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.
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.
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?
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.”
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 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.
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.
Last week, I wrote about a survey I’m using to ask PC users about their plans for Windows 11. With the 22H2 release just around the corner — and with Windows 11 now a year old — the operating assumption has been that many would be ready to move forward with deployment.
As I’ve said before, this is an unscientific survey, merely an attempt at getting a feel for everyone’s plans. I didn’t limit who could answer questions, nor try to establish bias. (The survey is still open if you’d like to weigh in on what sort of Windows 10 or 11 topics you’re interested in.)
Given that Windows 11 has higher hardware requirements, it’s no surprise most respondents (69.1%) are still using Windows 10 on their systems. Another 16.3% percent run Windows 11, just under 5% use Windows 7, and 1.8% still run Windows 8.1 (!). A smattering of respondents are on Macs (2.4%), Linux (3.5%), or something else (1.7%) — usually dual-boot Windows/Linux systems.
I was surprised to find more than half the respondents (51.3%) already have hardware that would support Windows 11. Just under 40% either do not have a Trusted Platform Module, a good enough video card, or a processor that can support Windows 11. And 9% said they have no plans to move to Windows 11 at all.
(At home, I have only one system out of four that’s Windows 11-ready; they are simply old machines, though they all now have SSD drives — a must in this era of Windows.)
As far as when users anticipate upgrading to Windows 11, the answers are muddled; 43.5% simply aren’t sure. I assumed the arrival this fall of Windows 11 22H2 would be a key release for people who plan to upgrade, yet just 3.6% expect to do so. Another 2.8% said they would upgrade in six months, and 10.5% plan to do so within a year.
The vast majority, 66.17%, plan to stay on the OS they’re running now, with 12.1% saying they are only testing Windows 11 and 3.8% evaluating other platforms. Just under 18% are using Windows 11 all the time.)
As for what excites Windows users about Windows 11, the word salad that emerged had “better security” as a standout. But not much else seemed to catch user attention.
Susan Bradley
What excites users most about Windows 11?
As one respondent said: “The short answer: Nothing. The truth is, like most people, I’ve long since stopped being ‘excited’ about anything my computers do. They’re tools, to help me write, organize and communicate, and ANY time spent having to figure out the new ‘features’ that Microsoft (or Apple, or Google) crams down my throat is time away from doing anything productive or enjoying life. ‘Excitement’ over new operating systems is for geeks and is an increasingly odious burden on the rest of us.”
I also included an open-ended question about what users would like to see changed in Windows 11. Of those who answered, many lamented the revamped Start menu, and an inconsistent UI across various menu systems. As one person wrote: “The Windows 11 file explorer made unnecessary changes that worked fine in Windows 10. I use copy, paste, cut, delete, rename, and refresh more frequently than the average user. I find the icon replacements, and the extra step required to refresh changes in Windows 11 to be a waste of additional time on my part. And personally, I find the Settings app differences in Windows 11 require that I essentially go through the entire app to make changes to suit me. I did not have to do that in the Windows 10 Settings app.”
Microsoft is aiming to make the UI more streamlined. But I’ve heard from many long-term Windows users that having to relearn menus and clicks slows them down when trying to cut and paste. (There are a variety of documented ways and tools to bring many of these features back to Windows 11.) And the fact that users who like to move things around and customize their desktop can longer do so without hacks and third-party tools is probably the biggest roadblock to Windows 11 adoption. It will be interesting to see whether Microsoft listens to its core users and brings back some ability to customize the platform.
If you want to read what others have said about Windows 11, the full survey results are available here.
Members of Generation Z, or people born between 1997 and 2012, will comprise 27% of the workforce by 2025. That means they will soon be working in your company if they aren’t already.
What makes this generation different from the ones that came before it? Statistically, a few facts are worth noting.
Perhaps most important is that a significant percentage of them began their professional lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. That may have an impact that reverberates for years.
I asked the experts on Qwoted to get some real-world perspective on people’s experiences with Gen Zers in the workplace. I got plenty of responses, and a few threads were evident.
Show the way
“They crave mentorship: someone to take them under their wing, show the Jedi way, have heart-to-heart talks, and provide a real, tangible, lasting relationship with a person who is interested in their betterment,” says Austin Fox, president of PeopleCaddie, a temp hiring agency.
Although this group has grown up with a screen always within arm’s reach, they crave human contact more than those who came before them, Fox says. “Millennials were all about text and emails; Gen Z is about video, face-to-face, and live interaction,” he says.
That isn’t surprising, perhaps, given that human contact was so rare during the early years of their careers.
Among its recommendations are to promote your company culture with fun, musical videos, make the application process fast and easy, hire promising candidates quickly and promote the causes your company supports.
Respect gender preferences
Gender identity is important to this group, experts say.
For example, Veris Insights found that “three-quarters of LGBTQ+ students said they’d find an employer more appealing if employers asked about their pronouns during an interview while 86% of LGBTQ+ students find it important to feel comfortable being out at work,” according to Chelsea Schein, director of university recruiting research at the recruiting intelligence and analytics firm.
Experts say that you might expect a generation that came of age during quarantines to shun office work, but the opposite is true.
In fact, the study found that members of this generation are more interested in seeing colleagues in person than the four cohorts that came before them, the study found.
Not that they want to be chained to a desk.
“Gen Zers are the drivers of the Great Resignation,” says Ximena Hartsock, founder of BuildWithin, a firm that helps businesses manage apprenticeship programs. “They have seen the lack of work-life balance of their parents, and they want a better life for themselves. They had their first jobs during the pandemic and expect that work will be remote and flexible.”
A recent survey by IWG, a global provider of hybrid workspaces, found that Gen Z hybrid workers are the least likely to say their personal career growth has advanced due to hybrid work. Members of this group also have the lowest expectations for how much of a pay bump they would receive for returning to the office full-time.
Compassion matters
Although a good salary is table stakes for hiring in a market like this, Gen Z members are more inclined than their predecessors to expect additional services that support their health and mental well-being.
“Caring for employees needs to be the highest priority,” says Birk Cooper, chief marketing officer at Fetch Rewards, which manages loyalty programs.
Among the services his company offers all employees are no-cost confidential counseling, legal support, mental health resources, paid parental leave, and child-care assistance.
“Aligning values is most important to this generation,” Cooper says. “Every company promotes Black History, LGBTQ+ and Women’s History agenda, but what are they doing on a 24/7 basis?”
Many Gen Zers may have started their careers during lockdowns, but that doesn’t make them any more or less resilient than others, says PeopleCaddie’s Fox.
“COVID has brought them through adversity; coming through adversity breeds confidence,” he says. “They’re resourceful. Because they’ve been so adept at finding things on their own, they can figure things out, but they still want a road map that shows what success looks like.”
On a stressed-out planet, employee wellbeing is becoming an important consideration in the workplace, and so it’s easy to sympathize with Apple employees rebelling (again) against the company’s inflexible take on flexible work.
Flexibility empowers employees and speaks of trust
Flexible work has not only already proved to be productive, but to deliver significant benefits in terms of better work/life balance. It accepts the reality that there is no one-size-fits-all approach that suits all the individuals, teams, and functions that drive corporate success.
The need for work/life balance became far more evident during the pandemic. There was resistance. Employees complained that not only did they feel that the work they were doing wasn’t being recognized, but employers thought they could call them any time, day or night.
Employees also reported a much better work/life balance (once they’d sorted management out), enabling them to avoid expensive commutes, spend quality time with family, and enjoy better focus. Not surprisingly, they want to keep working that way.
But for all the focus on flexible working practices, these are just part of a much larger focus on employee wellbeing and corporate social responsibility. The new world of work will almost certainly be characterized by an excess of digital processes to support new working models.
Can digital tools support remote employee wellbeing?
What matters? Some important insights are available in the Future Workplace 2021 HR sentiment survey, which identified that 68% of senior HR leaders understand the importance of supporting employee wellbeing.
What is that, exactly? It spans financial and employment security, of course, but also encompasses various layers of health protection, including mental and family health, and work/life balance.
The challenge to delivering such support to remote teams is driving some companies to invest in digital solutions to support their people. Some have invested in corporate access to meditation apps such as Calm; others subscribe to activity and exercise promoting services. Another interesting illustration of the trend comes from UK firm Oddbox, which has partnered with Mintago to provide staff with financial and pension management and advice services.
Apple is among many big firms to offer employees paid time off to volunteer in that way. Doing so delivers triple benefits — employees get to do good, meet and engage with their community, and try something new. This boosts employee engagement and fosters feelings of wellbeing. It also supports staff retention.
The need for purpose
Ultimately, purpose is critical. Think about the early onset of BYOD, when initial employer resistance was simply overcome by the growing desire for employee choice. Today, such choice has become an HR imperative.
That move to mobility arguably helped protect at least some of the economy across the last couple of years. At the same time, the inherent autonomy of remote and flexible working practices meant we began to think different about work. It wasn’t simply about fulfilling contractual hours or meeting defined goals.
Employee choice meant we used the devices we wanted to do our jobs, adopted working patterns that enabled us to manage our own unique lives, and focused on reaching targets. This approach is full of purpose, autonomy, and trust.
An alternative direction
Apple says its purpose in getting people back into its offices three days a week is to foster its culture of collaboration, but this doesn’t ring true given that most of those employed at the company have little involvement in product design. That makes this a blanket mandate that inherently disempowers the company’s teams, which also seems to blunt Apple’s core purpose. This is, after all, the company that delivers the tech to unleash the creative power of “The Crazy Ones.”
Another approach the company could take, but for reasons known only to its upper level, union-busting HR has not, is to develop purposeful opportunities for connection. This might include all-hands meetings in hybrid space. It could include fostering different internal networks. It might extend to giving employees spaces in which they can discuss and identify real challenges — even those outside the company — in which they can make a difference. This, too, is collaboration.
Does it need to be boundaried in certain hours or in a defined space? (No.)
Brian Elliott at Future Forum on LinkedIn suggests a better approach to boosting collaboration is to “get people virtual ways to connect, but also reasons to connect across teams: schedule all-hands meetings with virtual and in real life options, [and] encourage participation in Employee Resource Groups and local voluntary activities.”
This approach ticks so many of the boxes around employee wellbeing. It’s a worldview that embraces truly flexible working practise.
It adapts to the inevitable future in which the fixed workplace becomes a resource and accepts the value of the mixed platform of relationships and collaboration most of us already experience daily.
We have friends we’ve only ever met online, after all. Do we not collaborate with them?
We know — because we already use them — that digital tools will underpin the new workplace. These tools will also help empower the future collaboration space. Water coolers are now optional, and won’t suit everybody.
Last week, I looked at some technologies that can solve the increasingly pernicious problem of robocalls.
They work great for individuals, but these intrusions on our time and privacy present a different problem for people who work in offices.
“Of late, scammers have begun transitioning to corporate phone numbers because businesses live and die by their calls,” says Matthew Mizenko, a senior vice president at RoboKiller Enterprise. “They have to answer, thus exposing them to greater risk.”
Automatically blocking or screening unknown numbers is risky since businesses can’t predict who will call or why. There’s also little they can do to block calls that go to direct-dial numbers within the organization.
STIR/SHAKEN
But there are some steps business owners can take.
A simple one is to ensure that their VOIP provider complies with the FCC’s STIR/SHAKEN standards and protocols, as they were required to do at the end of June.
While not absolute protection against scammers, the technology enables called parties to verify that the calling number is accurate and has not been spoofed, assuming every carrier along the way is complying with the rules.
STIR/SHAKEN standards should become more effective over time, as the FCC’s database of robocalls grows.
Inside the corporate network, “Try to avoid using personal phone numbers for business. Get a separate, virtual SIM or ‘second-line’ phone product with a number that can easily be changed or discarded,” Mizenko says. Burner is an app that lets you create a temporary and untraceable phone number that you can then discard.
Switchup creates secondary phone numbers that you can use for business calls or during certain hours of the day.
You can use the alternative number in business correspondence and signature lines of emails to clients and prospects. In addition, they guarantee some protection against your business phone number being used to harass you after hours.
Limit direct-dial numbers
For outbound calls, Mizenko recommends that businesses configure their caller ID to show all calls originating from a single source – most likely the company’s main number – rather than from individual lines.
The risk of revealing directly to your members is that scammers can use them to infer other numbers within the organization.
“If someone knows your extension, it’s much easier for them to target other individual phone numbers,” he says. “They can use patterns to figure out extensions behind the firewall.”
Once they can do that, they can also configure their caller IDs to spoof another number.
Imagine a call to your finance department from a number that appears to be that of your CEO authorizing a large wire transfer to an anonymous address.
Mizenko also recommends that companies lock down administrative policies on corporate messaging apps, particularly those that accept inbound messages. Anything that comes from outside the company is potentially a path inside your network that can be used to spam you with calls.
Businesses should also educate their employees about how to recognize scam calls.
Warning signs include “robotic speech, callers refusing to verify themselves, calling from international or out-of-state numbers where you don’t do business and those that ask for sensitive company information,” says Nizel Adams, CEO of tech consultancy Nizel Corp.
Personally, I hang up if a caller takes more than two seconds to acknowledge my answer. That’s about how long it takes autodial systems to hand a call off to a human operator.
Could branded calling work?
An intriguing grassroots effort that several private firms are promoting is branded calling.
This technology allows organizations to display their brand name, logo, and reason for calling on mobile device screens.
Research firm The Fast Mode said its research revealed that while only 11% of consumers said they’d answer a call from an unknown number, that figure rises to 30% if the call has a name attached and 50% if it includes a name, logo, and reason for the call.
Uptake on branded calling by carriers has been tepid so far.
Mizenko believes they’ve had their hands full with STIR/SHAKEN and want to see how that will work out first.
In addition, “there’s no industry standard,” he says. “We aren’t playing in the branded calling space now but are looking for partnerships and trying to get an industry consortium together.”
I wish them luck, at least until the robocallers figure out how to compromise branded calling and attach their own fake identities.
In the cat-and-mouse game that is robocalling, it seems the rat is always the big winner.
No matter what type of Android phone you carry or how you usually use it, one thing is a near-universal constant:
You’re gonna spend a ton of time sending and reading messages.
The messages may be from clients, colleagues, or your cousin Crissy from Cleveland (damn it, Crissy!). But regardless of who sends ’em or what they’re about, they’re all popping up on your phone and cluttering your weary brainspace.
My fellow Android adorer, I’m here to tell you there’s a better way.
Google’s Android Messages app has gotten surprisingly good over the years. That’s no big secret. If you’re only relying on what you see on the surface within Android Messages, though, you’re missing out on some of its most powerful and underappreciated efficiency-enhancing options.
Today, we’ll explore the Android Messages app’s most effective out-of-sight superpowers. They may not be able to cut down on the number of messages you send and receive on your phone (DAMN IT, CRISSY!), but they will help you spend less time fussing with ’em. And they might just help you have a more pleasant experience, too.
Let’s dive in, shall we?
(If you’re using a phone where the Android Messages app wasn’t preinstalled or set as the default, by the way, you can download it from the Play Store and give it a whirl. Especially if you’re coming from the world of Samsung’s wildly unnecessary self-made Messages alternative, you might be pleasantly surprised by what you find.)
Android Messages tricks for reading and receiving messages
1. Custom notifications for important people
We’ll start with what might be my favorite little-known trick for Google’s Android Messages app: With a couple quick adjustments, you can turn any of your contacts’ faces into a custom notification icon. That icon will then show up at the top of your phone whenever that person messages you for extra-easy visibility and access.
See?
JR
The only catch is that your phone needs to be running 2020’s Android 11 operating system or higher for the feature to be available. (And honestly, if your phone isn’t running Android 11 at this point, you’ve got bigger fish to fry.)
Here’s how to make it happen:
The next time you get a message from someone, press and hold your finger to the notification.
That’ll pull up a screen that looks a little somethin’ like this:
JR
Tap the “Priority” line, then tap “Apply” to save the changes.
And that’s it: The next time that person messages you, you’ll see their profile picture in place of the standard Messages icon in your status bar, and the notification will show up in a special section above any other alerts.
2. Easier-to-read text
File this next Android Messages feature under “accidental discoveries”: The next time you find yourself squinting at something in a messaging thread on your phone, try a good old-fashioned zoom gesture on the screen — placing your finger and thumb together and then spreading ’em slowly apart.
You’d never know it, but the Messages app supports that standard gesture for zooming into a conversation. The inverse applies, too: When you’re ready to zoom back out and make everything smaller, just bring your two fingers closer together.
And if those actions aren’t working for you, tap the three-dot icon in the upper-right corner of the main Messages screen and select “Settings,” then make sure the toggle next to “Pinch to zoom conversation text” is in the on position.
Who knew?!
3. Smarter inline media
You know a fantastic way to waste time? I’ll tell ya: moving from one app to another just to glance at something someone sent you (like those blasted Bangles video Crissy is always blasting your way).
Well, get this: Google’s Android Messages app can let you preview and even watch entire YouTube videos without ever leaving your current conversation — and it can give you helpful previews of web links right within the app, too.
The key is to make sure you’ve got the associated options enabled:
Tap that three-dot icon in the upper-right corner of the main Messages screen.
Select “Settings,” then tap “Automatic previews.”
Make sure the toggle next to “Show all previews” is on and active.
Now, the next time someone sends you a video link, you’ll see the video start playing without any sound as soon as it shows up:
JR
And if you want to actually watch it, you can tap the video — not the text link but the actual box where the video is playing — to turn on the sound and play the entire thing right then and there.
With web pages, Messages will show you just enough of a preview to let you make an educated decision about whether you want to tap the link or not.
JR
Almost painfully sensible, wouldn’t ya say?
4. Less annoying iPhone interactions
One obnoxious side effect of Apple’s “no one exists outside of iOS” mentality is the way those silly iPhone message reactions show up on Android.
You know what I’m talkin’ about, right? Those pointless messages you get from iGoobers that say stuff like “Loved ‘Please stop texting me, Crissy’”?
As of a relatively recent update, Google’s Android Messages app is able to intercept those absurd platform-specific reactions and turn ’em into standard reactions instead of plain-text interruptions. All you’ve gotta do is enable the option:
Head back into the Messages app’s settings.
Tap “Advanced.”
Look for the line labeled “Show iPhone reactions as emoji” and make sure the toggle next to it is in the on position.
All that’s left is to breathe a heavy sigh of relief.
Android Messages tricks for interacting with messages
5. Swift appointment scheduling
Working to plan a meeting or event with a fellow Homo sapien in Messages? Make yourself a mental note of this:
Anytime someone sends you a message that includes a specific date and time, the Messages app will underline that text — like this:
JR
You’d be forgiven for failing to realize, but you can actually tap that underlined text to reveal a shortcut for opening that same day and time in your calendar app. It’s a great way to get a quick ‘n’ easy glimpse at your availability for the time you’re discussing.
And if you then want to create a calendar event, just look for the “Create event” command that should appear right below that very same message. That’ll fire up a new calendar event for you on the spot, with the day and time already filled in.
JR
Don’tcha just love simple step-savers?
6. Sanity-saving snoozing
We could write a whole book on all the ways snoozing can make your life easier on Android (and I did, in fact, as part of a recent guide over in my private resource community!) — but for our purposes here today, the specific snoozing system we need to scrutinize is the one built right into the Google-made Android Messages interface.
Lemme tell ya: If you haven’t gotten in the habit of using it, you’re really missing out. It’s an incredibly effective way to make sure you remember to deal with a message at a specific future date and time.
And you’ve got two different ways to take advantage of it:
If you want to remember a specific individual message within an Android Messages conversation, press and hold your finger to the message in question — then look for the clock-shaped icon in the bar at the top of the screen.
If you’d rather have your reminder show up for an entire thread with someone instead of a specific individual message, press and hold your finger to the thread within the main Messages screen — then look for the same clock-shaped icon in the top bar there.
Either way you go, you’ll be able to set your reminder for any future date and time you want:
JR
And no matter how mushy that noggin of yours may be, you’ll remember to revisit that message at exactly the right moment.
7. Seamless message scheduling
If you’re ready to hammer out a response to a message right now but don’t want your reply to be sent for a while yet, skip the snoozing and simply schedule your message for the future.
The Android Messages app’s scheduling system is spectacularly useful. You can rely on it for setting reminders to be sent to clients, business-related messages to be sent out the next morning, or context-free middle-finger emojis to be sent to your cousin in Cleveland.
To tap into its productivity-boosting powers, just type out your message normally — but then, instead of tapping the triangle-shaped send icon at the right of the composing window, press and hold your finger onto that same button when you’re done.
No reasonably sane person would possibly realize it, but that’ll pull up a hidden menu for selecting precisely when your message should be sent.
JR
And the person on the other end will have no way of even knowing that you wrote the thing in advance.
Android Messages tricks for finding messages
8. Important contact prioritizing
Ever wish you could keep your most important messaging threads at the top of the list for easy ongoing access?
Poof: Wish granted. Just hold your finger onto the conversation in question on the main Messages app screen, then tap the pushpin-shaped icon in the app’s top bar.
You can pin up to three conversations that way, and they’ll always appear above all other threads in that main inbox view.
9. Important message saving
When you run into a message you know you’ll want to reference again, save yourself the trouble of trying to dig it back up later and instead star it on the spot to make it easy to find in the future.
It couldn’t be much easier to do: While viewing an individual message thread, press and hold your finger onto the specific message you want to save, then tap the star-shaped icon that appears in the bar at the top of the screen.
Then, when you want to find the message again, tap the three-dot icon in the upper-right corner of the main Messages screen and select “Starred” from the menu that comes up. That’ll show you every message you’ve starred for exceptionally easy resurfacing.
10. Advanced message searching
Starring is sublime, but sometimes, you need to dig up an old message that you didn’t go out of your way to save.
The Android Messages app makes that even easier than you might realize. Tap the search bar at the top of the app’s main screen — and in addition to searching your entire history message for any specific string of text, take note:
You can tap the picture of any of your contacts and then type in some text to limit your search to messages only from that one person.
You can scroll horizontally along the boxes beneath the word “Categories” to look specifically at images, videos, locations, or links people have sent you.
And you can combine any of those variables for even more powerful finding — looking for links you sent to a particular client, for instance, or locations an out-of-town colleague sent to you.
JR
Just be sure to avoid telling Crissy that’s possible. As far as she’s concerned, all those Bangles videos never reached you, and you’ve got no way of tracking ’em down now.
And don’t worry: Your secret’s safe with me.
Get even more advanced shortcut knowledge with my free Android Shortcut Supercourse. You’ll learn tons of time-saving tricks for your phone!
Susan Bradley
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