Have you ever heard of ‘career cushioning’? It seems to be the latest in a trend of goofy names for silly concepts in the workplace.
Apparently, I’m not nearly hip enough to keep up with what the kids are saying about their workplace woes these days. I learned this from a LinkedIn post from a colleague of mine, John. He mentioned quiet quitting, which I’ve heard of and even give my two cents about. But have you ever heard of career cushioning or quiet hiring?
If not, you’re definitely not alone.
Quiet quitting
Let’s review. In a nutshell, quiet quitting means accomplishing everything your responsibilities dictate, but no more. If you have a list of 10 things you’re supposed to do during your workday, you do those 10. Not 11. Not 12. Those 10 and then you’re done.
The idea is that since you feel your employer isn’t going the extra mile for you, you’re not going to go the extra mile, either.
What makes quiet quitting a ridiculous idea is that you’re really only penalizing yourself by not giving yourself the chance to impress your boss and potentially advance. By doing just what is expected, you’re a good employee. Your employer knows he can depend on you. But when he sees an opportunity to promote someone, you probably don’t stand out enough to come to mind.
I hate annual reviews. Most of the ones I have had to perform over the years involved some awkward five-point scale where the middle slot, the “3,” was considered “satisfactory.” The employee is competent and does everything he should. Great.
But it makes it look like a good employee who accomplishes all of his tasks is only “average.”
The quiet quitters out there seem to want to reinforce that idea. I find that sad. But maybe that’s just me.
Career cushioning?
Forbes tells us that the term career cushioning actually comes from the dating world.
In dating, one “cushions” by considering other romantic options while still in a committed relationship…just in case the relationship goes south. I always believe in having a Plan B wherever possible. But I’d like to think that if I were in a committed relationship, I’d only feel the need to focus on Plan A and Plan A alone.
In the working world, Forbes defines it this way:
In the professional realm, it refers to keeping your options open and taking actions to “cushion the landing” should something unexpected occur.
I know there are plenty of people who don’t even pay attention to job listings and industry trends. They don’t look at openings even within their own company. All of us, at one point or another, may have been able to say that.
But keeping your options open isn’t a new concept. It’s a healthy option.
As I told one of my team members who is considering his next move, no one is going to look out for him as well as he will look out for himself. That’s not a slap at our organization. It’s not even a shortcoming of me as a boss.
It’s just a fact of life. Each of us will look out for ourselves better than someone else will.
Quiet hiring
Quiet hiring is what some sources, ABC News included, refer to as the opposite of quiet quitting. With quiet hiring, there’s actually no new hiring at all. A business has need of, say, three additional employees to cover tasks. Rather than just hire three new people, the business splits those responsibilities among existing employees. Usually, they do this by reassigning employees from one area to another. So they potentially hurt one team to help another. At the end of the day, they still don’t have the full complement of workers they need. But the reassignment at least covers the shortcomings where there previously had been no one.
I don’t know that I consider that the opposite of quiet quitting, but that’s a debate for another day.
Job cuts by attrition — and that’s not entirely what this is — is a more fitting title. What’s different here, though, is that the quiet hiring is more of a temporary situation, not permanent. So it’s not truly attrition.
And there you have it. These aren’t exactly new concepts. I don’t know why on earth we decided we needed new terms for these little concepts.
I suspect John nailed it quite well. He attributed the new names to “our need to categorize and market everything.” I can’t argue with that.
What I can wish, however, is that all these workers throwing these fancy little terms around would spend the same effort on doing a good job and trying to better themselves when their work is not properly recognized.
I think that would make life better for workers and businesses.
