Archived version: https://archive.ph/Feh55
For two years, workers have embraced the concept of “quiet quitting,” as they reject hustle-culture and prioritize work-life balance.
But for a long time, you’ve probably known co-workers who are the “noisier cousins” of quiet quitters — they’re sometimes called “loud laborers,” a term coined by André Spicer, an organizational behavior professor and dean of Bayes Business School.
These are employees who place more emphasis on making their work known, rather than “focusing on the work itself,” said Nicole Price, a leadership coach and workplace expert.
“They use various methods of self-promotion, talking more about what they are doing or plan to do rather than getting on with their tasks.”
According to Price, there are two easy ways to tell who’s a loud laborer: You don’t see much work getting done, and they talk “an awful lot” about the work they are “doing.”
“Loud laborers are often quite politically savvy and are very active on professional social networks, where they publicize their tasks and achievements,” she added.
Vicki Salemi, a career expert at jobs portal Monster.com, makes the distinction between someone who confidently asserts themselves at work and a loud laborer: “The former picks and chooses when to speak up to shine a spotlight on their work.”
“Whereas the latter may crave attention and love to hear themselves talk even when it was nothing extraordinary, they were simply doing their jobs,” she added.
Why some workers ‘focus on visibility and self-promotion’
Why do loud laborers exist?
“Believe it or not, some people talk too much about their accomplishments — or lack thereof — because they lack self-esteem or are insecure. Therefore, they overcompensate,” explained Price.
“Also, some people are motivated by external rewards and recognition rather than the inherent satisfaction of the work itself. This can lead to a focus on visibility and self-promotion in order to attract these rewards.”
Salemi pointed out that these workers may feel the need to self-promote constantly because they are not getting the recognition or attention from bosses or colleagues.
“Or it could be the other extreme: they’re overly confident about their work and brag about it, but here’s the thing — there are stellar performers, but boasting about every project every day is usually not exemplary,” she added.
Impact on team dynamics
Unfortunately, if you are a loud worker, your behavior could negatively impact your team and even your career, experts said.
“It can be ingratiating and put people off, especially your peers, to always toot your own horn,” said Salemi.
Furthermore, a 2021 study found that having a self-promotion climate within work groups can “diminish work group cohesion.”
Loud laborers may create a work environment where visibility and self-promotion are valued more than actual results, which could demotivate employees who are quieter or prefer to let their work speak for itself, said Price.
“The constant self-promotion may create an atmosphere of competition rather than collaboration,” she added.
“It may lead to an imbalance in perceived effort and recognition, which could impact team morale negatively.”
What you can do about loud laborers
While loud laborers in the workplace may be irksome, it is important to set boundaries as best you can, said Salemi.
“If you’re leading a team call or participating on one and your colleague won’t be quiet about something irrelevant … you can say, ‘I want to be aware of everyone’s time — we only have 10 minutes left, so we need to be direct about the work itself only.’”
For Price, loud working is persistent in a workplace because such behavior has been rewarded or validated by leadership.
“A leader can ensure that all team members are evaluated on their actual performance and not just their ability to promote themselves,” she explained.
“This encourages everyone to focus on their work and helps to ensure that quieter team members are recognized for their contributions.”
Here’s what she suggests companies and leaders can do to tackle loud workers in the workplace:
- Recognize effort, not just showmanship
Often the quiet and unflashy work is what keeps an organization running.
Leaders should look beyond the noise and recognize the contributions of those who may not be as vocal about their work. This encourages a culture where actual productivity and results are valued, not just visibility.
- Understand different work styles
Some are more vocal about their efforts, while others are quieter and more focused on the tasks at hand.
A good leader should value and acknowledge both approaches, recognizing that different styles can contribute to a diverse and effective team.
- Communicate and provide feedback
If you notice a team member who consistently emphasizes their work more than the actual results, have a conversation with them about it, Price advised.
Provide constructive feedback that encourages a balance between self-promotion and productive work. This not only helps the individual but benefits the whole team.
Uhh, what? “Shut up and work, minion”? Didn’t expect to see this on a work reform community. Hell yeah I’m going to continue to demand recognition for my contributions. Staying quiet is how you get taken advantage of.
some people are motivated by external rewards and recognition rather than the inherent satisfaction of the work itself.
Damn straight I expect to get acknowledged and paid. I like working, but putting food on the table, today AND tomorrow, comes first.
What a load of management-apologist, productivity-first drivel.
Thank you! I thought park of work reform was making the current system work for you to get the most for the least amount of work. Now suddenly that’s not ok and it makes you “mediocre”?
I can be a bomb ass employee, if you give me bomb ass pay and benefits. Yes I am going to dance around you highlighting all my accomplishments cause I’m not about to do extra shit for free just cause you didn’t notice.
Don’t hate the player, hate the game. Silently raging instead of participating isn’t hurting the company, they get to pay you less.
Yeah that’s pretty gross. At work we did a personality type test and I scored the highest for being motivated by external rewards (i.e. money) and yeah you bet I am! I think we handled it well in our discussion sessions by making it clear that there is no “better” or “worse” things to be motivated by.
But yeah if I do a good job, give me stuff! It works every time ;-)
For me this read differently. Probably because at my company we had one jerk like this. I spent a good year fixing his poorly written code. His only goal was to always make dazzling things that work for a few weeks, enough for him to pitch them, but no focus on clean and sustainable work.
But I do agree, there is a fine line, and lots of places do not give enough recognition to employees.
Seeking recognition through self-promotion rather than productivity is a North American standard at this point.
We all know people like this. The ones who are all talk and no action and will throw anyone under the bus in a heartbeat if they think it will help them climb the corporate ladder. On the other hand though, the general state of corporate governance is so poor and leadership skills so often lacking that you almost have to pat yourself on the back a little if you want to get anywhere.
Of all the bosses I’ve had, I can think of exactly two who were actually good at their jobs because they actually knew what they were doing and valued their employees. And neither of those people got the recognition they deserved.
My little window into the life of corporate America has witnessed an overwhelming amount of mediocrity and glaring failures simply because the guy who talks big often gets the promotion when in reality they don’t know shit about fuck and the cycle of incompetence is self-perpetuating.
The only way I get the equipment or maintenence time that I need to do my job efficiently is if I make my immediate superiors strategically miserable on occasion. If I did what the article insists is the ideal, I’d be doomed to silently perform the same temporary, time-wasting fixes every week forever.
You can’t count on your work to ‘speak for itself’ if the company isn’t specifically examining your contributions in the first place. They will happily presume that your work is exactly interchangeable with everyone else’s because most middle managers aren’t experts at data collection and analysis and don’t spend 8 hours a day seeing what floor workers do.
It’s even worse if they’re an outside hire, with potentially no relevant experience to compare it to. I swear companies do this on purpose to avoid elevating people with institutional knowledge and any sense of ownership in their area of expertise: they might end up accidentally paying someone what they’re worth.
My boss says I need to work on things with more visibility rather than the stuff I am because its to operations like and not enough high profile dev project wise. Will it get more visibility if I just let stuff die before working on know timebombs???
Can’t brain why the author see this as the counterpart of quiet quitting. They both stem from very different things.
…just in case you were on the fence on whether the ‘quiet quitting’ articles and viral ‘nobody wants to work anymore’ pieces were just employer temper-tantrums, here’s CNBC trial-ballooning some fresh derogatory shorthand for workers who know what their labor is worth.
Uhhhh this is exactly how you are supposed to work? I learned that early on. Your boss isn’t sitting there watching your every move. You could save the company a trillion dollars and no one would give a fuck if you never tell anyone.
No one is getting a raise or promoted cause they worked 60 hours a week. Working on high visibility projects that are easy is the secret. And if you can’t get added to a high visibility project, make your projects high visibility.
Fix the work culture if you don’t like it Price. Otherwise go fuck yourself.
Damned if you do damned if you don’t
“Also, some people are motivated by external rewards and recognition rather than the inherent satisfaction of the work itself. This can lead to a focus on visibility and self-promotion in order to attract these rewards.”
Wow… Not sure what to say to that. These people are out of their minds.
Why is this being posted without comment or criticism from OP?