The “Quiet” Current Employment Trends: Hiring, Firing, Quitting

Bob Dylan was right: “The times they are a changin’.” Things like hiring, firing and resigning, which used to be straight forward, have been given a new wrinkle. They are now “quiet.”

Quite Hiring

An employer needs someone to do something that is not currently being done. Usually, they would go out and hire someone, either on a full-time or part-time basis. Not today! Today they “quiet hire.”

The employer presents an opportunity to an employee who would be a fool to reject it. They ask the employee to take on an additional responsibility. It may be permanent or temporary. They may get a raise or the promise of a bonus if all works out well. A promotion may also be in their future. (Just as an aside, this has happened to me in every job I have had. Once, when a colleague refused the additional responsibilities, when I accepted them, he was fired. The boss did not like employees who did not want to advance in their careers.)

This is a win-win for everyone. The employer does not have to onboard a new employee. All they have to do is to have the current employee trained to accomplish the new task. And that employee, if successful, becomes more valuable to the company, will likely get a raise, maybe even a promotion. If not, having obtained new skills will make them a better candidate for their next employer.

Quiet Firing

I have been involved with the firing of employees. I remember the first person I ever fired. It was not a nice experience. But what I was taught was “to be a man,” have a witness present, look the person in the face, tell them why they are being let go, give them the opportunity to vent, wish them well, and get them out of the building as quickly as possible.

Quiet firing is the opposite of “being a man.” (To those who think this is sexist, wait!) It’s being a coward.

Instead of just firing the person, with “quiet firing” the employer denies the employee what they need to be successful, causing them so much frustration that they leave. They force them out. Presumably, they are afraid of litigation so, best to get them to quit. Of course, this is wrong.

It is also stupid, foolish and idiotic. Think of what is happening during this period. The employee is miserable. He, or she, is complaining to colleagues. Morale and productivity are negatively impacted.

So, my advice is simple: If you have an employee who you want gone, woman (happy now?) up, look them straight in the face, and tell them their services are no longer required. You can still be quiet. There’s no need to yell!

Word of warning for employers: Check with an attorney before you force someone to quit. You could still end up in court, for example, on a charge of creating a “hostile work environment” or, if they are a member of a protected class (and just about everyone is), discrimination (which may be the same thing).

Quiet Quitting

A few weeks ago I wrote an article on how to properly/professionally resign. I did not mention quiet quitting because it is not really resigning. The person does not actually want to lose their job. They do the minimum, nothing more.

This can be aggravating for the employer, but if the employee is doing what they were hired to do, and if they are doing it well, not sabotaging anything, they are giving 100%. Employees who give 100% usually won’t be advancing up the corporate ladder, but they also won’t necessarily be fired.

This could be a sign that the employee has no ambition. That makes it an issue for their supervisor. Remember, they don’t want to actually be fired, so there is leverage which a younger employee may not appreciate. They may not have realized that most job descriptions list a final responsibility on the lines of “any other tasks assigned.” So, refusing to do something is insubordination which should allow the employer to fire the person for cause.

But not to worry, they don’t have to be quiet…

Loud Quitting

“Loud quitting” is when an employee throws a very public temper tantrum. It may be in the office, on social media, or both. (For that matter, it may be in a restaurant where the boss is having dinner with their family!) They vent about how terrible work is, how mean they are being treated, and how they are being victimized. And they are victims. Truth is, they are. They are victims of a society which has not taught them how to maturely deal with problems. So, employers may want to consider having supervisors engage regularly with their supervisees, especially the younger ones, to learn about their concerns quietly, solving problems before they arise, as opposed to the alternative which is not good for anyone.

There’s Too Much Stress

Now I am combining three trends that are attributed to Gen-Z (persons born between 1996 and 2010). If they (the trends, not necessarily the people) were not so pathetic, they would be funny. That said, employers need to be aware of them.

“Bare Minimum Mondays,” a topic about which I have previously written, are when employees do the least amount of work they can on Monday so they don’t burn themselves out during the week. They want to lower their anxiety. How doing five days’ work in four days lowers anxiety, I don’t know.

But then there are “Lazy girl jobs,” defined as “well-paying often fully or partially remote jobs that require minimal effort [so the employee is able] to cut back on the stress and anxiety they say is harmful to [their] mental health.” (If you follow the link to the article, you’ll see it’s not all that sexist, but even I would have simply called them “lazy jobs!”)

It seems that Gen Z want to avoid stress as much as possible. (Not what I would call a prescription for facing adulthood, but what do I know?) In any event, there are “hush trips.” This is when a remote worker takes a vacation and does not tell the boss. As long as they get the work done, what does it matter if they are working from their dining room table or a desk in a hotel room? Well, there is the little matter of ethics. Also, from the employee’s perspective, if the boss wants to see them in the office for a meeting the next day, that could be a very expensive plane ticket!

There could also be a serious problem. If they are working from home, it is safe to assume (at least I hope it is) that the employer has set them up with secure internet access. Changing location will hopefully be detected by the IT Department. They could be fired, for cause, if they violated the company’s cyber security protocols. So, a “hush trip” may be a very costly vacation.

It is also stealing. Because the boss does not know about it, the employee is basically adding to their paid vacation days.

At this point, I probably should mention that to avoid all this nonsense, one might hire a senior, but I won’t do that because I don’t like it when people turn long-form articles into self-serving commercials.

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Allow me to extend my heartfelt best wishes for a joyous holiday to those celebrating Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles). In honor of the holiday, no article will be published next week.

Food for Thought for Non-Profit Employees in a Union

With the strikes taking place today, not to mention those that may be coming, I thought this might be a good time to share my union story. I don’t know how relevant it is, but it might give some employees some food for thought, especially those in the non-profit sector. Management can be very sneaky and say “Yes.” It happens when they decide you are not worth the aggravation.

I have only worked at one union shop. Being considered management, I was not a member. I also did not have any supervisees, so my relationship with the union members was excellent.

For example, the employees of our community-based services social service agency, where my office was located, decided that every week they would file a complaint against a different manager, and then they would all be present at the “hearing.” It was a blatant way to simply disrupt work and was beneath them.

When I found out what was happening I confronted them. I said I was highly offended. I accused them of being anti-Semites. They were shocked. They asked me why I would say such a thing? I told them, “You file complaints against all department heads except me. You all pile into the VP’s office to watch the proceedings. You have your fun, which, in my opinion, is beneath you. And then you leave me out. How do you think that makes me feel? What, I’m not good enough? I demand that you file a complaint against me and, what’s more, I want it catered, at your expense. I want Kosher deli!” And then I walked away.

No more complaints were filed. I had to laugh. The bosses could not figure out what had happened, and I was not about to tell them. They would not have understood. You see, the union members were good people, good employees. They had been misguided by the union. And since I was on friendly terms with them, I could talk to them the way I did, a way which no one else could.

We had a Meals-on-Wheels program. One day, the union rep showed up and noticed that the person who was sealing the food packages, putting the cardboard top on the tin foil container and using a spoon handle to secure it, was not a union member. He was a volunteer; a very special volunteer The rep went to the VP and told her that he was going to call an emergency meeting of his members because that “job” should be held by a union member.

She told him to go right ahead but, as the volunteer was developmentally disabled, she wanted to take him out of the room before the meeting began because he would not understand what was going on and would think he had done something wrong. Of course, she knew exactly what was about to happen.

She found an excuse to get the young man out of the kitchen/dining room. The employees, union members all, handed their union rep his head. There was no way they were going to let their colleague go. When he, the union rep, came back upstairs he was white as a sheet. I never was actually told what they had said to him, but it must have been pretty good. Needless to say, the volunteer remained.

Similar things happened at our nursing home. One day, for no apparent reason, the union decided to have what they called, if I remember correctly, an “information day.” They were to be allowed to set up tables outside the facility and members could be given time off to come by and get any questions they had answered. The only thing I remember for certain was the fact that no one showed up! The employees, mainly nurses, had better things to do and were not about to take time away from our/their residents for such nonsense. That was the first black eye, so to speak, they gave the union.

The second was when a nurse was fired for cause. To be generous, she was no Florence Nightingale. When she was fired, she naturally went to the union and complained. The union rep showed up to organize a walkout. He was told, by his members, in no uncertain terms that no one would walk out because of her. She was a terrible person and an awful nurse. She should not have been hired in the first place. They were glad she was gone. In fact, in my presence, one nurse said, “My husband has a dog. I would not let her touch him with a ten-foot pole.” Me, being me, I immediately asked, “Your husband or your dog?” She smiled and said, “Neither one!” That broke the tension and every had a good laugh.

My point in relating these stories is to show that while union members sometimes have a reputation which is not exactly positive, it is not always justified. But now I am going to relate a story that shows how foolish they can be.

The social service agency had two municipal contracts. The first was for providing counseling services to seniors (helping them file for benefits, coping with mental health issues, etc.) and the aforementioned Meals-on-Wheels program. The contracts with the city were up for renewal as was the employees’ union contract. Negotiations began.

Totally by chance, I was walking by the Board room where the negotiations between the union and management were taking place. At that moment, the negotiations concluded, and the door flung open. The union members exited. They were thrilled. They were bursting with joy. “Bruce,” they told me, “we are getting a 15% raise!”

I responded, “Congratulations. Where will you be working?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know we have to resubmit a request to the city for the renewal of the program contracts. The request includes a budget. You also know that our only competitor is not a union shop. They will submit a budget reflecting probably a 3% salary increase while ours will reflect a 15% increase. Who do you think will get the contracts?”

“Not a problem,” they assured me. “The union will take care of us.”

The ironic thing was, that the first contract up for renewal was for Meals-on-Wheels. Since the employees of both programs were union members, when we lost the Meals-on-Wheels contract, it wasn’t simply that all of the Meals-on-Wheels employees were laid off. What happened was, some of the social service employees were laid off and Meals-on-Wheels employees, who had absolutely no training to do the jobs, were transfered to counseling positions. (It was a case of last-in-first-out. Qualifications to do the job did not matter.)

Of course, none of it mattered, because in a few weeks we lost the social service contact as well. I always thought that that was the entire purpose of the 15% raise. Around this time, I moved on to a new employer. I was not at all surprised that the community based services organization was shut down and the building eventually sold. I think that was management’s plan from the beginning.

This all happened 10-15 years ago. But the lesson still holds true. Employees can price themselves out of their jobs. And if their programs are dependent on government contracts, and management wants to be rid of the programs but does not want the blame (It’s not our fault we lost the contracts. The union pay raise was too high. ) agreeing to union demands is a great way to go.

Hum? What about the for-profit world? Electric vehicle manufacturing in Detroit (and other places). Writers in Hollywood? Any lessons here for them?

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To all who observe the Yom Kippur holiday, I wish you an easy fast and may you be inscribed in the Book of Life.

The Fulcrum of a Successful Job Search

What is a “fulcrum?” For present purposes, it’s the thing that makes the thing the thing. Best example, a pair of scissors. The screw above the blades, holding the two handles together, is a fulcrum. Another example, a see-saw. The pipe, the centerpiece, that allows the persons on either end of the board to rise or fall, as the case may be, is the fulcrum. It’s what makes a board a see-saw.

So what is the centerpiece that makes a job search successful? Most people will probably say something like this, all of which is true:

The cover letter gets the recipient to look at the resume. The resume gets the recipient to contact the applicant for an interview. The applicant’s interviewing skills are what gets them the job offer.

So, pick one. Is the cover letter the fulcrum? No. Is the resume the fulcrum? No? Are the applicant’s interviewing skills the fulcrum? Sort of, but you’ll have to keep reading.

Alright. Bruce is being difficult. So, what comes before the cover letter, etc.? Creating a plan. No. Networking. No. All are important, but they all form a whole. They are not the one thing. There’s only one fulcrum. Without the aforementioned screw, scissors are not scissors, only two sharp blades that no one would want to use to cut cloth, or anything else for that matter. The padded seats and handles are all necessary, but they don’t make a board a see-saw. A board balanced on a pipe may be an ugly and unsafe see-saw, but it is a see-saw.

The fulcrum of a successful job search is confidence. If the job seeker does not exude confidence while executing all stages of their plan, they will be unsuccessful. No one wants to recommend or hire someone who they believe is not sure of themselves.

Consider the handshake. When you meet someone, and they give you a firm handshake while looking in your eyes and smiling, what do you think about them? When they hand you what I like to call a “dead fish” and don’t make eye contact, what do you think about them? Who would you hire?

I hope the answer is the one with confidence because they are the one who will bring a fulcrum with them to work!

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If you previously followed me on Twitter, or not, I invite you to follow me on Mastadon.

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As we approach the Rosh HaShanah holiday, allow me to wish all my readers a New Year of Health, Happiness, Prosperity and, most importantly, Peace.

How to Properly Answer the “Weaknesses” Question

After doing this for decades, I am still surprised by the stupid answers candidates give to simple questions for which they should be prepared. For example, “Tell me about your biggest mistake or worst failure and what you learned from it?” Of course, the important part of the question is the second part, but I have actually had candidates say, “I prepare very well for my assignments, so I don’t make any mistakes and I don’t have any failures.” Well, they just made a mistake and had a failure! No one is perfect and if an applicant thinks they are, they are not self-aware. Persons who are not self-aware do not make good employees. (I am in a good mood, so I am ignoring the simple explanation that they are lying.)

And then there is the weaknesses question, “What are your weaknesses?” or “What is your greatest weakness?” It is a great question because too many candidates say things that they want to sound positive in order to impress the interviewer by telling them things they think they want to hear. Things like, “I stay too long at the office” or, “I’m a perfectionist.” They think they are telling the interviewer positive things, but the interviewers are hearing “I have time management problems” and, “I have trouble meeting deadlines.” Oh, and “I don’t want to answer your question!” But more importantly, they are hearing (a) that the person is not self-aware or (b) that they have something to hide.

Everyone has weaknesses. They are nothing of which to be ashamed. The question isn’t just about things you do not do well, there are two additional components: Are you self-aware? And what do you do about your weaknesses? (There is also the issue of the employer wanting to know what extra training the applicant may need.)

I had a career counseling client who came to me because, while he was getting plenty of interviews, he was not getting any offers. I spoke with him for 2 hours and could not figure out what the problem was. So, I told him, “Let’s go through the standard questions.” The first was about strengths, the second was about weaknesses. His answer to the latter: “I’m a procrastinator.” Then I asked him, “What else did you say?” He replied, “Nothing. That’s it. I’m a procrastinator.” I looked at him and asked, “And you don’t know why you are not getting any offers?”

We proceeded. “What do you do about your procrastination?” “It’s silly.” “I don’t care. Tell me.” “When I finish a project on time or early, I buy myself a Snickers bar.” “Did you tell them that?” “No.” “So you left them with the impression that while you are self-aware and recognize your weakness, you don’t do anything about it. Next interview, tell them about the Snickers bar!” 

The next day he had another interview. He got the offer. He told me that the only thing he did differently was to tell the interviewers about the Snickers bar.

Now, to be fair, there are 1001 different reasons why someone qualified can get a job offer. But he credited my advice, which I believe is the most important factor in answering the question, namely saying what you do to overcome your weakness.

Another time I had a client whose weakness was technology. He would get frustrated when the computer would start acting up. I asked him what he did about it. He said, “I visualize picking the damn thing up,” pardon my language, “I go to the window, look to make certain no one is walking by, and I drop it watching it smash into a thousand pieces!” I told him that was the perfect answer. He was just starting his job search. A week later he had his first interview and when he was asked about weaknesses, he told the interviewers what he had told me. He got the job offer because, even though they knew he was making light of the situation, they liked the fact that included in his fantasy was consideration of the ramifications of his actions, namely, checking to see if anyone would be hit by the computer before he dropped it out the window.

So, there are three components to the answer: Saying what your weakness is (showing that you are self-aware). If necessary, explaining how it manifests itself (frustration). And, finally, saying what you do about it (eat a candy bar/fantasize about destroying the source of the problem).

And that, dear reader, is the strong answer to the weakness question.

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In light of the economic difficulties job seekers are facing, I have lowered the price of my career counseling services by 50%. This will continue through the end of the year.