First, we had burnouts.
During Covid, the Great Resignation appeared.
Then we saw Quiet Quitting.
The most recent trends are “Loud Leaving” and “Loud Quitting”.
Loud Leavers make it clear they are finishing for the day, by confidently telling their manager / team they are logging off*.
Loud Quitting is a transparent form of disengagement. Unlike the quiet quitters, loud quitters are explicit about their discontent and intention to leave the organization**.
Clearly, there is something going on in the workplace.
A recent Gallup study revealed that 59% of employees are quiet quitting and 18% are loud quitting.
These trends got me thinking about the airline safety procedure of putting your own oxygen mask on first, before attempting to help those around you.
As a reminder, the rationale for this procedure is that if you run out of oxygen yourself, you can't help anyone else with their oxygen mask.
Translating this to the workplace, it means that you need to take care of your own health first. Otherwise you can’t provide a positive contribution to your team and organization.
Putting yourself first doesn’t mean you are being selfish.
Putting yourself first doesn’t mean you have to disregard your organization’s and co-workers’ interests. You may well be loyal to your organization and loyal to yourself at the same time.
Being loyal to your organization doesn’t mean going the extra mile again and again, until you hit the wall and get burned out.
It may take months to recover from a burnout. In many countries this means your organization is legally obligated to pay the sick leave cost***. Moreover, the organization misses a team member and the other members will have to fill the gap, putting additional strain on them. This doesn’t sound like being loyal to your organization.
Do you have to put on your oxygen mask in a loud fashion?
That may depend on the organization you work for. Some managers are hardheaded and only listen to a megaphone. In my experience, the majority of managers are very willing to listen to reasonable requests for adjustments in work schedules.
So instead of quitting quietly or loudly, you may find that being transparent about your wishes and conveying that message in a reasonable manner will actually bring you what you want.
In a future post, we will elaborate on negotiations tactics, as you might want to approach a discussion on work schedule adjustments in a negotiation manner.
For now, we will leave it at the following key points:
Focus on interests (yours and your team / manager), not on positions.
Remain "unconditionally constructive".
Be firm and flexible.
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Extras
* See LinkedIn post by Cayla Dengate on Loud Leaving.
** See article on hrmorning.com
*** Each year, 1 out of 6 employees in The Netherlands will develop symptoms of burnout. The average sick leave period for burnout is 30 days and costs employers an average of €11,000. But burnout can also last for years. With an average cost of €300 per day, the costs can be much higher.
Note: Part of the (updated) safety instruction is that you have to take off your face mask before putting on your oxygen mask 😊
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