Among the fault lines that the earthquake of Covid-19 has exposed is the chasm between employers, often overworked and understaffed, who think pandemic relief and other government benefits coddle workers; and employees, often overworked and underpaid, who think the coronavirus has only revealed unfair labor practices.
The results of this fault line include the controversial phenomenon known as “quiet quitting.” To management, it means doing less than your job; to labor, it means doing just your job. (Even some employers and entrepreneurs are getting in on quiet quitting, with a restaurateur and a dog sitter telling us that they”™ve told cheap, finicky clients to take their business elsewhere.)
“Quiet quitting is when workers ”“ often of the Gen Z generation ”“ refuse to work beyond the hours for which they are paid and refuse to do jobs that were not in their original job description,” Mary DeTurris Poust wrote in the Sept. 9 issue of Catholic New York.
A writer and retreat leader who became part of the so-called “Great Resignation” at the end of 2021, Poust added that these workers “have their priorities straight” though they are seen as shirking responsibility (and, critics might say, throwing that responsibility on older employees with a different work ethic).
But Poust contended: “That is the sickness of the American workplace landscape. If you don”™t work beyond what you are paid to do, you are seen as a quitter.”
On the opposite end of the spectrum from Poust ”“ who believes in work-free vacations and Sabbaths that are truly days of rest ”“ is Laura Vanderkam, the time-management expert and “Before Breakfast” podcast host, who thinks the answer to workplace burnout is not less engagement but more in the form of days filled with work, obligations and, yes, active fun activities like joining a choir and playing for a softball team. (Let”™s just say that her Sept. 18 article on rejecting quiet quitting in The New York Times met with some not-so-quiet fury from posters.)
Complicating the picture: The once-hot job market is showing signs of cooling off, with openings falling by 1.1 million to 10.1 million in August, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. That drop, CNBC reported last week, evoked the early days of the pandemic, when jobs fell by about 1.2 million in April 2020.
How then to achieve the Holy Grail of work-life balance that seems to be at the heart of quiet quitting? For some perspective, Westfair turned to Joel Steinhaus, cofounder and CEO of Daybase, a company that describes itself as “offering neighborhood coworking locations with flexible membership options,” like those in Harrison and Hoboken, New Jersey.
Steinhaus”™ remote staff works 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Fridays. Offline time is strictly respected and meetings are virtual unless in-person is absolutely necessary. (Nonetheless, the coworking spaces are fully staffed for those who need office supplies or help with the printer.)
“The top employers are focused on attracting and retaining the top talent,” he said. “What does the top talent want? Flexibility.”
Needless to say, he is passionate about Daybase providing that flexibility. But the former head of strategic initiatives at WeWork and chief of staff to WeWork”™s cofounder and CEO as well as a former managing director and chief of staff to the chairman of Citigroup also offers insights into the difference between appearing to work and actually doing work and what the new workforce is really like:
How do you define quiet quitting, and is it a misnomer?
“The term reflects a lot of the discontent we”™re seeing around traditional expectations of work, the worker and the workplace, and it”™s precisely why we”™re seeing so much innovation in the modern workplace”¦.
“Historically, so much about work has been defined by a productivity culture, which is more focused on the ”˜performance”™ of work rather than actually ”˜doing”™ work. Think of creating to-do lists just so you can check items off; holding weekly meetings with large groups of people even though concrete action items from these meetings rarely materialize; requiring the majority of the workforce to be in the office five days a week, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., even though work for the day can (and should) be done in much less time than that; asking workers to commute 60 to 90 minutes a day, time they never get back, clogging our transit systems.”¯
“There”™s certainly a generational issue at play here. Millennials saw the rise of the gig economy and hustle culture. Since then, these workers are more comfortable discarding habits of the traditional workplace that have been in place just because ”˜that”™s how it”™s always been done”™ in favor of systems that are more efficient, more flexible and actually more productive.”¯
“So ”˜quiet quitting”™ is really just a signal:”¯ Don”™t waste your time making it look like you”™re doing work. Good employers worth working for won”™t value that. Instead, actually do the good work and then go be an engaged member of your family, be there for your kids and go be a good neighbor and member of your community.”
Is the employer-employee disconnect that has spawned quiet quitting and coworking spaces like Daybase new or has it been a byproduct of our capitalist system and specifically the decline of the labor unions since the 1950s? ”¯
“Listen, there”™s always been tension between employers and the workforce in all industries. Look at the history of labor fights and union wars. What is new is that the pandemic gave us the opportunity to rethink the how, where and why we work. Daybase is absolutely doubling down on the belief that we as a society should ”“ and will ”“ take full advantage of this moment. We”™re taking that to the bank.”
”¯Do you foresee a future in which people will return to traditional offices and commuting full-time?
“The five-day workweek of 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the office, with your whole team losing hours of their day in rush-hour traffic, is gone. I”™m very much against rush-hour traffic. Of course, every industry is different and every team has different needs, so you may have a lot of teams coming in three days a week. And other teams may stay entirely remote”¦.We can tell you a lot about how the modern worker works just by the Daybase customer behavior we”™ve observed. Here are some highlights:
“Workers are not coming in for seven to eight hours. They”™re coming in two to three hours to get a focused and concentrated amount of work done, and then they”™re heading out.”¯
“They”™re not coming on specific days. There”™s a fairly even flow across the whole week. We had this theory that we”™d see a rush Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, but people are getting work done five days a week. In that way, business has not changed.”¯
“They”™re using the common areas way more than we thought. This allows us to utilize space in a much easier way. Meaning, we”™re adding furniture, not walls to our spaces”¦.”
We know you”™re making a national push in 2023. So what”™s next for you and your business?
“Exciting times ahead. Daybase has seen a massive spike in inbound calls from multifamily developers across the nation from Fort Collins, Colorado, to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Maine. One of our members in Westchester County recently said to me, “Daybase is like the Starbucks of coworking.” And you know what? We take that as a huge compliment.”
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