La Bene Vita

A possible cause of the 'silent quitting' epidemic

I posted this rant in "What the Fork?"  last weekend, describing an employee who writes our monthly client newsletter at the music school:
"Forking Employees and their Drama"  .

The employee wanted to add a last-minute reminder that, by its nature, created a deadline (it doesn't make sense to send reminders of things after the things have passed). They gave me inadequate time to review and approve the newsletter, and when I sent it back with corrections, drama ensued, because corrections and revisions take time.

I think there was also an element of frustration because I sent more corrections than usual. In particular, the lead article - which was GREAT conceptually - was over 700 words with no images. Way too long for a client newsletter where the clients are families with school-aged children.

One other point of contention: I complained about titles that were too long, causing the headers to word wrap, and asked if we could stick to shorter titles. Their solution was to change the NL width from 700 to 1000 pixels, which made the font tiny and illegible on a mobile device. Definitely not what I asked for, and a major change that ought to be discussed first.

I have since met with the employee, and for the most part, we left the meeting thinking we each understood where the other was coming from.

BUT.

After reflecting for a few days, I had an epiphany, and it's worth sharing. The root cause of the conflict was our vastly different goals for the project.

ME: I asked this employee to take over the newsletter because, as a business owner, I need to delegate things or they won't get done. I'm terrible at routine tasks. The employee is smart, tech savvy, and artistic, and it seemed like a good fit. They were excited to take it on, and they've done a great job for more than a year. My goal is to foster a community feel via a client newsletter without having to worry about it getting done.

THEM: The employee is working toward a degree in media, design, user experience, something like that (I have a terrible memory for details). The newsletter is great experience for their resume, but also, they're learning a lot about design in their classes. Our NL gives them a (paid) opportunity to try out and implement things they're learning. Their goal, in my estimation, is to supplement their school learning.

With those conflicting goals, here's the problem (from my perspective): When they try new things, it requires me to worry about it.

But I've been in their shoes. I remember being a fresh college grad, early in my career, and I was so excited to do things! Try things! Implement things! When the response to that is annoyance rather than enthusiastic praise, it's discouraging. This is probably where "silent quitting" is coming from.

I try to encourage as much as possible, and I praise all the time, but when you drag me into your drama and make a problem you created my problem, I'm not okay with that.

Moving on.

Despite the wacky, crazy wind, it's a beautiful day. I've accomplished some things, despite my smart watch yelling at me to "prioritize rest and recovery".

Goals for 3/9/26 - 3/15/26

Work Goals
Review work tasks list 3x per week - Test driving Brevo to replace Constant Contact
Advertising - Needs immediate attention!
Budget  -  Pending
Lease renewal - Pending, not urgent yet. In June, it'll be urgent.
Writing Goals
Three reviews. - Changed my mind. One per week is plenty.
Add content to MichelleTuesday.com/author - Three blog posts, two of them backdated
Min 30 min/week on current novel - Pending
Two short stories for "The Bradbury"  - "Unicorn Poop"  and PENDING
One themed blog post - Parkinson's update
Current assignment for "26 Paychecks "  - caught up until Thursday.
Current assignment for "The Sprawling Ink Society"  - I worked on it for an hour or two Wednesday