Mardi Humphreys

Uses Time Wisely

In Kindergarten, we weren’t graded on subjects like math or English and we did not receive letter grades on our report cards. Instead, we had a list of goals to meet. The teacher put a check mark next to the goal if it was reached or an X if it wasn’t. I received an X next to “Uses Time Wisely.” It’s haunted me ever since.

How do you determine your level of productivity at work? You compare yourself to your coworkers. You worry that everyone is using their time more wisely than you are, especially if you’re remote or hybrid. By the beginning of Q4 2020, I stopped saying that I work from home and started saying that I home from work. Technology allows us to work when and where we want so we work all the time. This phenomenon is the autonomy paradox. For example, how many times have you replied to work emails on your phone while waiting in line at the grocery? (Asking for a friend.)

Asynchronous work makes you very susceptible to what Brigid Schulte, Director of the Better Life Lab at New America, calls time confetti. These are the minutes scattered throughout your week spent on unproductive multitasking. Alone, the spent time is insignificant, but it adds up pretty quick. For example, would that PowerPoint presentation you’re working on be done right now if you had closed your direct message app for a couple of hours?

Even if your app is minimized, hearing the notifications breaks your concentration and now you know that someone is waiting for you to do something. Your brain is distracted by wondering what it is and figuring out how, when, and where to get everything done. It takes time to mentally shift from one task to another and back again. Before you know it, your time has shredded into confetti. How can you prevent being buried in it?

Protect – When you have a project that requires deep focus, schedule it on your calendar, close your door and put a “Do Not Disturb” sign on it, and turn off direct message and email alerts. Notice how quickly you get it done.

Train -You not only have to set boundaries, you have to show people where they are and hold them when people try to cross them. For example, those who contact me between 7:30pm and 8:00pm EST Monday – Saturday do not reach me. Jeopardy! is my boundary. I do not answer calls, emails, or texts during that time. I have communicated and held that boundary so many times that our daughter bought me a T-shirt.

Forgive – Don’t berate yourself for failing to complete every task on your to-do list every day. We treat time like it’s something we can control, and, to a certain extent, we can and should. However, days have varying rhythms. Stuff happens and we have to roll with it. Think about how many fire drills you have in a week. Checking off every task on your to-do list is not using your time wisely. Giving your best effort is.

What do you do to minimize time confetti? Please share in the comments.

Love Local

This Valentine’s Day the news about Mikesell’s is a heart-breaking reminder to support your local small businesses. If an organization that has operated for over 110 years can close, then every local business is in danger. Here are three reasons why you should spend your hard-earned money locally.

Your Money Stays Here

In 2019, 47.3 percent of employees in the United States worked for small businesses. It’s likely you know someone who works for one: your next-door neighbor the landscaper, your nephew the HVAC apprentice, your friend the bookkeeper. By using their services, you keep your money in your community. You have much more influence locally than you have globally. Big box stores often get tax breaks from local governments that local small businesses do not receive. When you vote with your wallet by choosing to purchase local over big box stores, it is a statement of your values. Small businesses competing with one another prompts innovation and lower prices. This is why I like to frequent several local coffeeshops. (Okay, it is ONE of the reasons I spend so much money in local coffeeshops.) The sales tax from small businesses stays in your community. This money goes to pay for things like public schools, fire departments, and libraries. Local small businesses tend to transact with other local small businesses keeping even more money flowing through your local economy.

You Help People Make a Living

Sure, you can pick up Chipotle for lunch, but what about that Mom and Pop Mexican food restaurant down the street? Chipotle is not going anywhere, but every day Mom and Pop are struggling to stay in business. Some small businesses sell products that are locally made. The closer the product is to the place where it is sold, the less transportation it takes to get it there. This reduces the amount of fuel needed and saves the seller money. It also reduces the amount of emissions in the air making the environment more safe for everyone. Buying local allows more of your neighbors to make a living. That Mom and Pop Mexican food restaurant hires local residents as managers, servers, cooks, etc. Does your city have a farmer’s market? The space, products, and artisans are all local. Local small businesses positively impact your local economy in multiple ways throughout your community.

You Create Community

The more invested you are in a community, the more concerned you are about all of its citizens. Their welfare and future are tied to yours. Local small businesses are famous for supporting nonprofits. According to businessjournaldaily.com, small businesses donate 250% more than large businesses to community causes. Small local businesses sponsor kids’ sports clubs, food banks, and job-seekers programs. It’s likely that you can name several local small businesses that support the same nonprofits you do.

Valentine’s Day is the perfect occasion to show some love to your local small businesses. What are some of your favorites? Please give them a shoutout in the comments.

Terms and Conditions

I serve the technology community and they use many industry-specific acronyms in conversation. I’m often asked by non-technologists to define these terms. Plus, recently multiple episodes of Jeopardy! have featured contestants who worked in tech and categories about technology. It struck me that some tech terms are now used in mainstream conversation. So, here are seven acronyms that you can add to your vocabulary.

2FA: This means two-factor authentication. You will also hear MFA which is multi-factor authentication. These are security protocols that protect sensitive information. For example, when you want to access your bank account online, you may enter your username and password, then receive a text message with a code to enter before you are granted access. Here is a resource to learn more.

AI: This is short for Artificial Intelligence. It’s a computer that acts like a human.When you are on a website and someone pops up on the screen offering to help, that is an example of AI called a chatbot. You ask a question and the chatbot can direct you to appropriate areas of the website because it has learned from visitors who came before you asking the same or similar question. Here is an explanation that may interest you.

BI: This acronym stands for Business Intelligence. It is the process an organization uses to collect, cleanse, and present data. This could include filtering the data to answer a question and visually presenting the results in a graph. Companies use a data management tool (software) that provides a dashboard where they can filter the information to see specifically what they need to know to make decisions. Here are examples.

BYOD: Or, Bring Your Own Device, is when the organization you work for allows you to use your phone, laptop, etc., for business purposes. Here is information on the pros and cons of BYOD.

ERP: This is shorthand for Enterprise Resource Planning. It is a software platform (there are many) that everyone in an organization uses to manage their work. For example, both Human Resources and Accounting can use the same ERP, but for their own specific purposes. Here is some useful information.

NFT: A Non-fungible Token is a digital asset that represents real-world objects, like art, that were created, and only exist, online where they are bought, sold, and/or traded. Here is a more in-depth explanation.

SaaS: This is an acronym for Software as a Service. Instead of installing software on each of your devices, you access it from the cloud through the internet. Then you can use an app and connect to the software on all your devices. You no longer buy the software every time you need the new version, you pay a subscription fee usually monthly or yearly. Some examples of SaaS are Gmail, Spotify, and Dropbox. Here is a comprehensive look at Saas, including PaaS (Pizza as a service).

I have a habit of rattling off acronyms and industry terms. KPI, PIP, and WFH come to mind. On occasion, this makes communicating unclear. So, if you ever stumble over any shortcuts in my articles, feel free to DM me. What acronyms have you run across lately that I did not mention? Please share in the comments.

Be Quiet

Welcome to the final installment of the It’s so Quiet series. We’ve talked about Quiet Promotion, Quiet Quitting, and Quiet Firing. All three have some things in common. For example, The absence of reflection, unaligned expectations, and lack of communication. What would the quiet situations feel like if those issues were resolved?

Groundhog Day is this week. In the movie of the same name, the main character is stuck in the same day over and over doing a job he doesn’t want to do. What would a Groundhog Day look like for you if you were in the right role, using the right processes, working for the right organization? You would be Quiet Thriving.

What Is It?

Quiet Thriving is when you do your part to be responsible for engaging with your work. If you steer your tasks toward the things you like to do, remind yourself there are aspects of this job that you really like, and have a good friend at work, then you may be quietly thriving.

What Can You Do?

Document: You took this particular position because something in the job description interested you. What was that? Are you doing that? If not, can you start? Pull out your “Atta Baby!” file. What do the things that people praised you for have in common? Did you get satisfaction from those duties? If so, can you do more of those? If not, what are the barriers to doing more of the projects you enjoy?

Communicate: Time for a 1:1 with your manager. Managers are usually tasked with motivating employees. It’s much easier to motivate someone who enjoys their job. You offering to do more work makes their life easier. Respectfully discuss how you can use that phrase “and other duties as assigned” in your job description to receive assignments that you like. Any task that makes a positive contribution, especially if it makes and/or saves the organization money, should be welcomed.

Strategize: The questions in the Document section above are meant to help you craft the job you want to do. Do you have the agency to craft your job? If so, try to spend 20% of your day doing the tasks that energize you. Can’t think of what those tasks would be? That’s not surprising since we’ve been in crisis-mode for three years. You need creativity to solve problems. Dealing with crisis after crisis after crisis drains that. To recharge your creativity, can you journal? Maybe write your perfect job description. Or sketch what your perfect job would look like, or bullet point work you see others doing that you’d like to do. Can you make a friend at work? This survey found nearly 57% of their respondents said they enjoyed work more because they made a friend there.

Thank you for your feedback on this series! I appreciate both your point of view and your relentless respect. Let’s keep the conversation going in the comments. What do you do to quietly thrive at work?

All Fired Up

Welcome to part three of four in the It’s so Quiet series. We’ve already talked about Quiet Promotion and Quiet Quitting. This week let’s look at Quiet Firing.

What Is It?

Quiet Firing happens when management slowly takes away your responsibilities and freedom over time. For example, you have not received a pay raise for years and/or you are turned down for promotions multiple times. You may be getting quietly fired if:

You receive a “Does not meet expectations” evaluation of your job performance at least three times
Coworkers with your same job title receive perks (e.g., WFH days) that you are denied
Everyone in your department receives an equipment upgrade (e.g., mobile phone, laptop, etc.) except you
You are intentionally and repeatedly left out of email threads that are crucial to your duties
You asked for feedback from your manager multiple times and they refuse to give it to you
You signed up for the company’s leadership development program more than twice and are still not accepted

What Can You Do?

Quiet Firing may like feel like gaslighting because the treatment is typically subtle. It is management’s passive-aggressive strategy to encourage you to resign. It makes you ask yourself, “Did what just happen mean what I think it means?” In a LinkedIn News poll, 35% of respondents said they faced Quiet Firing. How can you decide if it is happening to you?

Document: Open up your Atta Baby! files from the last three years. (DM me for a definition of the term.) Use them to create a What’s Up With That? file. For each item in the Atta Baby! files, note what your manager’s reaction was to it. For example, if you saved the company $18K in 2021 by catching a typo in an invoice and still received a “Does not meet expectations” in your annual performance review that year, make a note of that.

Communicate: If your research indicates that you may be getting quietly fired, then it’s time for a 1:1 with your manager. Respectfully share what you found, how you interpret it, and ask if your impression is correct. If your manager gives you specific feedback for areas where you can improve your job performance, then you are probably not being quietly fired. If your manager’s reaction is neutral or dismissive, then it’s time to strategize.

Strategize: Should you stay or should you go? If you want (or need) to stay at your organization, then ask your manager for a PIP (Performance Improvement Plan). I realize this could be a humbling experience, but watch your manager’s reaction. It will be very revealing. If they are impressed and excited that you took this initiative, then there is hope that you are not being quietly fired. If they reject your request for a PIP, then it’s time to find other employment.

Have you ever been quietly fired? Please share what signs to look for in the comments.

Hush Money

Last week in part one of the It’s so Quiet series, we talked about Quiet Promotion. This week let’s look at the Quiet Quitting trend, particularly focusing on how it may impact your income. Can you afford to quiet quit? Can you afford not to?

What Is It?

Quiet Quitting is meeting the minimum expectations of your job requirements and feeling psychologically detached from your work. If you avoid leading a team of your coworkers or you refuse to work overtime, you may be a Quiet Quitter.

What Can You Do?

Job descriptions are living documents. They expand and contract with both the company’s needs and the employee’s abilities. Level setting expectations on a regular basis is vital to shaping both your work and your engagement. Here are three things you can do:

Document: Make a list of duties you were asked to do that are outside of your job description. Are they housekeeping tasks? For example, taking notes in every team meeting, typing them up, and distributing them. Or, are they responsibilities that will make you visible to leadership? For example, presenting your department’s Q4 statistics in the partner meeting. If they are housekeeping, then no wonder you’re discouraged. But if they are responsibilities that put you in front of the people who can further your career, then rethink what may be going on behind the scenes.

Communicate: Whatever your documentation reveals, it’s time for a 1:1 with your manager. Present your list. Politely state you’ve noticed an uptick in duties. Ask if these assignments are intentional. If so, and they are housekeeping, is it because of your status in the company? (E.g., You are a junior member of the team.) If the assignments are more high-profile, are you being set up for promotion?

Strategize: After documenting and discussing, think about where you want to go from here. If the assignments you received position you to advance, then the extra work benefits you in the long run. However, the rise and grind culture leads to burnout. If you are expected to go above and beyond your job description with no end and no reward in sight, then do you really want to stay at your organization? Particularly if you work in Big Tech. Seventy-nine percent of the workers laid off last year had another job within three months. Things to consider when making your decision:

Do you have an emergency fund with $1200 in it?
Do you also have six months worth of expenses saved?
How will the coming recession impact your portfolio, mortgage, and/or loans?
Do you have a side gig that you can ramp up to second-job status?
Do you have an alternative for healthcare coverage? (E.g., through your spouse’s employer)
Does your current employer offer benefits (e.g., working remote and/or flexibility) that compensate for the extra duties?

You could also keep quietly quitting, but that can lead to Quiet Firing; more on that next week.

Have you ever quietly quit a job? Please share in the comments.

The Rise of the Quiets

COVID spotlighted the Greats: the Great Retirement, the Great Resignation, the Great Reshuffle, the Great Rethink, etc. Now, the transition to post pandemic is highlighting the Quiets: Quiet Promotion, Quiet Quitting, Quiet Promoting, Quiet Thriving, etc. Just like the Greats were in play with or without COVID, the Quiets are not new. It’s just that now employees feel empowered to discuss them openly and employers are pushing back. We’re going to devote the next four weeks to exploring the rise of the Quiets. First up: Quiet Promotion.

What Is It?

A Quiet Promotion happens when you are given more tasks and/or responsibilities beyond your job description, but no increase in compensation. It can be tricky to spot because going above and beyond your job description is the traditional path to a genuine promotion. You typically have to prove you can do more before you are given more (especially if you identify as a woman; don’t get me started…). Here are a few clues that you were quietly promoted:

You have the same job title as your colleagues, but you have more work than they do
You have absorbed all the duties of a coworker who left and there is no end in sight
Your manager asked you to be a “team player” and you don’t feel like you can refuse

If these sound familiar, you have a couple of options. One is to ask for a real promotion. The other is to get another job. Either way, these three ideas can help.

Document

Update that “Atta Baby!” file on your desktop (DM me if the concept does not sound familiar)
Keep a daily activity log including what you did (especially the extra duties), when, and approximately how long it took
Note (with statistics, if possible) how what you do (especially the extra duties) moves the organization closer to their goals and aligns with their mission

Communicate

After gathering your documentation, schedule a 1:1 with your manager
Prepare for it as you would a performance review
Begin the conversation with a curious mindset. For example, lead with something like: “During several weekly reflection exercises that I do to self-monitor my job performance, I noticed something interesting…” and present your case
Note your manager’s reaction. It will be very revealing

Strategize

If your employer just lost a major client, or your company is in a hiring freeze, then no one is getting promoted. If you can be patient, do. It allows you to accumulate more documentation and contemplate whether this job and/or company is still the right fit for you. If you can’t be patient, the documentation you gathered sure looks good on a resume.

By the way, the phrase “other duties as assigned” is included in most job descriptions. That can be a good thing. You want your job description to iterate. It allows you to grow and advance. The problem comes when an organization uses the phrase as a loophole to assign an employee responsibilities beyond minor tasks related to the employee’s position.

Have you ever received a Quiet Promotion? Please share your experience in the comments.

Be Ready for a Call to Action

This article marks five years of writing, “Is It Worth Your T.E.A.M.?” It began as a call to action (CTA). I needed somewhere to store the advice I wanted to give my daughter but she did not want to receive. Yet. One year ago, LinkedIn offered to turn future articles into a newsletter. That was also a CTA. People in my networks began subscribing and presenting their challenges, another CTA. We are surrounded by them every day. Some CTAs are expected; for instance, hunger. You can put off eating until it’s convenient, but eventually you have to feed your body or die. They can also be unexpected. For example, in 2022, over 120,000 tech workers were laid off. Losing your job is a CTA. With the world of work constantly in flux, you are wise to always (and I don’t use that word lightly) be ready for a CTA when it comes to your job. But how?

Upskill

If you like your job, congratulations! Many of those 120,000 tech workers liked their jobs too and had no intention of leaving. Think of continuous learning as a survival skill as well as a CTA. If you like your industry, be sure to keep up on the latest trends. To illustrate, if you are a tax advisor right about now you are studying all the rules around preparing 2022 tax returns. With these skills if you unexpectedly lose your job, then you can easily market yourself to another employer or go into business for yourself. Not sure what the trends are in your industry? You can gain both insight and new skills if you have a Dayton Metro Library card. They offer free access to LinkedIn Learning.

If you don’t like your job, you are in the majority. According to Gallup, in 2022, only 21% of global workers were actively engaged with their jobs. Your CTA may be to look at job descriptions for positions you want and obtain the skills, experience, and/or certifications you need to get hired. Let’s say there is an opening at a company you’d like to work for and this company is known for philanthropy. Grab two or three friends and volunteer at their favorite non-profit organization. Mention the experience in your cover letter and prepare a story to tell about it for your interview.

Network

Meet people who work at companies you want to work for.

What networking events do they attend?
Can you connect with them on LinkedIn?
What non-profit boards do they serve on?
Can you get an informational interview with someone who works there?
Do they belong to a trade association they would enjoy telling you about?

Even if companies you want to work for don’t notice you, you will inevitably discover other organizations where you’d like to work that you didn’t know existed before these efforts and now they have a CTA to get to know you.

If you have a call to action that you are wrestling with, feel free to join the discussion I’m facilitating for Women in Christian Leadership’s virtual Coffee and Conversation on Friday, January 6. Register here.

What call to action are you struggling with as we enter 2023? Please share in the comments.

Your Favorite Things

We have arrived at the end of another year. Being the data geek that I am, I analyzed the stats to see what articles received the most views. If you missed these conversations, or you’d like to revisit them, here are the top three most viewed articles in each category.

Time

Time for a Brand Refresh

Too Young to be Done

Time for a Change

Energy

Battery Low

You Can Talk to Me

You Can’t Always Get What You Want

Attention

Child-free by Choice

Join the Resistance

Treat Me Right

Money

Back to Basics

Isn’t it Romantic?

On the Road Again

Thank you for walking down memory lane with me. The best holiday gift you can give me this year is your feedback. What topics did you like? What other topics would you like to discuss? What challenges at work do you need help solving? Please share in the comments.

The Most Expensive Gift You Can Give

Are you panicking because you have yet to come up with a gift for your hard-to-buy-for person that won’t bust your budget? Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all stressed out people. Here are 25 gift ideas that cost more time than money.

Bake cookies – It’s not about the cookies. It’s about spending time together. If you don’t want to make the cookies, then clean up the kitchen afterward. If you don’t want to eat the cookies, drop them off at your local police station, firehouse, or emergency department in appreciation to your first responders
Free labor – Does someone need help painting their living room? Moving to a new residence? Rearranging furniture? Print a gift certificate offering help
Christmas movie marathon – Choose your favorites and watch together. Yes, Die Hard is a Christmas movie
Cooking class – If someone loves to eat a certain meal of yours, take all the ingredients to their kitchen and teach them how to make it
Parades and football all day – Take turns explaining why you think these activities happen on a holiday
Video game tournament – Teach someone how to play your favorite or learn how to play theirs
Love notes – For those whose love language is words of affirmation, write them a paragraph explaining what you love about them
Skill share – You are proficient in Excel, but can’t trim your dog’s toenails. Your brother needs an Excel primer and can trim doggy toenails. Trade tutorials
Brand refresh – Audit their website, proofread their resume, tell them what you like about their LinkedIn profile and what could be improved
Go for a walk/hike – If the weather does not currently permit, issue them an IOU
Holiday lights – Map out a route, take along some hot chocolate and maybe the dog, and drive through local light displays
Volunteer together – Your church and local food bank always need help
Online yoga class – Turn on YouTube and search for “twenty-minute yoga for beginners”
Scavenger hunt – Think Easter egg hunt but with candy canes
Video tribute – Are you good with iMovie or a similar platform? String together some of their favorite photos and set them to music
Playlists – On the music-streaming platform of your choice
Museum visit plan – Some museums are free and some are free on certain days. Spend some time brainstorming where you’d like to go and when
Start learning a language together – set up a schedule to practice with one another
Sit – Create a gift certificate for a few hours of baby, pet, or house-sitting
Photographer – Intentionally document this year’s celebration and send the photos to everyone
Pre-celebration service – Help the host clean house before guests arrive. Or, take their car for a wash and vacuum before their holiday trip
Outdoor service – Create a gift certificate for shoveling the snow off their driveway and sidewalk after the next accumulation
Something to look forward to – Schedule a future 1:1. Coffee date? Church date? Ice Cream date?
Storage – Offer to scan their printed photos and save them on a USB
Give it away – Create a gift certificate to help clean out their closets. After the purge, take the donations to a Goodwill or Salvation Army store and bring back a receipt for their tax purposes

The most expensive gift you can give is your time. You can make more money, but you can’t make more time. Please spend yours wisely. Thank you for the time you spent reading this article. Happy Holidays!