Aloha -

Slightly longer one today. Enjoy! And look forward to hearing more from A Work in Progress in 2024. Let me know what you think!

On job hating, starting with ‘Quiet Quitting’

Did you hear about ‘quiet quitting’ when it hit the internet during summer 2022?

It was actually a Tiktoker called Zaid Khan that made the term go viral almost immediately, who described -

In case you don’t know, the term (or movement?) centres around workers taking back control from employers who take advantage and don’t care about them. Why put in the extra hours and effort to get nothing back? ……so goes the thinking. (BBC)

Quiet quitting became somewhat of a badge of honour for many, bringing with it a feeling of self-control, often found lacking during the pandemic.

A shit to working from home pushed many workers towards a feeling of being unsupported or undervalued for the amount of work - or additional work - they took on.

At the time, the term received an unsurprisingly hostile reaction, with many brandishing the movement as another form of laziness.

And, as you can tell from the Google Trends chart, the term has since dropped off.

But who’s to say if the ‘movement’ has truly gone away?

Enter McKinsey’s latest research on productivity in the workplace, covering types of workers characterised by their dissatisfaction and lack of engagement.

According to the research, Quiet Quitters have gone nowhere (they’re just quiet). And they form part of a wider group called Quitters.

(Still) on job hating, now according to McKinsey’s latest research

Quitters have quitting on the brain. They’re the least satisfied and the least committed in the organisation, and quitting is only a matter of time - whether it’s to get out, or to move to a better option.

Then, there’s the Disrupters. They’re Quitters with a mouthpiece - they’re also not trying, but they are also pulling others down with them. It might even be the case that others are carrying their weight.

It’s interesting McKinsey has put a name and a set of attributes to these types of worker, as plenty of us know how at least one feels like.

Both are a sad place to be. We spend up to 10,000 hours working in our lifetime. It’s reasonable to think that it might as well be something we enjoy. Or at least don’t hate?

On (not) job hating, told by yours truly

Not enjoying work is a rough place to be. Depending on who you ask, roughly a third of UK workers are said to not enjoy their work. There’s plenty of reasons why - and I’m no expert - but here’s a few reasons:

1. Not giving a shit about what you do is always going to be instrumental to not enjoying work

2. A terrible commute (long/expensive/awkward) is always going to contribute to not enjoying going to the office

3. A lack of compatibility with work people, such as ages that are hard to mix, a bad cultural fit, lacking in similar wants and needs, will also be a major contributing factor in not enjoying a role.

4. Feeling undervalued. Low pay, rubbish benefits, a lack of recognition - though it’s worth saying that job satisfaction often beats pay as a contributor to overall happiness in studies (JPSP). Getting enough money to survive will always be key, obviously

I’ve worked jobs I loved and jobs I hated. But there’s one thing that made me love my most recent job. Going into the office more.

Sitting with other people that are passionate about the job is infectious. It makes you care more, it makes you lean in, it makes you invest yourself more. And those people are the ones who’ll help you when work isn’t going so well. Being around work people that you like starts a sort of flywheel effect:

You start to try harder → you get better → you can do more → you get more interested → you try harder → and so on.

This won’t suit everyone, obviously. Some roles are naturally more solitary, such as coding, writing, editing. Still, many of these roles will benefit from talking to others. Maybe they’re more enjoyable as a result.

On why this is all so important

It’s December. You might be one of those types of workers not having a good time. In fact, there’s at least a 33% chance you are.

This is a nudge in the right direction to take time to think about what’s next. The hardest bit is knowing what to do or where to go next, so my recommendation is to read, watch, and talk to people about anything and everything - particularly about the things that you enjoy, the things than can make money, and then the things that do both.

It also helps to remember that if you’re in a job you don’t love, it’s that job that will support you while you look for something better. Much better than to have no job at all, right? Right?

This week I'm: ⬇️

Some interesting stuff worth sharing.

✍🏻 Resurfacing an article I read a while ago. It’s where I got the idea from about looking at your job as something that supports you while you are starting a side hustle / looking for something better - Lawrence Yeo - The Day You Decided to Take The Leap

👾 Watching (over and over) the new GTA trailer!!! Good things come to those who wait

🎧 Still listening to the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire audiobook - J K Rowling really started to turn it on from book 4 didn’t she? Also, would Harry Potter and the Triwizard Tournament have been a better name?

🎞 Watching the Pixar movie Eternals, which was alright. I’d give it a 6.5/10, harmless, did the job

🎞 and also watching Succession S2, which is more than alright

📻 Listening to BBC Sounds’ Chillest Show, which I always mention, but in the hope that at least one other person gets to enjoy it too. Nothing else quite like it

📱 Using SwipeWipe, an app where you can quickly swipe left or right through your latest photos to stop your photo reel getting clogged up. Excellent stuff

📖 Finishing Future of Geography - waited a long long time for this and I have absolutely flown through it. It’s brilliant, fascinating, engaging, a third perfect book from Tim Marshall

📸 Enjoying Time Magazine’s best photos of the year. There are some absolute corkers in here, keep an eye out for the Polish shepherds

🚙 Driving to Poland this week for Christmas 🎅🏼

💽 LOVING Jake Chudnow’s music. If you’re into any version of electronic music, make this the one thing you take away from this newsletter. Bonus points if you’re into Vsauce, you’ll see why.

⚽️ Enjoying Premier League football on Amazon Prime (technically last week). Football on a streaming service like Prime is the future of watching, right? Wrong. Premier League rights will be shared by Sky and TNT - no Amazon Prime - until at least the end of the 2028/29 season.

💼 Looking for work - as of this week I am funemployed. It happens. If you hear of anything interesting, please give me a shout, whether it’s media related, writing related or something else.

I’m looking for something to watch, mainly on the tube to and from work when I can’t be bothered to work. Any ideas? I loved Better Call Saul, very much enjoying Succession, Vigil.

💬 And finally, a quote

James Clear - Atomic Habits

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📸 BONUS: Photo of the Week