Fowl (Vol. 1)

Chicken has been on my brain lately. This is weird because I don’t eat chicken (or any other meat). I have been thinking about chickens because I am noticing adult behavior around me that very much reminds me of two chicken-based children's stories: The Little Red Hen and Henny Penny. 

I stopped eating meat when I lived in Ireland (2000). That year there was an outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease. This meant cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, and deer were all catching this (gross) disease and spreading it. This is different from the Hand, Foot, and Mouth the kids are getting these days. It was such a major health concern that St. Patrick’s Day was canceled. St. Patrick’s Day was canceled. In Ireland. Devastating. Anyhow, to try and curb the spread, all entrances to campus buildings and shops had disinfectant filled mats we had to walk over to kill any germs on our shoes and cars drove over bigger versions. What does this have to do with my vegetarianism you ask? Well, one night on the news a doctor was being asked if humans could catch this pesky and blistery disease and he said, “we don’t think so.” WHAT? You don’t think so? That is not scientific at all. I had also just returned from ten days in Spain where all I ate was meat.* It was a perfect storm to put me off eating the animals. 

The Little Red Hen (I just googled “chicken vs. hen” because my brain is broken. Hens are adult lady chickens. They lay the eggs.) is a fable about the importance of taking initiative and working hard. One day a hen finds some wheat laying on the ground and decides she wants to make bread. Great idea. The thing is that there are several important steps between wheat and actual bread. The little red hen  first plants the wheat. She asks the other animals on the farm to help her but they offer a chorus of nos. Growing up my version read:

Not I, said the cow.

Not I, said the duck. 

Not I, said the goose.

Not I, said the pig. 

Next she has to water the wheat. She asks for help and again, hard passes from the rest of the animals. Once the wheat has grown, the Little Red Hen has to harvest it. She is hopeful that the other animals will be of some help this time. Nope. They are not interested. Finally, the Little Red Hen bakes the bread and asks if the other animals want to eat it. All of a sudden everyone is very interested in what is happening. They all want some of the bread. But the little Red Hen is not having this. She runs away with the bread and eats it all herself. Yes, queen! 

This story has been used in a lot of contexts. In 1976, Ronald Regan decided to rewrite it as an allegory of government regulation. You can listen to it if that’s your thing. According to the internet, it has also been used to satire capitalism, and as a pro-work socialist anthem. Damn everybody! Leave the Little Red Hen alone to bake her bread in peace.

Clearly, the moral of the story is that if you don’t contribute you don’t get to enjoy the results of the hard work others have invested. This is not an unfamiliar scenario to many of us. Responsible individuals are often put in positions where they have to take on most (or all) of the work in order to finish something and then the farm animals that didn’t contribute still want some freshly baked bread. They want to reap the benefits without the effort. They are free riders. They are everywhere. They suck. Free riders are something my students are often faced with. Many faculty assign group projects and without fail there is at least one team a semester trying to deal with the person who does absolutely nothing. My response has always been to tell them that this mirrors the real world and they have to figure it out. However, after reading more and thinking about it I am going to change my approach because it isn’t helpful. Yes, having the ability to manage difficult team members is a useful skill but should that be their job? Why should the people who contribute have to also do the work of trying to engage the free rider? Why do they have to solve a problem they didn’t create?** I looked for guidance on this and found awesome suggestions. I am going to implement some of them in my group projects and others are applicable at work because free riders are everywhere!

Qualitative peer feedback: Allow everyone a way to share what people are doing well and where they need to improve. I was looking around and it seems like there are a lot of online platforms that do this.

Options for students: PeerStudio, Peergrade, FeedbackFruits. I have not tried any yet but if you have and like one in particular let me know!

Options for work: Betterworks, CultureAmp, Officevibe.

I was wondering how anonymity plays into peer feedback and was happy to see some research on it. Generally speaking it sounds like anonymous feedback is the best way to go. 

Make individual inputs visible: Have people “claim” what they are doing and make sure everyone else knows. This way, if something is missing/terrible it is clear who was responsible for the work. 

Ensure that the groups are not too large: If there are a lot of people (especially without clear direction and unique roles) it is easier for free riders to “hide” and for their lack of contribution to be overlooked. 

Show what others are doing: The thought is that when free riders see how much less they are doing they will start to do more. I have to disagree with this one. I think most free riders know that they are free riding. They know what other people are doing, they just don’t want to do it. Maybe in some situations this will work but in my experience free riding is pretty purposeful. 

Some of these things will take a real shift in how we operate. Personally, I am not a fan of letting anything fall through the cracks (ever) so the idea of a project I am on not looking fantastic because someone else is slacking would slowly break me down as a person. But, in order to break the cycle of free riding, we have to be willing to let other people screw up knowing that we did our part. A crucial piece of this puzzle is accountability. If it is clear who was supposed to do what and the free rider faces no consequences; that creates a variety of problems:

Motivational problem: Why do all the work if the people who slack face no repercussions? Or worse yet, if the slackers are rewarded the same as the rest of the people who actually performed (i.e. everyone gets the same “merit” raise)? That is exceptionally demotivating to the actual contributors and signals to the free riders that they are doing just fine. 

Organizational culture problem: Not calling out bad behavior is a great way to create a toxic work environment. If companies aren’t addressing free riders, what else is being ignored? Turning a blind eye will not go unnoticed by employees. Their frustration will fester and that is hard to turn around. 

Communication problem: If someone on your team is free riding you have to say something. It’s a bummer to feel like you are tattling on an adult but if they don’t do the work, someone will have to and it might be you. 

Management problem: Leaders should be aware of the employees that aren’t pulling their weight. If they don’t see this it’s because they aren’t paying close enough attention, the free rider is also a bullshitter who convinces them how much they do, it just started happening, or no one has told them. 

Efficiency problem: Free riders slow down processes. This impacts the team’s ability to accomplish tasks which then costs the organization money. 

I was super interested to read that free riding actually increases the closer groups are to the end of a project. That’s no good! The thought is that everyone is pushing to meet the deadline so people may feel “entitled” to give themselves a little bit of a break. That is exceptionally annoying to the people doing the work and I think that annoyance sometimes leads to just sharing the bread we made. Letting everyone have a piece is easier than listening to the team members/farm animals bitch. We know they didn’t earn a piece. They know they didn’t earn a piece. But the difference is that they don’t care. They feel entitled to the bread for whatever reason (proximity to the bread making process?) and pitch a fit when they don’t get to reap the benefits of other’s work. Maybe quiet quitting is just free riding in a fancy new outfit. Who’s to say? 

This is the most time I have ever spent thinking about chicken and I am not done yet. The next blog is all about the story of Henny Penny. While I finish writing it I leave you with this list of the top 15 fancy chickens as well as this:

Just look at that marvelous chicken!!

*While there I went to the Caminito del Rey trail in Malaga. It had not yet been restored and was terrifying because parts of the path were straight up missing. In the nearby town we stopped for lunch and I didn’t remember the translation for one of the words on the menu. When I asked the waiter what it was he bleated at me. It was a goat (chivo). I ate it. Gross. 

**This is something that has really been annoying me lately. While I have been doing research about women at work it has become increasingly apparent that, in order for things to change, we have to make them happen. We did not cause these issues. We are impacted by these issues. Yet, we have to take our time and skills to help fix the issues. It’s bullshit. It feels like being the sober person cleaning up the barf from your drunk friend. You didn’t barf so why are you dealing with this? Because your friend is drunk. She is incapable of cleaning up without making an even bigger mess. So you step in, lay her down, take off her shoes, and force her to take Advil and drink some water even though she keeps yelling that she wants to eat PANCAKES and go back to the bar. I guess sometimes business organizations are like our drunk friends. 

Quiet trend setter

This all things quiet trend is too much! Now that quiet quitting has run its course, people are talking about quiet firing. I find this newest iteration equally annoying. Quiet firing is when a supervisor is generally unsupportive on purpose. They are passive aggressive or not giving an employee a promotion or pay increase with little to no justification. That is a terrible way to operate and a surefire way to create a nightmare of a corporate culture. It isn’t clear if the quiet quitting leads to the quiet firing or vice versa but it all makes me want to quiet scream. 

You know what this all reminds me of? My dating life in college. I was one of those people who would mentally break up with someone but not want to have the actual conversation. Instead I would ignore calls and messages (left on my answering machine that sat on my kitchen counter!!!), cancel dates, or just start dating other people.* My theory was that whoever I was dating would get sick of this behavior and eventually break up with me to save me the effort. I was quiet firing people way before it was a thing. But that approach was nothing to be proud of. It was wholly immature, dragged things out unnecessarily and created confusion and hard feelings that likely could have been avoided. It also led to some very awkward interactions while I was bartending.**

Canceled dates = canceled check-in meetings or 1-on-1s

Waiting to get broken up with = waiting for employee to quit

Ignoring calls = unwilling to provide direct feedback

Move on to someone else = give attention to employees with more “potential” 

Actual quiet firing is worse though because it’s happening at work and can impact people’s livelihoods. If employees are underperforming, TELL THEM. If you are not happy with what they are producing, TELL THEM. The idea that this is the approach adults with authority are taking in the workplace goes against pretty much all we know about what good managers do. These aren’t 21-year-old college bartenders, they are leaders whose actions impact the rest of their team and the organizational culture. There is so much research on how to motivate employees and what to do when employees aren’t meeting expectations. There is also a ton of information on how to give feedback that is clear and constructive (even to people who are reactive). I think the people doing the quiet firing may also be missing the HUMAN aspects of their employees. If their performance started slipping all of a sudden what triggered it? Are they ok? Are they struggling with issues outside of work? Great leaders care and ask questions founded in empathy and psychological safety.

If you have tried all of these things with an employee who just isn’t cutting it and nothing changes then it’s time to let them go. You will need to actually tell them this or have HR do it for you. I realize firing people can be exceptionally difficult emotionally, and in some states practically, but there are ways to do it that are humane. Don’t be a quiet fire-er or a quiet quitter be a leader and remember that leadership is an action not a position (that’s a quote from Donald H. McGannon, I didn’t come up with that gem). I hope the next quiet trend to emerge is quiet eating because the sound of other people chewing makes me crazy (#Misophonia). 

*Yes, I was a jackass back then. Also, social media didn’t exist so it was much easier to be a shady lady.

**Once the guy I quiet fired came into the bar and sat next to the guy I started dating instead. NEXT TO HIM. That was not a great shift.

Circling back to quiet quitting

After I wrote about quiet quitting (a term that I still despise) I kept talking about it more with friends and colleagues. A thought provoking comment on my post and an intellectually stimulating conversation at Dave and Buster’s (a sentence that has likely never before been uttered) made me realize that I didn’t really address the organization's responsibility for this trend. My (made up) estimate is that it’s about 85% the organization’s fault. Leaders and managers are ignoring the signs of burnout all around them which is crazy because 72% of employees say stress or burnout is an issue for their organization. They are also failing to recognize that their employees are PEOPLE. Actual human beings with needs and desires beyond their jobs. Sadly, this is not new, it has merely been brought to the forefront by the pandemic. Companies have been mistreating employees in a variety of ways for long enough that many laws are on the books to protect employees. Are they working? That’s a post for a different day…

Much of the employee protection legislation deals with physical safety and non-discrimination but that’s not what quiet quitting is about. This phenomenon is driven by the overwhelming mental burdens being placed on employees. American workers are some of the most stressed on the planet. The combination of the lingering uncertainty of coronavirus and being asked to do more with less has brought many to their breaking points. For some the answer to this untenable situation was to quit. The Great Resignation saw millions exit the workforce (for a variety of reasons). Perhaps quiet quitting is just the next best option; it allows employees to reclaim some of their time and still get paid. But it’s not an actual solution to the problem. It’s like taking two Advil the morning after drinking four Mai-tais in the Maui sun. Theoretically it should make you feel a bit better but if you really wanted to feel better you should have not had so many Mai-tais, taken Advil before bed, and drank some water.* 

The actual problem is much larger, it’s the organization's culture (or the sugary Mai-tais). It’s also the pressure from up the chain attempting to drive performance without much thought to the resources provided or the impacts on their employees. This disengagement from the humanity of employees just isn’t going to work anymore. If companies want to attract and retain talent they have to do better. McKinsey & Company just put out a great report on what they are calling the The Great Renegotiation. Companies have to understand that employees have more options now and better organizational cultures attract and retain the best people. 

Creating a good culture doesn’t just happen. Leaders have to be purposeful in considering what will work and how to implement it. A great place to start is by taking a look at what is done to show employees that they are valued. How are managers truly acknowledging the work of their employees and their contributions to the company? If the answer is a shoulder shrug there is work to be done. Showing employees they are valued doesn't take a huge investment, it’s a combination of a lot of little things. There is so much research about how to motivate employees and some of the things are so easy and make a big difference. Remembering that employees are people is key. They want to be seen, to have their opinions heard, and to know that their work is appreciated. 

Please know I am not saying that a hearty “thank you” or free bagels are going to eliminate quiet quitting. Thanking people visibly and loudly for the work they do is a start, but there needs to be specific attempts to lessen employee workloads. Here are some things I think will work:

Make a plan to remove some of the extra work from their plate so they see light at the end of the tunnel

Run interference when other employees try to delegate to already overworked members of your team.

Advocate for compensation that aligns with what people are actually doing, not just what is in their job description. 

Organizations are run by people. We need them to do better on this so we can move on to the next catchy yet annoying workplace fad!

*This is definitely a made-up situation (no it’s not) #mauifever

Quiet quitting is stupid

I don’t know how some stuff catches on but I think this whole “quiet quitting” thing is truly dumb. First, it’s not actually about quitting. Anyone who is quiet quitting is keeping their jobs and basically shifting their approach to work. The idea is that, rather than spending your time going above and beyond at your job, you simply fulfill your required duties. This is not revolutionary and I would argue it is merely repackaged work-life balance. I would also argue that work like balance is an absolute joke and doesn’t exist but that is a rant for another time. The quiet quitters out there are shutting their computers off at 5pm and heading home for some self-care.* They are focused on work fitting into their lives and not the other way around. Don’t get me wrong, none of this is bad but it also isn’t a as exciting as TikTok would lead us to believe. 

We are all trying to reclaim (i.e. desperately CLAW back) some of our personal time. While working at home during Covid, the line between work and home completely disappeared and now that many of us are back in the office the shift is jarring. No more folding laundry during meetings or middle of the day Hot Girl Walks. Instead people have to readjust to being back at their desks for many hours and day and the idea of staying late or working at home in the evening is no longer appealing. But was it ever? I have never encountered anyone who adores working long hours at the expense of personal time. 

Where I really struggle with quiet quitting is that someone has to pick up the slack. Yes, it is an organizational issue when employees are tasked with more than their fair share of responsibility for things beyond their job description but it all needs to get done. If you work as part of a team and opt to quiet quit (but don’t say anything, you know, because it’s “quiet”) that extra work is likely getting foisted on them. Some people may simply not care but, as I have said before, we work with other HUMANS and they would also likely enjoy reclaiming a bit more of their time as well.

Maybe one good thing that will come of this is a realization by leaders in organizations that the boundaries between work and home need to be reestablished. That’s tricky territory considering the many ways Covid completely transformed the way we work but it is possible. Maybe start by looking at our European friends. They are implementing the  four-day work week with great results. Employees are happier and more productive. Their overall mental health is improving and they have extra time for laundry and Hot Girl Walks. Sounds like a win-win to me. 

*Unless they have kids in which case they are heading home to be bossed around and to cook pasta for the thousandth time.