Month: September 2022

The “quiet quitting” trend gained attention because one quiet quitter wasn’t so quiet about it. Quiet quitting gained notoriety on TikTok in a July video by engineer Zaid Khan (@zkchillin), followed by an August Wall Street Journal article about it.

Though definitions vary, quiet quitting is the deliberate withholding by an employee of their full potential effort at work.

In the wake of quiet quitting, the phrase “quiet firing” emerged — the deliberate withholding by employers of raises, promotions, development, and leadership opportunities.

Of course, neither of these approaches to the employee-employer relationship is new.

The Gallup organization calls “quiet quitters” “actively disengaged workers,” and their percentage has, in fact, risen in the past two years.

But the “quiet quitter” label is new, enabling the concept to go viral on social media.

Technically, the phrases are misleading. Quiet quitting is explicitly undertaken as an *alternative* to quitting. So quiet quitting is not quitting. And likewise, for quiet firing — it’s not firing.

But quiet quitting and quiet firing represent a breakdown in communication. And that’s the biggest problem. The problem isn’t the “quitting” (that isn’t quitting) or the “firing” (that isn’t firing).

The problem is the “quiet” part.

Saying the ‘quiet’ part out loud

The implicit contract for employees goes something like this: I will spend as much time and effort as I can in my job in return for a salary, benefits, job satisfaction, and career advancement.

Traditionally, career-minded employees chose and were expected to go “above and beyond,” giving work 100% of their effort.

As a result, they often work more than the assumed 40-hour workweek in a competitive employment marketplace.

Quiet quitting happens when an employee feels used by a company and so, in self-defense, chooses to get back at the company. So instead of sharing the company’s purpose, the company serves only as a source of income and nothing more.

Some reports say that some quiet quitters don’t do so deliberately but have simply stopped trying so hard.

The reasons given in the flurry of reports about quiet quitting include lazy employees, workplace burnout, bad bosses, toxic workplaces, and other stresses.

The quiet quitting movement takes place against a backdrop of other trends that reveal general work dissatisfaction, including the “Great Resignation” and the effort (especially in the technology industry) to unionize.

While only some 10% of the American workforce is unionized, 71% of Americans told Gallup pollsters they approve of unions — the highest level of support since 1965.

But the Great Resignation is actually a positive trend.

Though painful for some companies in the short term, it represents employees taking action to find work and an employer where they can enjoy job satisfaction instead of remaining disgruntled.

Even unionization entails communication. That’s what a negotiated contract is — collective bargaining between labor and management that results in a shared understanding of what’s expected by all parties.

Whether you’re pro-union or anti-union, it’s objectively true that unions facilitate communication and result in a mutually documented understanding of expectations.

Quiet quitting is the opposite; it’s about unilateral decision-making by an employee that is not communicated to managers and company leadership.

Some commentators have argued that quiet quitting is a positive development because it represents resetting work-life boundaries and balance.

But that’s wrong. Non-communication in and about the workplace is a negative trend.

The other downside is that quiet quitting can go viral.

When employees start doing less, those still giving their all feel like they’re doing more work without additional compensation and could be inspired to join the quiet quitters.

Quiet quitting is also more prevalent among younger employees. 82% of Americans 65 and older believe employees should always go “above and beyond.” This drops to half among people who are between 18 and 29.

It’s time to get loud about quiet quitting

Despite rosy optimism about quiet quitting and firing in some quarters, its existence must be addressed. Here’s how:

• Open up the floodgates of communication between managers and employees about employee satisfaction, and drive clarity about how employees feel about their jobs.

• Document and specify job expectations, so everyone is on the same page about workloads, work hours, performance, and metrics for success and failure. This is also necessary for remote workers, who need to be effectively managed without reliance on “management by walking around.”

• Double the efforts around career development, job training, and the cultivation of leaders within the organization. Work harder to promote from within so employees know that being actively engaged results in additional compensation and responsibilities.

It’s time to address these trends through a new approach to management: One that involves a lot more communication, a lot more specificity about job requirements, and a lot more commitment to internal career development and advancement.

It’s time to communicate. So don’t quit on the quiet quitters.

Newly appointed UK Prime Minister Liz Truss has not historically worked in government departments with a heavy technology focus, so the British electorate has thus far had very little insight into her digital ideology—and with soaring energy costs and record levels of inflation to tackle, it’s unlikely we’ll see any new, groundbreaking digital policies in the early days of her premiership.

That’s not to say there aren’t a number of tech policy issues that have been left in her in-tray, including two controversial pieces of legislation. Furthermore, with technology continuing to reach far beyond the confines of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)—the government department responsible for all digital and tech related policy—having a coherent and comprehensive digital strategy will be vital for the new Conservative Prime Minister.

With Truss becoming the fourth British Prime Minister in six years in the wake of Boris Johnson’s resignation, every government department has become a revolving door for personnel, with each new leader culling whole departments to suit their legislative agendas.

As a result, the appointment of Michelle Donelan to DCMS marks the fifth secretary of state for that department in seven years, with the role of Minister for Digital—who will report to Donelan—still yet to be filled.

Conservatives haven’t matched rhetoric with delivery

When it comes to digital policy, the Conservatives can rarely be accused of lacking enthusiasm. Unfortunately, as is the case with most political promises, the rhetoric is rarely matched by the delivery.

For example, last week the UK government at long last awarded the first major subsidy contract as part of Project Gigabit, a £5 billion plan to deliver fast, reliable broadband to homes and businesses across the country.

Wessex Internet was selected to deliver a contract worth around £6 million, providing over 7,000 rural properties in South West England with high-speed internet. The first home will be connected by the end of the year, with an expected completion date of 2025.

However, the pledge to roll out full fibre broadband across the country has long been a Conservative Party promise. In their 2015 manifesto, the party promised to provide superfast broadband coverage to 95% of the UK by the end of 2017. This was a revision of their previous May 2015 deadline. Their 2019 manifesto, on which the current government was elected, pledged full fibre broadband to every home and business by 2025.

In July 2022, that deadline was revised once again to promise 85% coverage of gigabit broadband by 2025, increasing to at least 99% coverage by 2030.

Caroline Carruthers, a global data consultant and former chief data officer at Network Rail, said that politicians need to be more transparent about what digital policy goals are actually achievable.

She also believes that previous governments have not done a good job of selling the benefits of many digital policies, especially when it comes to data and how it can be used to drive improvements across society.

“One of the things we’re really terrible at doing is promoting the positive use of data and technology within our public services,” Carruthers said. “We’re absolutely abysmal at it and as a result, there’s a really low-lying level of trust within the public, which is having the knock-on effect on public services as they’re frightened to use data in certain ways.”

While Carruthers acknowledges that the disparate nature of many of the UK’s public sector institutions can make implementing a coherent data strategy rather challenging (there are 45 territorial police forces and 219 NHS trusts in the UK), there are some real differences that can be made to societal problems through the use of data.

“[The public] needs a tangible understanding of how their data is being used, what it’s being used for and the potential benefits in order to create this high degree of trust,” she said. “What would be really good to see is a focus on trying to build up that trust again through engagement with the public. And I think part of the play is to really focus on improving data and tech skills all the way through things like data literacy, which is a fundamental life skill.”

Which digital policies should DCMS be focusing on?

When it comes to the immediate focus of DCMS’ digital arm, it’s likely that trying to address some of the controversies in the proposed Data Protection and Digital Information Bill and the Online Safety Bill will be high up the agenda.

Described by the DCMS as “[freeing] businesses and researchers from GDPR’s one-size-fits-all approach”, critics of the new legislation have argued it diminishes the power of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) by introducing more government oversight to the detriment of the data watchdog’s independence.

In an article for PolitcsHome, Conservative peer, Lord Kirkhope, went as far as to say that moving away from European data laws poses serious economic and national security risks and the benefits of the new bill are “negligible at best”.

Carruthers praised the bill’s attempt to make data privacy laws more targeted and proportional for smaller organisations, but said that she ultimately believes that trying to impose geographical restraints on something like data, which doesn’t sit in a physical geography, is futile.

Following the appointment of Liz Truss, however, it was announced that the government will not move forward with the second reading or other motions relating to the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill. This puts the bill in limbo, at least for the moment.

The other controversial piece of digital legislation that was borne out of the previous administration was the Online Safety Bill, which was denied a second reading during the dying months of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s tenure, essentially scrapping it.

However, at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Truss told MPs that the legislation would be returning to the Commons, noting that some “tweaks” may be required to ensure it does more to protect free speech.

While many MPs supported the bill’s efforts to protect children online, others have labelled it as a disaster for free speech, while a survey of industry professionals by BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, found only 14% of respondents believed the legislation is fit for purpose.

Professor Jon Crowcroft, chair of the programme committee at The Alan Turing Institute and professor of communication systems at Cambridge University’s Computer Laboratory, said that the new administration needs to maintain the country’s current high standards, especially in data protection and privacy, to ensure that the UK remains competitive across all markets.

“Designing to meet high standards, that exceed the standards of countries that compete with the UK in the development of technology, will give the UK a competitive advantage,” he said.

Crowcroft also argued that in addition to the legislation that has been brought forward, one of the primary concerns for the tech industry is being able to fill the increasing number of roles in the sector. Crowcroft said that if Truss’ promises of a lower tax regime are to make sense, the tech industry needs to be able to hire and invest rapidly, which will require fast tracked visas to support immediate recruitment.

Is it time to make digital its own department?

DCMS only adopted its digital remit in 2017. But since then, technology has increasingly become part of the wider agenda everywhere from the Home Office to the Department of Health and Social Care.

Currently, there are half a dozen senior civil service (SCS) technology roles being advertised, including director of digital at the Ministry of Justice, a chief data officer at the Cabinet Officer and four chief domain architects who will be based in HM Revenue and Customs.

Crowcroft said that alongside the legislative priorities Truss should be focused on, its also vital she understands the importance in investing in and adopting emerging technologies to help improve efficiencies in government departments.

“Many government departments trail behind other sectors in the use of new technology, and this needs addressing,” he said. “Leading by example would benefit everybody, including the taxpayer.”

Carruthers, like many others operating in the technology sector, thinks it’s time that the digital part of DCMS was spun out into its own department, especially as data and digital are now more important to help grow the UK economy than ever before.

“DCMS is an interesting amalgamation,” said Carruthers. “[By making digital a standalone department], it will allow the government to have a more laser sharp focus on all things digital, which in the long term would benefit both the government and the country.”

Global shipments of PCs and tablets are in steep decline, but will pick up again in 2024, according to a new study by IDC.

Shipments of traditional PCs are forecast to decline 12.8% to 305.3 million units in 2022, while IDC expects tablet shipments will fall 6.8% to 156.8 million. The combined market for PCs and tablets will decline by 2.6% in 2023 before returning to growth in 2024, according to IDC. 

It attributes the reduced outlook to inflation, the weakening global economy, and the surge in buying over the past two years. Consumer demand has slowed, education demand has largely been fulfilled, and enterprise demand is getting pushed out due to worsening macroeconomic conditions, IDC said. 

The new forecast was a part of IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker, which gathers historical and forecast trend analysis data from over 90 countries. It distinguishes between traditional PCs (including desktops, notebooks, and workstations) and tablets (including detachable tablets and slate tablets). Shipments are to distribution channels or end users.

With economic headwinds gaining speed, consumer sentiments will worsen, resulting in contractions in the consumer market for the next six quarters, Linn Huang, research vice president for devices & displays at IDC said in a press note.  

“Economic recovery in time for the next major refresh cycle could propel some growth in the outer years of our forecast. Though volumes won’t hit pandemic peaks, we expect the consumer market to drive towards more premium ends of the market,” Huang said.

Growth to return post-2023

IDC expects a growth in shipments post-2023, and that by 2026 total shipments will be around 477.7 million, including 269.3 million to consumers, 63.6 million to the enterprise sector, 75.9 million to the SMB sector, and 69 million to the public sector. 

Though demand is slowing, the outlook for the shipments remains above pre-pandemic levels, Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC mobility and consumer device trackers, said in a note.

“Long-term demand will be driven by a slow economic recovery combined with an enterprise hardware refresh as support for Windows 10 nears its end. Educational deployments and hybrid work are also expected to become a mainstay driving additional volumes,” said Ubrani. 

Demand continues to be weak since Q2, 2020

The worldwide shipments declined 15.3% year over year to 71.3 million units in the second quarter of 2022, according to data released by IDC in July. It was the second consecutive quarter of lower shipments following two years of growth. IDC noted that the decline was worse than expected as supply and logistics further deteriorated due to the lockdowns in China and persistent macroeconomic headwinds.

While Lenovo, HP Inc., and Dell Technologies retained their top 3 positions, Apple slipped into the fifth position, tying with ASUS. The researchers attributed the downfall to a dip in production during the quarter. As a result, Acer moved up to 4th place during the quarter. Barring any further supply issues, IDC expects Apple to ramp up its production in the second half of the year. 

Quarterly PC volume at the beginning of the pandemic peaked at 74.3 million in the second quarter of 2020. Pre-pandemic volumes in the second quarter of 2018 and 2019 were 62.1 million and 65.1 million units respectively.

When Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering last year said, “We have a level of malware on the Mac that we don’t find acceptable,” he apparently really meant it. And Apple seems to be doing about something about it.

Apple is giant taking steps to secure the Mac

Federighi characterized Apple as being in an enduring battle against malware on the Mac. He also explained that between May 2020 and May 2021 the company identified 130 types of Mac malware that infected 300,000 systems.

Given the Mac’s reputation for security, that may seem counter intuitive, but maintaining a secure platform requires constant watchfulness.

We know Apple has intensified the degree to which it monitors its platform in recent years. Not only has the company been forced to do so as its growing market share makes its platforms attractive targets, but we’ve also experienced a scourge of “surveillance-as-a-service” businesses that have been attempting to crack Apple’s code for generally nefarious and repressive purposes.

The new threat environment: Nasty and well-connected

Apple last year sued controversial private surveillance company NSO Group.

When it did, the company’s head of Apple Security Engineering and Architecture, Ivan Krstić, said:

“Our threat intelligence and engineering teams work around the clock to analyse new threats, rapidly patch vulnerabilities, and develop industry-leading new protections in our software and silicon. Apple runs one of the most sophisticated security engineering operations in the world, and we will continue to work tirelessly to protect our users from abusive state-sponsored actors like NSO Group.”

[Also read: It’s time to secure the Apple enterprise]

A journey in multiple strides

The company has made numerous security improvements to its platforms in response, including working far more closely with the independent security research communities than it has done before. This seems to have led to earlier identification and cures for some of the vulnerabilities that may have been used by these private armies of digital spies.

The recent publication of an emergency security patch for iOS 12 is a case in point. Apple says the flaw may have been “actively exploited.” (The company fixed the same flaw on more recent iPhones and iPads a few weeks ago. The decision to release a fix for iOS 12 also reflects the scale of the threat.)

It’s precisely this kind of flaw that’s being abused by these surveillance companies, which are prepared to pay millions to purchase hacks and attacks. It’s because Apple now knows these enemies it is introducing Lockdown Mode in iOS 16, which is an ultra-secure mode for its devices which does sacrifices some utility for high security.

Macs gain smarter malware protection

But Apple has also done one more thing that hasn’t really been noticed until now: It is making Macs even more security conscious than ever before, introducing automated self-diagnosis and malware checking that provides a layer of protection the platform hasn’t really had.

“In the last six months, macOS malware protection has changed more than it did over the previous seven years,” explained Howard Oakley. “It has now gone fully pre-emptive, as active as many commercial anti-malware products, provided that your Mac is running Catalina or later.”

The new protection apparently relies on a new tool/engine called XProtect Remediator in macOS 12.3. This enhances Apple’s existing XProtect malware protection by giving systems the ability to both scan for and remediate detected malware. Scans take place at frequent intervals during the day, Oakley says. They address a range of trojans, adware, browser hijackers and other threats.

“Should malware make its way onto a Mac, XProtect also includes technology to remediate infections. For example, it includes an engine that remediates infections based on updates automatically delivered from Apple (as part of automatic updates of system data files and security updates). It also removes malware upon receiving updated information, and it continues to periodically check for infections,” an Apple tech note explains.

Apple is building a bigger wall in the poison garden

What this means is that Apple is introducing a degree of on-device intelligent malware protection to Macs. This intelligent protection can easily be updated with new malware definitions. In sum, it means the company has built an even bigger wall to protect against the poisons that lurk outside its PC garden.

We can’t know how much impact these protections deliver. In a sense, that’s the problem with security in general — the value of the armor isn’t visible until protection breaks. However, I’m inclined to agree with Oakley who notes that this kind of intelligent, on-device protection represents a degree of security awareness you’d only gain through use of security services until now.

That Apple is prepared to embrace this on a system level likely reflects recognition of of the need to protect distributed endpoints outside standard permiter security protections in a new world of work characterized by an environment of state-sponsored attack.

We’re also seeing moves to make endpoints — the Macs, iPhones and iPads we use — more security aware elsewhere across the Apple ecosystem. Consider tools like Managed Device Attestation, improvements to Mac MDM, USB Restricted Mode and other tools making their way to the platforms. These improvements suggest the extent to which Apple’s security teams are ruthlessly and determinedly identifying and attempting to close the many attack vectors used by modern criminals.

The one vulnerability that is hardest to change, of course, is human error, which remains the weakest link at any level of the chain.

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There’s yet more news from the ever-effervescent Apple-in-the-enterprise space, as Apple device management company Addigy has introduced a new tool called Flex Policies.

Making policies remote, automated, and easier

The tool is designed to make it much easier for enterprise IT to apply policies across their Apple device fleets. What tends to happen when attempting to apply policies at a device level is that IT must do so manually doing. This seems likely to get easier with iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura, but it remains a time-consuming challenge for IT.

Addigy explains that Flex will save IT admins time by eliminating the tedious task of manually assigning Apple device policies to new or existing devices. 

What Addigy says

“Addigy’s Flex Policies is a game-changer for not only IT admins managing Apple devices but also the industry,” Jason Dettbarn, Addigy CEO, said in a statement. “By making it easier for IT teams to onboard Apple devices, we’re destigmatizing Apple devices in the workplace. The reality is Apple usage in the workplace is expected to grow over the next several years, and whatever we, as a company, can do to assist IT admins and MSPs with managing these devices is a win for everyone.”

The idea is that Addigy’s Flex enables IT admins to set up policy instructions that can be applied to devices. They can be used to configure device attributes in response to different criteria, and can then automatically be assigned — ensuring devices meet the appropriate policies for the situation.

The beauty of this is that it is possible to assign a device to multiple policies at once, which basically enables companies to apply changes remotely as the situation around the device changes.

Management is configurable

IT admins can also exclude groups or individual machines. This makes it possible to install a critical system update intelligently. So, it is possible to push a critical system update to everyone on every team, but exclude those machines you know are being used in business-critical situations at that time. The CEO will not thank you for updating their iPhone when they are using it to trying to present data at an important investors meeting.

Addigy explained that Flex also gives IT the power to automate device monitoring and remote remediation. Admins can, for example, build a Flex Policy that will identify a device that has FileVault disabled and then enable that feature to protect data. 

It’s also possible to use the tool to assign user group-based policies; deploy advanced conditional software; assign items to all devices across policies; build custom reports; build small test groups of devices; and migrating settings. The tool also works with other solutions from the company.

Addigy recently attracted investment from growth equity firm PSG. It’s an investment that reflects the continued opportunity opening up in this part of the Apple ecosystem, as Macs, iPhones and iPads experience accelerating deployment across the enterprise.

Apple in the enterprise is an exciting space

In the past two years, Mac laptop use in the workplace has surged 63%, with more than half of IT teams indicating a growing demand for Apple devices in their companies.

It’s clear Apple understands the growing importance of enterprise markets. It recently saw a huge 30,000-strong iPhone deployment across Openreach, one of the UK’s biggest businesses, and continues to improve its own SMB-focused Apple Business Essentials product and to enhance the APIs it offers for the growing market of MDM vendors.

The company also recently reached a deal with T-Mobile under which the carrier can offer Business Essentials to US SMBs.

Things won’t get any slower. Not only will Apple introduce new iPhones and other products on Sept. 7, but rolling up we also have the world’s biggest event for Apple admins, the Jamf Nation User Conference (JNUC) on September 27, sure to provide some interesting announcements.

There should be no doubt in anybody’s mind that Apple’s enterprise growth story continues, the market is expanding, and it seems probable the company will become the biggest vendor in the coming years.

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