Photo by eberhard grossgasteige.
Organizers of the Google walkout last year say they’re facing retaliation and threats.
It’s a bit surprising how brazen some of the stories are, but the core notion isn’t surprising at all. History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme. There’s something happening right now that sounds like things that have come before.
We sometimes find ourselves in conversations with people who draw a very direct link to the past. They think that tech is going to unionize. They point to the gig economy creating the conditions of exploitation, just like prior labour movements. They point to walkouts as proof that the workers are beginning to see themselves as a collective force.
We might end up on the wrong side of history here, but we don’t believe it. At least not yet. We agree that what’s happening here rhymes with prior labour movements. One walkout prompting another. Solidarity pledges from workers at other companies. Manifestos and more manifestos. And we’ve got union-busting behaviour happening too, with organizers being punished.
The differences matter, though. A director at Google can make a million dollars a year in total compensation. The company will drive them to work and do their laundry. You’ll have a hard time convincing us that they’re direct analogs to 1880s matchgirls protesting the dangers of working with phosphorous. But something is happening.
What does it mean? What does it mean that the best paid employees in history are walking out? What does it mean that managers, even executives, walk out alongside individual contributors? What does it mean that we’re getting better at organizing collective action? What does it mean that tech workers are putting down their tools en masse and refusing to do unethical work for the first time in modern history?
It isn’t exactly clear. It’s probably not the kind of unions our parents built. Is it going to look more like a union, or a protest movement, or a medieval guild? We don’t know. But we’ve been reading more history books lately.
— Melissa & Johnathan
What Melissa’s reading
The Office Rookies Who Ask for the World
Oh good. We’ve finally moved on from the relentless handwringing over millennials in the workforce. We can all breathe a collective sigh of relief for well about as long as it takes you to click on this link.
Welcome to the relentless handwringing over GenZ in the workforce. I understand why “Kids These Days” and “Get Off My Lawn” are evergreen headlines. The Wall Street Journal writes for an aging audience and they know what sells newspapers. Their readers send the link to their grandchildren. The WSJ ad team not only gets agreement clicks but also rage clicks.
I’m on team rage click.
Are we really surprised that people who are starting out their careers are eager to grow in the roles? That the most junior people in our companies aspire to one day no longer be the most junior anymore?
Are we shocked that a generation whose been inundated with messaging about the importance of negotiating and advocating for themselves has entered the workplace prepared to…wait for it…negotiate and advocate for themselves.
Every think piece since GenZ entered the workforce is about their absence of job security and mounting student debt. These new entrants to the workforce aren’t naive. They know they cannot count on “you work hard and it pays off” as a strategy.
This article is the worst of generational hazing. This is “I had to walk uphill both ways to school in the snow and so should you.” This is “No one ever gave me a damn thing and I put my head down and worked hard and so should you.” The expectation that just because it was like that 50 years ago, it should be the same way now. Nah. Hard disagree.
What the shit kind of advice is this???
Young employees who push too hard risk derailing their careers by projecting a sense of entitlement.
If you can’t see how ambitious and eager young people could be an incredible asset to your organization, you’re just not thinking very hard.
What Johnathan’s reading
Today’s pick for least-helpful, super-gendered feedback:
You need more Executive Presence
Have you ever gotten this? Sometimes it takes different forms, like “You need to be more strategic,” or “Be more of a leader.” If you’ve ever gotten feedback like this, please know: your boss should feel bad, not you.
When we work with our client companies, we spend a bunch of time on effective feedback. And this ain’t it. Effective feedback is specific, timely, and makes a clear connection between behaviours and their impacts. We are all great learners, with great big neocortices. We can figure a lot of things out for ourselves. But we all need feedback to get better at work because our bosses can often see impacts we can’t. They can identify skills gaps and connect us with the training to close them.
The problem with feedback like “You lack executive presence” is that it’s too vague to do anything with. In fact, the rest of the article is devoted to doing the work your boss should have done. Miriam (the author) spells out the core skills and behaviours behind “executive presence” in order to make them something you can act on. Nice of her (though it bears mentioning that Executive Presence consulting is her gig).
Sadly, we don’t usually have a management consultant wingperson every time our boss says something feedbackish. And, to make matters worse, women consistently get less useful feedback than men. There’s no quick fix here – the real answer is to get a better boss. But there are ways to manage up in the meantime.
Getting to specific examples can sometimes push vague feedback into clearer focus. Was there a time recently where my lack of Executive Presence really showed through? Can I ask you to tell me the next time you see me missing a strategic point? A well-intentioned leader who’s bad at feedback can be made useful. A paternalizing huggybear cannot. A least, not without a complete teardown and rebuild.
Kim Scott’s book is a fine thing to read if you want to get better at feedback. Brené Brown’s latest is a good call if you want to develop your authentic leadership style. And if you need something to hand to your boss, well, there’s always this one.
(Tip of the 🎩 to Cassandra, an alum of our programs and generally-excellent-person, for sending this article our way.)
