It Is What It Is (and not what it should be….)

Apathy and the acceptance of failure in the modern workplace.

There’s a phrase which seems to have come from nowhere over the last few years - “It is what it is”.
I don’t know where it came from, but I’m sincerely hoping it goes back there soon. And I particularly hope I don’t hear it in any of my offices ever again.

Sure, it’s a catchy and pithy little phrase, rolls off the tongue quite nicely in fact. But it’s always delivered in the same way - with a shrug of the shoulders, a slight raise of the lip and a look of abject resignation. At which point I believe I’m expected to show sympathy and am probably meant to say, “Well that’s OK, then, Timmy! It is what it is! Well, that’s all right, then!”. And absolve them of all responsibility. So we can all go home feeling better about ourselves and accepting of failure.

A guy I once worked with used to collar me,

“The forecast has just disintegrated – it is what it is“
“The top biller has resigned – it is what it is”
“The client won’t give us that search – it is what it is”
“We’ve missed target again – it is what it is”
“That big placement I’ve done nothing but talk about for the last 2 months has just gone down – it is what it is”

As though ‘it is what it is’ was meant to shut down the conversation. So we can just both shrug our shoulders, raise a little sneer like it’s not anyone’s fault and skip off out to lunch.
“Not my fault, guv, honest! It is what it is…. Now let’s get a nice cup of tea!”.

Just when and how did this level of apathy and acceptance of failure come about?

When I was a young recruiter this would never have been acceptable. Why has your forecast disintegrated – what did you do wrong? What should you have done about it? Why was your forecasting so woeful to begin with? What can you learn from this? How can you improve? And why did the top biller leave your team – what on earth did you do to them? How could you have stopped them leaving? And why didn’t you convince your client to give you that search? What part of the sale / pitch did you screw up? Why are you missing target again? Work flipping harder!! And how on earth has that massive deal just crashed – what basic part of offer management did you fail to exercise? What did you overlook? What can you learn from this? Where can you improve?

I’m on a mission to obliterate the phrase entirely from my workplace. Whenever I hear it I now automatically add, “Because I didn’t…..?”, or, “Because I failed to……?.”, after they have said it.
Stops them in their tracks, and positions the comment in an entirely new context. What SHOULD I have done differently? What CAN I learn from this? How MIGHT I improve next time?

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not a ball-breaker. I’m just a firm believer in learning & development, in personal accountability, personal responsibility, humility and owning up to error. Nobody is Teflon. Everyone makes mistakes – it happens – own up to it, learn from it and then move on – just don’t the same mistake twice!

Apologies if this has offended anyone or if you violently disagree with me. I’m just saying what’s on my mind. I am what I am. Or maybe I should be saying, it is what it is……
(*shrug*, *sneer*)

SUB-NOTE – I totally accept there are occasions ‘It Is What It Is’ works. Mainly outside of work. “It’s raining cats & dogs, little Jimmy, we can’t go to the park today”. “Oh, but mum – you PROMISED!”. “Shut up, little Jimmy, it is what it is”. And that’s probably just about on the right side of being acceptable usage of such a ridiculous phrase.
(Although teaching your kids this phrase should be frowned upon and smacked out of you, too).