Quiet Hiring
Adding new responsibilities for an existing employee—which some are calling quiet hiring—is something that naturally happens as you build talent and see if someone is right for a promotion. But the biggest trick is simple: clear communication. Learn how clear communication between employer and employee helps avoid burnout and unfair compensation.
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Rob:
So a few weeks ago I was on a group call with a bunch of peers, and I heard a new term. And this has happened so many times over the last couple of years—there's all these new little business words that keep getting invented. And the term that I heard was “quiet hiring” and it took a few minutes to sink in what this person was talking about. But the basic idea between quiet hiring is when additional responsibilities are added to somebody who's already in the job. I've also heard this since then referred to as job inflation because everything has an inflation ring to it these days in the economy and whatnot.
So I think it'd be really interesting to break down what this means and how it happens and what the responsibilities are and what some of the fixes for quiet hiring are. Now, spoiler alert, it has everything to do with communication and everything to do with expectation setting.
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Welcome to the Overly Human Podcast where we discuss all things human in the workplace. Because it's not just business—it's personal too.
Rob:
Good morning, Traci. How are you?
Traci:
Good. Good morning. Yeah, just yet another quiet. People are so clever, aren't they, with their... What other quiet things are happening in the workplace? And this is yet another one because for many companies, times are tight, and so people are trying to be leaner and meaner in their approach to business. And so some people have had to have layoffs. Some people are just holding off on hiring more people or doing hiring freezes, or some companies just want to operate at the bare minimum being pushed, until they're pushed to the point where they need to hire somebody.
And so of course, sometimes those gaps are bridged with outside contractors that you hire before you hire a full-time employee. But sometimes those gaps are bridged by putting extra expectations and job responsibilities on the people internally that already exist when those roles and responsibilities weren't theirs to begin with. So we're basically seeing an altering of people's job responsibilities.
Rob:
And I think it can happen for a couple different reasons. Some may be that there has been a reduction in the number of people to do those jobs, and sometimes it's because those roles and responsibilities weren't being done by anybody. It's something new that was identified. And I think both can happen. And I think that right now in a leaner economic times, both are pretty likely. We still have things to do.
I know that in our growing our studio, we often looked internally first for when we need to add new programs or new process, we looked internally to see, oh, whose job does this line up with, and can we ask them to do it as well?
Traci:
Right. Yeah. And I think this is very typical, and I've been a part of a couple of great startups. This is very typical in that kind of startup, high growth when a company, even if a company's been around for a while and then they are scaling or they take on another big client, this is a very typical thing that happens, where we're being nimble and we're pivoting and we're having to figure out who can handle what. And we're being that sort of scrappy, flexible company. That would be the good version of this.
The bad version would be we're taking advantage of our employees when we really should just be hiring other people to help fill these roles. But let's look at the good version of it first. And I think there are pluses and minuses to life within this framework, and then there's expectations that are on the leaders of these companies and the employees as well.
So we should probably talk about what are the pros and cons in all of this for those, if we're looking at it through the lens of being a leader of one of these companies or an owner, and what does it feel like to be an employee?
Rob:
Yeah, I think that's probably a good idea. So let's start with the leadership side and talk about how this happens and what the pitfalls are.
The way I believe this happens most of the time is us as leaders trying to grow our company and add process and add things that need to be done, either through identifying new things or saying like, “Oh, this collection of things belongs over here.”
One of the constant things that happens with all businesses that are growing or maturing or changing over time is you are constantly identifying things that you didn't know needed to be done, that need to be done now. And those have to be done by somebody. And a lot of the thinking that we've talked about and happens in the business community is if you want to scale or if you want to not be crazy as a leader, as an owner, you have to find people to help you do those things. You can't do it all.
Traci:
Right. And I think as a leader of a company, you have to understand what the priorities are, and you have to reset the priorities for your employees because employees are just going to say, oh, yeah, it's another thing, and burnout and if everything's a priority, nothing's a priority. And if I have to do all these things... And then the snowball effect and where the leader is looking at it like, you should see this as opportunity, and this is growth, and this is normal.
And I think the onus is on the leader of these companies to one, set clear expectations and clear job descriptions. But even that, it has to be given with the caveat of like here are the expectations, here's your job description, but we also need flexibility. So we have if we want to be an innovative creative company, we need employees that are going to be flexible and able to pivot with the growth of the company or a change in a client base or adding of a new vertical or whatever it is that's going to put stress on our talents and are going to need us to have a learner mentality. We all need to have a growth mentality and know that we're always learning and flexing and growing and figuring out who is going to be best for what we're needing to do.
But what you have to do, the other side of the coin is that you have to set the priorities. So you can't just be adding, right? You have to be subtracting. So if you're going to add new things to people's plates where you have to be clear on what now is not a priority. So then this keeps them from getting burnt out or overtaxed.
And also doing the homework to figure out who should be taking on these things. So some easy things you can do online, it's not expensive, is having everybody take a StrengthsFinder, having everybody take a Working Genius. Two inexpensive assessments you can do yourself and learn, have everybody be very self-aware of what their strengths are. Working Genius is perfect because it's a productivity assessment, so it's not a personality assessment, it's productivity. So you learn where you're most productive. And so everybody has the language and the knowledge to know what they might be able to take on and not. So doing your homework as opposed to just keep piling on and expecting.
So I know this is really hard even for older generations and the difference between older generations and younger generations, because in the back of my mind, I might be thinking as a leader, well, my generation paid their dues. My generation didn't leave the desk till the boss left. My generation, FaceTime for me was face time in the office, I was seen, it wasn't hopping on my non-existent iPhone at the time. So I think, okay, I get that, yeah. So maybe people should be leaning into the growth of the company and taking ownership of the company no matter what level you are. Okay, maybe there's some validity in that argument.
But the flip side is like you can't have unreasonable expectations on your employees because they will just burn out. Even the rockstar person who wants to please you, if you don't have clear expectations and reprioritize what these people need to be doing, as you're growing and scaling, you're going to lose the best people. So you have to do your homework and you have to do some pre-work before you just start piling on.
Rob:
Well, it's that time again where we thank our sponsor, the Bureau of Digital, a community of digital makers that all get together and share and support each other. And today we have a special treat. Carl, the head of the bureau is here with us. Hey, Carl.
Carl:
Hey everybody. Thank you for having me be on the show. We don't sponsor any other podcasts, and when I listened to what y'all were doing, I was like, we need to support them. We need to find a way that we can help. So I was like, ah, we'll be a sponsor.
Rob:
Yeah, and we really do appreciate it. And if you have any questions, check out BureauofDigital.com. The 2023 event schedule is up and live. And a big change for this year is if you join and become a member, all of the online events are included, and there's some really good ones, you don't want to miss out. So don't wait. Visit BureauofDigital.com.
Rob:
Yeah, and I think that word flexibility is a huge part of all this is making sure the expectation is flexibility and things will change over time, right? Setting those expectations that this is what the job requirements are for now in a small business.
Traci:
And teaching that.
Rob:
Yeah, and I think the part that comes after that though that I see good leaders do is invite those humans into the process and say, “How else could we be doing this better? Help me set priority, help me... Is this more important? Can this be done?” This isn't a one-way communication. This has got to be both directions.
And I think that we talked a long time ago about the Seven Habits of a Highly Effective Human, and one of the ways to set priorities was the stewardship models around setting goals and saying, this is the values and the goals we have, how do we best accomplish this? Not the gopher model, which is go do this and come back. And I think that if we use the same thing in our job descriptions to say, this is the goal we have for this job. This is the kind of thing that we want to see. And letting those humans have a part in deciding what's a priority and what gets done and what's not, from a leadership perspective will get them buy-in because you've asked them to be responsible for that.
And one of the things that always comes up in every one of these conversations is that priority setting. I love having priority conversations because it allows that collaboration between two humans to decide what the more important thing is and what the trade-offs are. And ultimately, if we decide that something falls lower on the priority scale and so far down that you can't get to it, then that's a conversation about either how do we get to it or what other people are required to make sure that gets done.
Traci:
That's good. And how do we figure out the priorities is basically by saying or asking the question, what does success look like?
What does success look like? Let's paint that picture together, which is basically just another way of creating a vision for where you want to go. What does success look like in this project? Or how we're growing our company, or whatever the thing is, and then say, “Okay, given that picture, what are the priorities?” Don't go and set your priorities without doing that first, because you're not going to set your priorities correctly.
Rob:
No, and I think that one of the things that is a couple warning phrases that I've kind of heard leaders say over time, which is, “I don't care, just find a way to get it done.” If you hear those words that's come out of your own mouth or come out from the mouth of somebody else, it's like, ooh, that communicates they don't care.
Traci:
And also it could communicate that they don't know. So some very strong visionary leaders that don't have that skill, that sort of operational skill, they're showing their internal frustration sometimes with that comment, which is, I see it. I see what the success looks like, and I see what we need to do or where we need to go, but I don't know how to get there. And so instead of just saying that, sometimes they'll say something like, “I don't know, just do it.” Right? And I see that a lot.
And I think what we want to do here is what every visionary leader who knows this about themselves, and if you don't, maybe you're having that realization right now, is you need to have somebody with you that can operationalize. So whether that's your integrator or whatever you want to call it, or just the person on your leadership team that's really good at implementation, you need that person with you. And so together you are able to paint where you want to go and how you're going to get there. And that's when this works.
And I think for the employee you're talking about, it's a two-way street and you've got to communicate, and I think that's very, very true. I think for the employee, it's all about your mindset going into this. So you know your company may be struggling financially or the pipeline is slow to pick up or whatever, or things are fine financially, but the company's scaling or you've taken on a new client, whatever the situation is, okay, you have the information now how are you going to handle it? Some people are wired to really want things black and white. And if you know this about yourself, remember that when you're experiencing some of these things because in growth, not everything is going to be black and white. In these times where you need to get scrappy, not everything is going to be black and white.
What you want to do is voice what you think you can handle and what you can't, but then also have a little faith size gap in that, where can I grow? Where can I learn?
And I think for the employee in times like this, and I know this for myself and the early days of my career, being part of a company that grew really, really fast, a lot of people left because they couldn't handle that growth or they couldn't be flexible. But for me, it was all about opportunity. Maybe I can take on that. I'd love to do that, or that looks fun to me, or maybe I'll just... Because usually these opportunities are short-term, so there's going to be a time when the company ends up hiring people and all of a sudden your job thins out a little bit.
So I always looked at it like, oh, this is the time I get to shine. I'm going to shine now, they're going to see... And that paid off in the end, not just in career trajectory, but it paid off in growing and learning and really seeing what I was good at and what I wasn't good at.
And so I think for the employee, this whole quiet hiring thing and having to take on new and different responsibilities is a little bit of a training ground and a test market for yourself to engage and see what works and see what doesn't, but I always say first look at it through the lens of opportunity. And if you're communicating well and your leadership is communicating well, it could be a really great moment in time for the employee.
Rob:
Yeah. Well, really, that whole communication part comes down to fostering that environment where that expectations can go both ways. Because one of the things we need leaders to do is when they see this happening to employees is to not be silent about it, to bring it up to the surface.
And what we need, we need to foster the kind of environment where if employees are feeling this way or contributors are feeling this way, they can raise it up, say, "Hey, I've noticed this happening. Can we talk about it?" And what that requires is a high deal of trust, and that gets back to the whole foundation of working with other humans. And it's become a warning sign to me when I hear an employee or hear of an employee saying, "Hey, can you please clarify my job description for me?"
Because what I'm hearing is, “Oh, you're looking to me to solve those problems about some way you feel about this. But What I'd rather talk about is how you feel, and then let's collaborate on that and do that together.” Because that's the root of it is, if you are asking that question, there is something going on, most of the time for a while now, that hasn't surfaced yet. It's an indicator that something's going on that I want to get to that we should have already gotten to actually.
Traci:
Yeah. It's leading with the curiosity and trying to hear what's not being said and then getting it said. And I think you and I when we talked about quiet quitting, I think we said the same thing, is the funny part of all of these labels is the “quiet” part. The only reason it's an issue is because nobody's talking about it. And so when we as leaders call it out, we demystify it and we are able to say... And then we're able to reset mindset for the leader and for the employee to say, okay, here's what's happening, or maybe we don't know. You're saying we're not close enough to the front lines.
So maybe as leaders, we, at one of our round tables or town halls or weekly meeting team meetings, we just say, "Hey, I was just reading about this. Is this happening here? Because if it's here, if it's happening with us, let's just name it and claim it and let's start working through it." And I mean, those are the best leaders, the ones that are able to just say like, "Hey, is this happening in our team? And if so, what are the pros and cons? How do we solve for it? Where's the opportunity?" And then they start reframing it. Everybody's mindset is altered. So instead of talking about it, gossiping about it behind the proverbial water cooler, it's all out in the open.
And that's how you really build trust and really build healthy teams. And healthy conflict is because we take everything out of the dark into the light and we just talk about it.
Rob:
That's right.
Traci:
Hi, Overly Human friends, it's Traci. And if you haven't heard, I wrote a book, it's called “What If There's More?: Finding Significance Beyond Success” and it's out right now. If you're thinking about a career pivot, wanting to follow your dream, or just want to fall back in love with what you do, then I think this book is for you. And if you like what you read, please feel free to head on over and leave me a review. You can learn more at TraciSchubertBarrett.com and you can find “What If There's More?” wherever you buy books. Thanks.
Rob:
Okay, so let's transition real quick because there's one part of this conversation that we've not really hit on yet, and I think it's an important one. It is the proverbial elephant in the room, and it is about compensation. So part of this whole conversation is I'm being asked to do more through this quiet hiring. I have more responsibilities than I ever have. And if it's quiet, my compensation hasn't changed. And I think that that is part of this feeling that makes somebody feel taken advantage of. I'm being asked to do more, given more responsibility, more job requirements, or whatever, but I'm not being compensated more than I was previously. So what's the deal, right?
Traci:
Well, I think first of all, we have to first and foremost make sure that statement's true. So the reason why I say we reprioritize is that whole angle of are there some things that can be taken off someone's plate to put the new things on? And what is the definition of greater responsibility? Because again, I'm the coach or the consultant, so I sit in the middle, so I don't have a horse in the game. I am looking at both sides.
So first you look at, okay, let's make sure everything we're saying is true, and let's make sure just because you have a different responsibility added to your plate, doesn't necessarily mean it's more responsibility or it demands a time for us to up your compensation. So we want to make sure we pull everything apart and make sure it's still true.
And what we want to do is ask first, have we expanded the number of hours they're working? Have we expanded the amount of authority or people that they have to oversee? Have we increased the level of stress because they're taking on, they're more at the tip of the arrow? They're taking on more of the decision-making weight or anything like that. These are the questions we ask and we ask them with the employees. So we're saying, okay, this is valid. Let's go through this and make sure and say, “Okay, well actually, because I took this off and I put this on, and it's really not more leadership, it is just different. And you're having to grow and flex and learn. All in all, it really isn't justification to be paid more.”
Now if we are actually putting responsibility on them, that is more authority, more responsibility, and that is above and beyond what they had before, regardless of whether their hours change. It's clearly, this happens a lot in completely different situations when we don't really want to promote somebody because we don't want to increase their pay, but we'll give them all the responsibility of the next level up the rung, the next rung up the ladder, and that's wrong.
So there is validity to giving people pieces of a job that is the next level up to see if they can handle it, and if they can then promote them. But there's nothing right about giving somebody all that responsibility when they should be promoted or should be getting a pay raise.
So it's just like everything we always say when we're talking with each other is like, it depends, right? It depends. So let's pull it apart. Let's see what's truth. Let's make sure. And also because it might not be about pay to the employee, it could just be about fairness. They feel like it's not fair and you don't realize that they're working more hours or that it's super hard for them, or there was more authority that they're having to take on, and you didn't realize that. So again, the conversation can be enlightening on both sides because we're not sure as leaders how it's actually playing out until we start asking and being curious and having these conversations.
Rob:
I think this gets back to that whole communication thing over and over and over again, is setting clear expectations, both from the leader side of saying like, "Hey, these are new responsibilities. Here is your goals. Here's where we're trying to get together. Here's the company goals."
And I think that having a regular compensation conversation should be something on the table already. And if you're having that regular conversation, then it's not weird when we're changing job requirements or additional responsibilities to talk about what that means and to have that regular dialogue. Because if we're not, we're already making mistakes in my opinion. And it's about that trust and setting up that environment where either side can bring up compensation and where it's going and how it's going and where those things live.
But I'm also reminded of what somebody told me very early in my career, which is the following, I'll never forget this, guy named Mike. He said, “When you're talking about compensation, sometimes you have to do things consistently the second, third, fourth time before you will be compensated at that level. So the first couple times you do a thing, if your job is growing and you're trying to grow, you may have to wait on compensation until you can demonstrate that ability consistently.”
And I think that's pretty true. And that's how a lot of the ways I've seen promotions go and given is here's some responsibility, here's where the targets are. When we demonstrate we can do these things consistently, we can hit our goals, compensation changes.
Traci:
I mean, back in the good old days, they just called it proving yourself. Right? People don't like that anymore and that's fine. But I mean, maybe a better way of saying it is demonstrating you can handle.
Because what's the biggest mistake that we see over and over again? People get promoted into positions they shouldn't just because they're a rockstar in the position they are now. This happens all the time with leadership. You're a great designer, developer, salesperson, whatever, and then all of a sudden that means we should make you a manager of people, and that means we should put you on the leadership team or whatever. And then all of a sudden you see that they weren't ready for that, or they don't have the skillset for that. They're not strategic thinkers, they're not good people leaders, they're not culture warriors or anything like that.
So then what have we created? A mess for ourselves and for that poor person who we put in a position. It's like watching somebody wearing an ill-fitting coat. It's uncomfortable for them. It's uncomfortable for us. So there's nothing wrong with saying, “Let's test this out. Let's see if this is the position for you.” And sometimes people are just too quick to promote, and everybody's so eager, they think...
And we could probably do a whole nother conversation about has the word leadership become too elevated and too revered that everybody thinks they have to do that, as opposed to you can be a leader right where you are, no matter your position. So pulling those things apart. So there's a million different ways that we could look at this, but again, it really comes down to how open and honest of a conversation are people willing to have in the workplace.
Rob:
Yeah, that's exactly right. We could do a whole episode on how if the top of your career ladders for everybody has to be leadership, then you've made some major mistakes. You've got to have places for high-level individual contributors to be well compensated because they're strategic assets for your business. Full stop.
Traci:
Yep. So, okay, listener, you heard there's an episode on the horizon.
Rob:
Yeah, there's something coming.
Traci:
There's something coming.
Rob:
All right. So final words, final thoughts on quiet hiring.
Traci:
Well, again, let's make the workplace a little louder. Clearly, we do not have to be this quiet. Let's get a little bit louder and clarity's kind, so go there, communicate some clarity.
Rob:
Yeah, there we go. I love that. The whole idea of, let's take the quiet back out of the workplace. How many of these trends over the last couple years that we've talked about or that have been going on, that started on TikTok, have to do with quiet? And let's not be quiet. Let's talk. Let's set clear expectations and let's set goals together because I believe that collaboration is the answer for most of our problems.
Traci:
Yep. All right. Good words.
Rob:
All right. Thanks, Traci.
Traci:
Thank you.
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The Overly Human Podcast is brought to you by Navigate the Journey and Sparkbox. For more information on this podcast, or to get in touch with Traci or Rob, go to overlyhuman.com. If you like what you've heard, subscribe and tell your friends to listen. Thanks.
