The solution is to acknowledge and process the change. To integrate it and come back to something newly coherent. And the way you do that is reflection.
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This Quiet Quitting thing may be the topic du jour, but it's not universal. There are people out there doing engaged, enthusiastic work. There are organizations shining bright and without burning out. If you're sweating it, worried that it's happening with your team, here's our advice.
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Threats. Dismissiveness. Burnout. Micromanagement. Yelling. Every bad boss behaviour is going to come out of the woodwork in the next few months.
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One of us has COVID and so far, thanks in large part to the basement (and boosters! and masking! and updated rapid test procedures!), no one else in the house does.
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Vacations are a cross-training opportunity. They are a sponsorship opportunity. They are resilience and succession planning and visibility opportunities for your team. You just have to see them for what they are.
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So here we are. Faced with this disastrous ruling. And it makes us wonder: how coherent are your organization's actions on this one? We heard about the relocation policy, what other actions are they taking? Do they line up?
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If you start from the assumption that you need to make your team happy – that happiness is an input to work that you need to maximize – you reach for one set of tools. Tools that reduce stress, remove discomfort, avoid conflict. And maybe at a birthday party, or a summer camp, those would be appropriate.
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The org chart is a power map. Not figuratively. Literally. It is a map of relationships, reporting structure, and accountability lines. When we talk about issues being structural, this is where that structure shows up.
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Anywhere your senior leaders are not giving their full-throated support to a thing, you should be prepared for a clapback.
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Faced with an extended stay in the squishy place, a lot of execs are opting out. They are making decisions with the information they've got. Trading liminal for solid ground anywhere they can find it. And, for a lot of workplaces, shit is about to get real.
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At the core of every boss quoting some article about kids today is a two-part management failure. First, a failure to adapt to the changing workplace. And second, a failure to listen to the feedback that they are part of the problem.
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We're hearing from the bosses and people and culture teams asked to implement the Bums-in-Seats directive. Even when they, themselves, are skeptical.
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The massive competition for talent has every HR and Talent leader running after the same ball. And the visual effect, from up here on the hill, looks a lot like Bunch Ball.
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It's easy to dip into "I would never talk to my team like that. If I were in charge, I would be a way better boss than that." That smug satisfaction about what you would do if you were in charge? Well, we understand the appeal.
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Faced with that blandness, a lot of leaders are pushing back-to-office plans. They have nostalgia for the flavour of a packed and humming office, and feel like if people would just get back in there, it would fix things.
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If we're right about this prediction, the amount of energy coming at you is going to be intense. The question to ask is: do you have somewhere for that energy to go?
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What's to be done about the boss above me who doesn't know this stuff but needs to? How do I get them to show up for me so I can show up for my own team?
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Resignations. Competitive talent markets. The structure of the org chart. All of these things can feel bigger than you, as an individual leader trying to get things done in your organization. We get that. But be skeptical of any advice that takes them as fixed.
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Assumptions and predictions are two tools to get at the same thing. Both try to crystallize how you think about the world today, in case it changes. But writing down an assumption is passive, it's descriptive. Making a prediction is active.
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People send us the links in part because, haha, you build better bosses. Here's the literal CEO of Better and seems like he could have used some management training. Hardy har har. But some of them also want to know, "Is this normal?" And if so, how often does this happen? And why?
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