I love the concept of quiet quitting and it’s because it calls bs on bad management.

Change only happens when these things come to light, so I have two personal perspectives to share.

🧛 Bad Boundaries Exposed

Quiet quitting proves that workplaces and managers need to set better boundaries for the people that they hire.

This means creating a defined set of responsibilities that work.

If someone is doing everything that their job description demands and it’s not enough – that’s a serious organizational issue.

When bad boundaries exist, scope creep isn’t far behind. No wonder employees are feeling taken for granted if they’re expected to do 5X the work, for the same pay.

It’s one thing to do your best at work - but let’s call extra, extra.

As Adam Karpiak once said, “It’s only quiet quitting if it comes from the Champagne region of France otherwise it’s just sparkling boundaries.”

☔ Bad Leaders Revealed

Where have all the good leaders gone?

The second reason I’m pro-QQ is because it exposes where the bad managers are. We all know people quit managers, not jobs.

I believe inspirational leadership naturally motivates people to do their best. When the opposite exists, demotivation and frustration are common.

Seems to me like quiet quitting is just a generation of people who are uninspired by their work. A lot of managers out there need a swift kick in the ass.

Let’s address the core problem with a new formula -

Clear responsibilities + inspiring leadership = the end of quiet quitting

Employees deserve to know what their inputs and outputs should be every day, and they should be given context when expected to go the extra mile. Pepper in some freedom and flexibility so that they can live their best lives and it’s a winning equation.

Can we agree that everyone deserves clarity and context?

I can get behind that.

President Joe Biden: Debt-Free Students

Our second featured headline this week is fantastic news for low-to middle income borrowers steeped in the steaming fumes of student debt.

Biden recently announced that he’s forgiving a lot of this debt, and it impacts everyone – even those of us living outside of the US (like me).

Cancelling student loan debt has an immeasurable impact on the global labor market, which means that remote workers will feel the ripple effect.

The Facts

• Since 1980 the overall cost of 4-year public/private college has tripled
• Grants that once covered 80% of a degree now cover a third

Student debt has skyrocketed to $1.6 trillion crippling the middle class.

I find this move interesting because it reveals a lot about the dysfunctional relationship between the education system and today’s workplace.

Let’s explore that a bit -

Universities: The Job Monopoly No-one Asked For

So, universities were designed for two functions –

📚 To encourage higher learning, for research and development and to make new discoveries

That’s how we put people on Mars.

💵 To prepare you for the workforce

That’s why a university degree is a golden ticket in every country, a powerful signifier that someone is a great person to hire for the job.

Real talk: When was the last time you used something you learned in your degree while you were at work?

And is every graduate of your university program better than someone who didn’t graduate?

Something is off.

The university system hasn’t changed much for a very long time.

Oxford University, a leading UK institution of learning, is older than the Aztec Empire. According to Smithsonian Magazine, Oxford isn’t even the oldest university – not by a long shot.

As human beings trying to get to the next level of civilization, education has always been an essential lever. But somewhere along the line, we switched from the right track to the wrong train.

Universities have the monopoly on determining whether someone is good at their job. That sucks!

And worse – it’s deeply flawed.

What the world needs is a way for workers to prove that they can do the job. That they’ve got what it takes to go the distance, regardless of where or if they have a degree.

Now university degrees are great – but are they the best indicators of job suitability these days?

We’re not living in the time of the Aztecs.

There are better data points available for assessment, right?

The reason Biden is forgiving these student loans is because the university degrees we need to get work are so astronomically expensive.

I’m not saying don’t go out and get your degree.

But the education system needs to catch up to modern life.

A more reliable way for people to prove their skills would put pressure on universities to make their fees in line with inflation again. We can put the train back on the right track.

Let’s break that monopoly. No-one asked for it.

Am I onto something? Share your thoughts with us below.

See you next week, and remember the future of work is Out of Office.

Andrew

This Week’s Shareable

• Adam Karpiak says, “It’s only #quietquitting if it comes from the Champagne region of France otherwise it’s just sparkling boundaries.” Read more on OOO.