People are misaligned with the economy.
Let me explain — just last month, in August 2022, a top searched term was “Quiet Quitting”.
I even did a podcast on the topic — https://rss.com/podcasts/cultureofspeak/604426/
Now in September 2022, there is talk of a “white collar recession” with a new #layoffs headline almost daily, the latest being Goldman, Twilio and now Patreon.
Are the two trends connected?
Was this a case of over-hiring in the boom cycle, like the article says? Or is something more at play here?
To this end, I posted a version of this on LinkedIn, and the response was (and continues to be) astonishing, with 50k and over 60 reactions impressions as of this writing.
As one commenter wrote, even after I posted my concerns about people, FedEx had posted its earnings (a major miss) with a massive drop in stock price — 21% as of this writing — and the CEO worried about a global recession.
FedEx as a logistics and delivery company is an excellent litmus test of the overall commercial sector, and they are seeing a global dip.
So what now?
People that were talking about “quiet quitting” are going to have concerns about whether their change in attitude, however subtle, has been noticed, as the infamous “bottom 10%” popularized by Jack Welch will be under the scanner as each corporation watches its anemic cash flow, dipping sales and faltering growth.
Now — this may not be across the board, it may not be all at once, but it is coming.
So the question is, what can we do about it?
I’m essentially making the case against quiet quitting — flip it 180 degrees, be loud and proud of your extra effort at work, make sure all the important people know you’re picking up slack and bringing your best ideas to the table.
This way, when the C-suite starts swinging that axe, you’re already inside the castle.