Are you a Quiet Quitter?

A post on Fortune says 50% of workers are quiet quitters but that it has always been like this! According to Gallup, surveys dating back to 2000 (BC? Think about the Israelites quiet-quitting on Yehova and worshipping a golden calf)) found that the number of “not engaged” workers has never dropped below 50%, meaning that most U.S. workers have been feeling detached at work for decades.

I fully understand people who aspire for a better work-life balance. That’s especially true if you have young kids. I chose an academic career early on because it had a better life-business balance than a career with the police. Later, when I realized it had too much life and not enough business, I started the Academy. I left a tenured professor position and jumped into the deep water. In the context of an entrepreneur, I don’t even know what “just doing my job” means. ?

As an entrepreneur, I quietly quitted on Quiet Quitting

Rosh Katan?

I reckon not everyone is comfortable sticking their neck out. Some are comfortable doing a routine job, day in and day out, doing what they are told instead of thinking about how to do things differently. In Israel, they are called “Rosh Katan”. The literal translation is “small head.” The meaning is “just do the job and don’t take initiative.” The opposite is “Rosh Gadol”- big head, always striving to make a difference. The former just recycle tasks. The latter, always stirs the pot. There are bigger rewards in stirring the pot but also, naturally, some risks.

CI managers who are told to do “research” and distribute information have two choices: Quiet quitting which spells being an information bot. It’s not what I wish for my CIP?s. While not everyone is motivated to go out of their way to make the company they work for prosperous, quite quitting is a shortsighted strategy. Eventually, inevitably, their company quits on them.

Quite quitting is a shortsighted strategy. Eventually, the company quits on you.

Just one line can save you

Another choice is to strive to get away from the trap of just "doing their job", passively sending information into a black hole. Proactively trying – even against the odds- to have an impact may or may not pay off but it’s a drive with its own rewards. There is no joy in quite quitting. You don’t only quit on your company, you quit on yourself.

Quiet quitters don't only quit on their companies. They quit on themselves.

If you are at the beginning of your career or the end, are you just marking time hoping that something better will come along, an employer that finds your quiet-quitting track record fascinating and pays you a fortune to jump ship? ?In our CIP? training, we urge CI practitioners to always, always, always, deliver more than they are asked. Even if it is just one insightful line at the end of a research report, it’s a mental exercise worth doing. It should be done not just to impress their executives, but for their own sake. Atrophied on the job may free people for other engagements in their lives, some pleasurable some just a necessity, but it’s a dead end. Either you “die” on the job, or your company dies and you have no job.

Proactively trying – even against the odds- to have an impact may or may not pay off but it’s a drive with its own rewards

But what if your executives quietly quit on you?

Articles about quiet quitting lament workers’ (especially young ones) disengaging, losing ambition, and just “doing the job.” But what about executives? How many companies slide quietly into decline, following a stale strategy that ignores change, while management just tries to maximize its short-term gains? Well, efficient markets have the solution. It’s called a leveraged buyout in Middle English or “Private Equity” in modern parlance.

The other day I was pinged by an associate at a PE firm that he described as focused on “education and certification” and was very interested in the Academy. In his words: “Your experience at Academy of Competitive Intelligence is very interesting to us - we'd value a brief call to introduce our firm and consider how we might work together.”

I immediately knew this was a form letter sent to many, as it omitted the “the” before Academy. Made me feel so special. I am one of 100 cold letters!

I am a skeptical person (surprise!), so I told the associate I’d be happy to chat, but would he elaborate a bit further on the “win-win” aspect of this call (“working together” is a kind of ambiguous promise)? Obama might have seduced 70 million people to vote for him (twice..) with “Hope and Change”, but I am a bit less gullible.

When you send a kid to do a woman’s job

The PE guy then disappeared into the fog of Menlo Park. I had a good laugh. I’ve been using this tactic every time a PE scout contacted me (3 times this year alone). I know their “schtick” because I was once on the board of a venture capital fund. PE and VC’s methods are all about primary source collection from experts in their field of interest. Human source intelligence in financial high-stake games of acquisitions is The modus operandi. I approve. I also know they appeal to my ego by assuming I’d be thrilled to be considered “an expert” by such luminaries as former investors with KKR as the PE guy hinted. (Side note: I always wondered what KKR would have done if the third founder was named not Robert but say, Kaplan?)

What PE/VC scouts don’t know is that it’s the oldest trick in the book. I’ve been advocating this subtle psychological manipulation for collectors in my first book The Business Intelligence System back in the Jurassic (e.g., 1988 in Generation Z’s perspective). People like to talk if asked for their opinions as experts. It is especially evident if a woman asks a man to share his expertise. Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s sexist. Tough. It’s the reptilian brain of my non-fluid gender, can’t be helped.

PE can do so much better if only…

Well, the PE associate was a guy ?? but more than that, I have no desire to show my expertise. I don’t even think I am an expert. I have the enormous advantage of being an outsider with a Ph.D. and several silly books and that is enough to convince management I am an expert. It doesn’t mean I am.

Now don’t misunderstand me: PEs have an important role to play in a developed financial system. Some of them do a good job of injecting debt into a dying company and discarding the incompetent old owners. Often, they are the carrion crows that clean the landscape of rotting carcasses. They make money where no one else could.

Private Equity firms are the carrion crows that clean the landscape of rotting carcasses. They make money where no one else could.

But Comm'n. At least try harder? Next time you want free intelligence, send a young, appealing woman to ask the questions. Tailor the “form” message a bit better? I’d still say no, but at least you show some level of sophistication in the primary source collection befitting your enormous cash pile.

Alternative perspective:

PE guys have been flushed with money for some time now due to the low cost of borrowing and very low returns on safer investments. They could hire the best people. That is about to change. Being good at financial calculation doesn’t mean you are good at strategy. So here is my 50-cent advice to the moguls of billions: Maybe hire a CIP? to organize your scouting? His or her modest salary in the 150K range can increase your ROI by 973 percent and shorten your exit by 2.7 years. How do I know?

Well, sorry. This information will cost you.