Hey Quiet Quitters: Mediocrity is Your New Ceiling!
From the Project Signposts Blog
by Michael Edward Putnam
To me, effective project management always hinged on exceeding my Sponsor’s expectations. Engrained in me from my earliest days of programming system modifications were the words of my mentor urging me to give that little extra effort and go above and beyond the requirements, and to really wow the stakeholders. In addition, the company made it clear that my salaried position meant that the usual 8:30 – 5:00 work hours were meant only for the hourly staff. Longer hours would be required of me periodically to meet project deadlines. This became habit very quickly and it made me feel good.
This “above and beyond” behavior, I was told, would be noticed, sometimes recognized, and even rewarded at some point in the future. In addition, I inherited my parents’ strong work ethic along with an internal drive that made me proud to arrive early, put in extra effort and be one of the last to leave the office in the evening. Long before the recognition and rewards arrived, as they eventually did, I noticed that the most tangible benefit was a tremendous sense of accomplishment, self-respect, and the admiration of my coworkers. Working hard gave us all pride in our work and pushed everyone on the team to perform at a higher level of quality. More responsibility and more important projects soon followed, and I eagerly accepted them. My teams and I were successful with this mindset, but that was twenty-plus years ago. Back then, those exhibiting quiet quitting tendencies were either eased into non-critical functions or teed-up to be included in the next wave of cutbacks.
Today, I tried to imagine what I would do in a project management environment where quiet quitting was prevalent, but I really couldn’t. Instead, I tried to imagine the most likely outcomes of this type of behavior. With everyone just doing the minimum acceptable work, how would it impact what those work elements which became most important to my career satisfaction and success?
- Reduced Work Hours – Good Job, that’ll show ‘em!
- Sense of Accomplishment – Only to the degree that you can do it in your set time and effort.
- Self-Respect – Not seeing any here, at all.
- Admiration of Co-Workers – They don’t care either, so this is unimportant.
- Pride in Our Work – Not applicable.
- Higher Quality – There is no incentive to make continuous improvements.
- Recognition – You won’t get any from management.
- Rewards – You get nothing more than the standard salary and you’ll like it!
- Being Good at Your Job – You may be the best person at being mediocre!
This sounds eerily close to all the dismal planned, socialist workers’ paradise states that have inevitably failed in the past. Mediocrity has arrived! No thanks! As for me, I’ll continue to work harder to exceed my project stakeholders’ expectations, thank you very much!
Posted on: October 12, 2022 03:06 PM |
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Comments (11)
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Luis Branco
CEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, Ldª
Carcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Dear Michael
The topic that you brought to our reflection and debate was very interesting.
Thanks for sharing and for your opinions.
It occurs to me to ask:
What is most important to you? Hours in the company (organization) or productivity?
Thanks for your insightful question, Luis! Productivity is certainly the critical metric. My intent was to show that a willingness to put in extra time when it is required is often essential within an effective project environment. Those who simply watch the clock and check out at a given hour can miss the benefits derived from being personally invested in a project's success. I'd love to see a quiet quitter who is highly productive, because I haven't in my thirty-plus years of project work.
Stéphane Parent
Self Employed / Semi-retired| Leader Maker
Prince Edward Island, Canada
I've always had a problem with the "extra time at no charge". I even had one of my boss tell me that a "professional" does extra time for free!
The problem I have with that concept is that we equate extra input (i.e. time) with higher performance. As a project manager, I know that throwing extra bodies (i.e. extra time) at a project does not necessarily translate into higher project performance. If anything, it might make it worse!
If you are an effective contributor or leader, you can easily work on your efficiency to reduce the extra work to a bare minimum.
Sometimes there are immutable deadlines, especially urgent ones, that require overtime. But I will never rate my performance by the amount of time spent at work.
Stephane, you make some great points! I looked at the extra time as additional value I could add to the organization and by extension, extra value to my team. It may be personal preference, but I didn't want to be perceived as "effective" in my role. I would strive to exceed my stakeholders' expectations and leave them with that perception. As you know, perception is often reality when it comes to review time!
Stéphane Parent
Self Employed / Semi-retired| Leader Maker
Prince Edward Island, Canada
I understand your sentiment, Michael. From a purely personal point of view, it makes sense to delineate yourself from the mass. What better way that going the extra mile?
As a project manager, I have to worry what the extra value/time will do to the project budget. Even if you don't charge your extra time to the project, I have to worry that your added value is what's most important to the project. What you are doing might wind up being goldplating (increased scope).
It is interesting to see this kind of debate that is showing up a strong effect of generations contend once the points of view tend to be adherent and based onto the times when the present professionals were younger, overcharged in energy to do all the tasks assigned to them, forging the expertise day by day, and mainly, with a mindset crafted in the middle of cold war, oil crysis, among other global issues. It can be unimportant but contexts are essential to be evaluated when comparing different times and is not a way trying to impose one generation over another. All the generations have contributions to give to the future ones and without the efforts - as considered the typical for each one of them at their times, the development of the next would not be fully achieved. Today the societies demonstrate new perspectives on how to balance personal and professional life. It is not impeding the individuals to improve their techniques and think holistically to reach the personal and organizational goals what, in my opinion, contribute to the formulation of the VUCA times, as the acronym try to synthesize. Thanks for bring up these subjects and sharing with the community, Mr. Putnam.
Vagner - Thanks for your insightful comments! You are so right. It is true that each generation perceives situations differently based on context. One constant seems to be that the older generation will always try to share what they've learned in life with the next generation. While I did not see much value in that when I was younger, I incorporated at least some elements into my thinking and later recognized their worth. I now feel obligated to share these thoughts with the next generation. Maybe some of it will be valued, incorporated and passed along. Thanks again for your great thoughts!
Michael,
staying long and working towards project completion for satisfying stakeholders is fine if it is once in a while.
It will be a problem if you are staying late daily for project completion then it becomes a scheduling /planning problem which is against project management principles.
I agree with you there, Naveen. If poor project management itself is causing the need to work extra hours, that needs to be addressed right away.
My point may become more clear in the next few months if the trend of tech layoffs continues. I'll pose this question: Would you rather be perceived as a Quiet Quitter in the environment of impending layoffs or perceived as someone who will go the extra mile and strives to make themselves indispensable to the stakeholders? I'd like to hear your thoughts.
Are you suggesting that only quiet quitters are being laid off, i don't think so.
Anyways coming to your point, building a image of person who can go extra mile to get that job done is fine.
But as a project manager my primary task is to ensure that you plan & implement work in such a way that , you don't require to go extra mile, rather than getting job done in planned way.
Latha Thamma reddi
Sr Product and Portfolio Management (Automation Innovation)| DXC Technology
Mckinney, Tx, United States
PM responsibilities planning, Implementation and team building, organizing reequipments
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