'Bare Minimum Mondays', cities want you back in office, & a 'frosty' consolation

'Bare Minimum Monday' is the newest name for 'cyberloafing' which was the new name for 'quiet quitting' which was the new name for laying flat which was the new name for... you get the idea.

?? Welcome back to Career Forward. Along with Bare Minimum Mondays, we'll take a swing around how cities want you back in the office, navigating uncertainty about your role during a reorg, how resumes alone don't win jobs, and more below. ??

?? Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays

To clarify, this is a TikTok trend. Like any meme-able trend, it is essentially people finding a new way of describing the Monday blues after something like the Sunday Scaries.

Catherine Fisher has that covered.

So, now if you hear somebody talk about how they're having a "bare minimum Monday," you know what they're talking about.

My view on this is a simple one: Its nothing new folks. People who aren't engaged with their job or work have been doing the bare minimum on Monday since the dawn of humanity.

Gog the caveman wanted to be a hunter, not a gatherer. Mondays were just the worst for him when he had to wake up with the sun, go out and forage in the freezing cold for thorn berries because his bum knee kept him off the hunting parties.

?? Cities want you back in the office because....

As one popular theory suggests, "The drive to get workers back to their desks has less to do with preserving the 'subtleties of body language and the nuances of knowing glances,' as one media executive put it –– and everything to do with preserving tax breaks."

I mean, who wants to pay more taxes?

According to Bloomberg reporter Jo Constantz , she did some digging on her own into this and concluded there's something to it.

Constantz writes, "Billions in tax incentives are granted to US companies every year by cities and states competing for business. And buried in the fine print of many of their economic development agreements are expectations that the companies they reward will deliver something in return: full-time jobs, done primarily on-site."

?? Empathetic and flexible bosses a thing of the past?

Senior Economics Correspondant at Time Alana Semuels writes that now, many employers consider us to be in a "post-pandemic environment" and "...it's No More Mr. Nice Boss as they go back to operating the way they did before. They're cutting DEI, switching to 'unlimited' vacation (which is actually not great for workers), mandating more days in the office, and focusing on productivity above all. So much for changing work."

??

I'm not going say every Mr. Nice Boss during the pandemic is now a raging micromanaging monster, but it honestly isn't surprising that not everybody wants to change for the right reasons and it can be easy for some to slip back into more familiar ways of working.

This is particularly true if that flexibility and empathy was purely employed because it was an expectation and reflection of the times rather than a genuine want or desire to be that type of boss or leader.

As with everything pandemic and post-pandemic work related, it's hard to totally predict where things will end up.

But as workers, employees and bosses it benefits us to continually reflect and at least keep a willingness and open mind for better ways of working rather than fall back on old habits just because we have a certain preference.

?????? Workers demands for better conditions aren't going away

According to Insider, over 100,000 American workers walked out in 2022 which suggests that demand for better working conditions didn't go away, and are likely to not go away in the near future.

So maybe some of those regressing empathetic and flexible bosses might want to keep this in mind, particularly if retention is a concern. And quite honestly, retention should always be a big concern.

?? Your resume / CV is awesome but...

It alone won't win you jobs. Award-winning executive resume writer and LinkedIn Top Voice Adrienne Tom posted that "Ultimately, the only person who can win a job is you. And winning the job takes effort on multiple levels."

She's right, of course. Having a solid resume is only part of the full picture. Tom says that job seekers must invest equally in all stages and steps of a job search which includes career planning, research & networking, career documents, interview prep, diversified strategies, and job offer negotiation.

?? Navigating uncertainty about your role during a reorg

As somebody who's been through more than one reorg, this Harvard Business Review article by Dina Denham Smith listing ways of dealing with such a situation comes across as particularly insightful and helpful.

Her main points:

• First, talk to your manager and emphasize how you bring value.?
• Nurture your network.?
• Do some scenario planning.?
• Make time for career maintenance.
• Manage your emotions, and be kind to yourself.

Solid advice. Read her article for more.

A couple years ago I wrote some hard-earned advice for when you unexpectedly lose your job, and much of what's there is along the same lines and still very relevant when applied to navigate role uncertainty.

??A frosty consolation

Job-seeker and TikToker discounthannah shared her experience of applying for a job at Wendy's Corporate and receiving a coupon for a free frosty as part of the auto-rejection.

Nothing worse than obvious auto-rejection emails. I suppose this softens the blow?

My question is what happens if you apply for a new job at Wendy's every time you feel like having a cold, sweet treat? Do they have a limit on how many jobs you can apply for? ??

This could require some... personal research.

?? If you could follow only one person on LinkedIn this week...

• It should be the aforementioned Adrienne Tom . As far as resume experts go, she's on top of her game. When I was exploring new roles at the end of 2021 she gave me excellent advice on how to best structure my resume. She's good. Her content is good. Follow her.

?? Random LinkedIn tip

Polls on LinkedIn can be fantastic engagement and conversation drivers. Something I like to do with polls is leverage the "poll closed - View results" notification.

Whenever you create a poll, when the voting ends, whoever voted on your poll will get a notification on LinkedIn that the poll has closed.

It looks like this:

You can leverage this notification by creating a new post talking about the poll results, or a related topic, right before that poll closes, edit your original poll post at the top to point to your new post.

Like this:

Why?

Think about it.

If 500 people voted, that's 500 notifications. If some of them click through the first thing they'll see is the edited post pointing to your new, related content. Viola! You'll get some extra engagement.

Have a great rest of the week.