Is it enough just to do the bare minimum, or should an employee go above and beyond? This question popped up during a recent #AVintheAM Sunday morning Twitter thread. The #avtweeps community jumped into an intense discussion about the phenomenon of “quiet quitting.”
Is quiet quitting actually a thing, or are people just starting to set boundaries so that work doesn’t consume their whole life? Seems like the term may be getting applied to those who have decided to stop donating themselves to their employers #avintheam
— Kate Adkins (she/her) (@code_kate) September 11, 2022
Quiet quitting is a trend that has been observed in all businesses, including those in the commercial AV industry. But why are people engaging in it, and how is it affecting AV integrators and their businesses? To answer these questions, Commercial Integrator sits down with #AVintheAM founder and Starin’s market development manager, Chris Neto, and AVIXA’s economist, Peter Hansen. They break down the reasons for quiet quitting and what employers can do in response.
From Neto’s perspective, the commercial AV industry is built on more than just the technology; more fundamentally, it’s about all the people and the way businesses are run. “Technology is a tool that helps solve a problem,” he observes. “However, sometimes, there are issues that cannot be solved by just a piece of gear. This is where looking at the business side comes in.” And that’s why #AVintheAM topics go beyond gear.
Quiet Quitting is Not New
According to Neto, part of the reason for launching #AVintheAM conversations is to help #avtweeps stay on top of business trends inside and outside our industry. “Quiet quitting is not something that’s new, but it’s what people are picking up on,” he proclaims. “So, I wanted to bring the topic to the forefront and understand it from the AV industry’s perspective.”
“Quiet firing” is the bigger issue. Seen this happen and it can lead directly to “QQ”.
Instead of shutting down, reach out. Seek out the “why” and find a way to move forward. If that means resigning, there are other jobs out there. Know your finances.#AVinTheAM
— Jason Jacoby (@jacobyaudio) September 11, 2022
The #AVintheAM thread produced such a robust debate that AVIXA’s Hansen couldn’t help but take notice. “As I read [the tweets], I realized that it comes down to certain burgeoning factors, such as labor-market issues,” he states. Noting that this was covered in AVIXA’s third-quarter Macro-Economic Trends Analysis (META) report, Hansen says, “Leading up to the past decade, average market raises have risen from 3% to 5% per year. And yet, many companies haven’t adjusted employees’ wages. Naturally, they are not motivated financially to work or stay.”
Expanding further, Neto chimes in, saying, “When the economy got bad, employees had to pick up the slack for others who had quit or been laid off.” Those employees, many of whom were afraid to lose their jobs in uncertain times and a fiercely competitive job market, began multitasking and taking on projects to which they previously were not assigned. “In some AV companies, you had project managers who were not just leading complex projects but also delivering and installing the gear,” he remarks. “Eventually, they reached a point where they had had enough.”
However, in Neto’s opinion, this does not mean that employees are “giving up.” He frames it another way, “It is actually [them] questioning the benefit of putting in the extra time and effort when there’s no proper reward.”
#avtweeps Offer Their Thoughts on ‘Quiet Quitting’
Many employers are referring to their employees setting boundaries as “quiet quitting,” but I think that’s an incorrect interpretation. An employee who is engaged and passionate about their work can draw reasonable boundaries around daily hours, etc., and that is not quiet quitting.
Stock.adobe.com/aleutie.
Quiet quitting is when an employee has lost interest in the role, position or company and does the bare minimum to squeak by. Mentally, they’ve checked out, but they still show up and go through the motions, often while job hunting.
There is another concept, which is referred to as “acting your wage.” In a lot of cases, employers cut staff in 2020, and then increased responsibilities of the remaining employees. It was sold as a short-term solution, but, as business returns, headcount hasn’t been restored. Some employees are starting to refuse duties outside of their role, as they are not compensated at the appropriate level. Again, I see this as boundary setting, not quiet quitting. Mark Coxon, AVI-SPL
To my mind, “quiet quitting,” whilst gathering a lot of attention in social media circles lately, is nothing new. There have always been employees who have
“worked-to-rule” — those who put their pen down at the strike of 5 p.m. — and then those who went over and above their required duties. I think it is gaining more traction now because there appears to be less of the latter in the workforce at the moment. And many of those who previously did fit into the “do whatever needs to be done” and “go the extra mile” category have now chosen to retract and ask for further clarity about what is required of them.If the past two years or so have taught us anything, it is that managing our physical and mental wellbeing is vital if we are to avoid burnout. I think the golden age of employers benefiting from “workaholics” is well and truly over, with many recovering “workaholics” (I include myself) now working smarter and more efficiently, and still getting the job done. I also believe from anecdotal evidence that those who are now termed as the “quiet quitters” are not necessarily all withdrawing as such, but managers should be recognizing those signs and finding out why — before they become jumpers!
As long as people are doing the job they are employed to do, I don’t see the need to label employees as anything. Let them be quiet or noisy, but give them clarity about the task requirements, remove ambiguity so they are not needlessly doing more and let people simply do their jobs. Iffat Chaudhry, Involve Visual Corp.
Women in the Workforce
When it comes to quiet quitting, Neto postulates that women might arguably be engaging in it more than their male colleagues. “If there’s anyone who has been overpromised and underdelivered [to more], it’s the women in our industry,” Neto propounds. Expanding on his thesis, he declares, “We have millions of stories where women go above and beyond to exceed target goals. And yet, they don’t receive their due. Instead, their extra efforts are seen as ‘just part of the job.’”
Neto also points out that working from home during the pandemic had profound implications for parents trying to balance the responsibilities of work and family. Women often juggle work-from-home activities and running the household. “Companies have been working on bringing people back to the office for some time,” Neto notes. “What needs to be considered is the strain that has put on families….”
It’s no wonder, therefore, that some women are rethinking their current role and how it has changed. It’s not about doing the bare minimum; instead, it’s about being treated fairly in their new, modified role and resetting expectations, he reasons.
Hansen ties together the issues of female representation, equity and wages in commercial AV. He acknowledges that, no doubt, women in the AV industry face underrepresentation. Analyzing further, Hansen explains, “Looking at just the broader trends, when you have that kind of underrepresentation, you can end up with lesser retention.”
In his opinion, women who are made to feel unwelcome and disregarded will eventually quit working at such companies; seeking instead to transition to environments that value them and their efforts. “In fact, we [at AVIXA] are workshopping an article that addresses the gender parity in AV companies, and we will examine the efforts of the women workforce in our industry and also look at gender[-based] pay inequality,” Hansen reveals.
Moving on from the how and why of quiet quitting, we turn to another important question: What can be done to address it?
Hansen affirms that quiet quitting can often stem from more general retention issues. To mitigate those, he emphasizes cultivating strong relationships between managers and employees. “There needs to be a mutual understanding and trust between the two,” Hansen asserts. “When managers attempt to accommodate their employees, it can actually improve the relationship.”
Also Read: TD SYNNEX’s Sandi Stambaugh on Recruiting/Retention Best Practices
He further underlines how workplace-environment factors can persuade employees to stay, as well as to put in more effort. Hansen adds, “Maybe you cannot afford to give a raise, but you can provide flexibility and respect your employees. This shows that you value them.”
Neto again mentions how tensions between managers and employees with respect to return-to-the-office mandates can lead to a fraught environment. “There definitely seems to be a tennis match of sorts here,” he observes. According to Neto, if employers genuinely want high productivity — not to mention low turnover — they must thoughtfully consider employees’ needs.
“Your number-one priority should always be retention at a time where good help is hard to find,” he advises. “Have open and transparent conversations with one another on what the job is, where it’s going, and where both you and the company want it to go.”
Lessons from the Gig Economy
The gig economy is now a familiar aspect of society at large, as well as the AV industry in particular, and it, too, plays a role in quiet quitting. “We have more freelance technicians and contractors in the mix who work their contracted hours,” Neto explains. “Those contracts clearly state the allotted job, hours and skill set required. The ‘extra’ comes with a price; it’s not required.”
This might offer some idea of where drawing boundaries can come into play. “If your company defines a workday as 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., then the boundaries are set,” Neto states. He also counsels a mindset change. “A lot of the quiet quitting could be that boundaries are not being discussed,” he laments. “So, we need to enforce that work/life balance to where employees can work as per their capacity and grow in their career.”
Hansen agrees, highlighting the point that managers must ensure that employees are not being burnt out. “It is important for workers to be showing up or logging into work refreshed and energized,” he states. This, he says, will help ensure team members’ hour-by-hour productivity levels remain high. “And, with this flexibility, not only are employees happier working at the company but they’re also sticking around longer because they have the work/life balance,” Hansen adds.
There is no doubt that quiet quitting is a highly complex issue. As Neto describes the phenomenon, “It’s like peeling an onion — when you uncover one layer, you find another!” That’s not to mention that running a business is harder than ever these days.
As Neto notes, “We’re also dealing with supply-chain issues, shipping costs, etc.….” Acknowledging that quiet quitting can be negative or positive, depending on perspectives, he hopes that the ongoing conversation will help integrators understand what works best for their company and team members.
The choices aren’t necessarily always easy, and people might come to different conclusions. But, as Hansen puts it, “When employees partake in the ‘good’ quiet quitting of setting work parameters, there might be short-term costs in the beginning, like losing some extra hours of labor; but it could have significantly meaningful long-term benefits once companies find that balance.”
