The Dictator & Lessons Not Learned from The Great Resignation

11 Aug The Dictator & Lessons Not Learned from The Great Resignation

In last Thursday’s episode, I added the Tattletale and the Blame Gamer to the Hall of Infamy. Now I would like to add the Dictator.

Key topics:

✔️ Sadly, there are plenty of companies that learned nothing from The Great Resignation. IMO, this is why I am seeing more Dictator types emerging from the shadows: they feel emboldened to behave that way.
✔️ How much micromanagement do you want to tolerate? Only you can decide.
✔️ If you can suss out that a manager is a dictatorial type BEFORE you take a job or you start a project, so much the better.

Links I discuss in this episode:

https://www.inc.com/jayson-demers/7-types-of-clients-who-will-take-your-patience-to-the-brink.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/01/business/return-to-office-battles.html

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1125110/11034023

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1125110/11058329

Need more? Email me: https://causeyconsultingllc.com/contact-causey/

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Transcription by Otter.ai.  Please forgive any typos!

Welcome to the Causey Consulting Podcast. You can find us online anytime at CauseyConsultingLLC.com. And now, here’s your host Sara Causey. Hello, Hello, and thanks for tuning in. In today’s episode, I want to pull a few different concepts together. Things that I talked about in last Thursday’s episode as well as the last Saturday broadcast. And last Thursday’s episode, I talked about more clients to avoid the tattle tale and the blame gamer in Saturday, broadcast 10. One of the things that I mentioned was some companies learned nothing from the great resignation. Now I want to start pulling those concepts together. I want to add another villain to the Hall of infamy to go alongside people like Ned, the needy, Nancy the nitpicker, Tammy, the tattletale, et cetera. And I will again be referring to the inc.com article by Jason demurs. That has been like a goldmine. So I want to add to my hall of infamy, Dick, the dictator. Now get your mind out of the gutter dick is merely a nickname for the name Richard. So this is not cursing. Dick, the dictator. Now the dictator type of personality comes in number six on Jason’s list on ink.com. And I’ll read that paragraph for you again, the dictator refuses to listen to anything constructive, you have to say, he’s already got his mind made up. And he’d rather disregard your expertise than deign to compromise his initial vision. Anything you try to suggest becomes an argument. And he’s not willing to listen to reason. Overall, you end up losing productivity or quality on almost every job, to better manage this client set firm, yet reasonable expectations at the beginning of the relationship, establish yourself as the authority and listen to his advice. But stand firm, if what he says goes against your better judgment in quote, that’s great information, I want to add a couple of things to it based on my own experience, with some individuals, no matter how good of a job you do at setting reasonable expectations, and good boundaries, they’re not going to listen. And no matter how good of a job you do at setting yourself apart and establishing yourself as the authority figure, they’re not going to listen to that either. When we’re talking about a dictatorial personality, and our end up right fighter personality, where they’re going to turn everything into an argument or a Lincoln Douglas debate. Good luck. Just good luck to you. And why am I bringing this up? Well, because I am already seeing more Dick The Dictator types out in the freelancing and consulting marketplace. I’m already seeing it happening as well in terms of companies internally, whether it’s individuals that are in hiring manager like hiring decision making positions, or department heads, take your pick, I am already seeing the dick the dictator personality types, springing forth. And I have a theory about this. And okay, here we go boilerplate here, just like Dennis Miller always says, this is only my opinion. And I could be wrong. My theory slash opinion on this is that some companies really did not learn any lasting lessons from the great resignation at all. And when you look at it, it’s like well, gee whiz. No wonder no wonder there was a great resignation. No wonder so many candidates and employees don’t want the great resignation to end they want the band to play on forever. Because when you’re dealing with these dick, the dictator types, it is maddening. It is maddening. So to give you an example, from the staffing and recruiting world, one of the ways that this can manifest is okay, I know that you’re telling me that as a subject matter expert, I’m not going to be able to get Tony Stark, genius, billionaire playboy philanthropist for $50,000. But I don’t really care do it anyway. Or it could be well, I know you’ve said that most people are not going to answer random cold calls from a recruiter these days. They’re going to want to do some call screening, but I still want you to just smile and dial anyway. And it’s like, apparently, you didn’t learn anything from the great resignation. Apparently that whole movement just whoosh went right over your head. It can also manifest in other ways by the manner in which the dick the dictator types treat their internal employees and that is irrespective of industry. It can manifest as well. I don’t care that you really need to leave at five in order to pick your child up from daycare. You know, you It really kind of showing me you’re not very serious about this job, somebody at a competitor is going to swoop up on this account. If you don’t go ahead and burn up that telephone line. I know that you haven’t had vacation in a while. But I mean, you see what’s going on labor shortage, labor shortage, we really can’t spare you to go on your vacation right now. You just need to hang in there for a while. I know that you’re doing the job of about three different people. But we just can’t afford to hire anybody right now. We’ve had to cut back to avoid having layoffs. Or well, I know that you’re doing the work of three different people. But we’ve been running ads and nobody’s responding. I mean, you have to understand that nobody wants to work anymore. People still have that stimulus money from back in 2020. And they’re all just living in grandma’s basement doing nothing. On the last Saturday broadcast, I talked about the New York Times article titled, What remote work debate, they’ve been back at the office for a while. So they profile this individual in Columbus. And he says, I know almost nobody in Columbus who is fully remote, said grant Blosser 35, who works at a financial services firm. In October 2020. Mr. Blosser started going back into his office in Columbus, Ohio, five days a week, he cracked jokes with the young analysts, one of whom recently dragged his team to hot yoga, it kicked our butts. He listened to his book club selection in the car, currently a biography of Winston Churchill. It was a relief, he said to feel the separation of church and state that came from leaving the house each day. Almost everybody I know is in an office most of the time here he said, The headlines that I read about as far as people dragging their feet going back to the office are about select companies and select cities in quote. Okay, all right. So this is another area where I feel like corporate America learned nothing. Maybe not every single company in corporate America, but a lot of companies in corporate America, I seem to have not learned much of anything long term. From the great resignation. I’ve talked about many times, I hope that people have gotten as much as possible out of that movement as they can. And I do believe that the genie is out of the bottle on remote work, people who were sent home to work remotely and they were able to do it successfully during the pandemic, the genies out of the bottle they know now that they do not absolutely have to be but in seat and a cube farm in the digital panopticon being watched every day are having to make awkward, idiotic jokes with the guy down the hallway. Oh, nice to see you. Again. They don’t have to do any of that, in order to be productive and successful. But yet we have something like this. In the New York Times about workplace lounges are filling up with commotion as junior associates play cornhole, and it’s like, Oh, my God, like God, like God. But what I really feel awful about are people who think or people who thought initially that the great resignation would last forever. And that it really and truly marked a permanent sea change within corporate America, in my opinion, which again, that’s all this is my opinion only. It marked a sea change for employees. And I’ll explain that out a little further. Because the genie came out of the bottle, people finally had that opportunity to work from home, they could suss out whether they liked it, or they didn’t. They could suss out whether they were productive, or they weren’t productive. And they got accustomed to that. They know that they don’t have to sit in a cube farm in order to be productive in that regards. I do think it was an absolute game changer see change. But in terms of like, revolutionizing the way that corporate America as a whole is going to treat the working person? Oh, no, no. Here’s the thing, with all due respect to that guy, I can, if I want to go to Hot yoga with a group of people, I can do that. I don’t need to drag somebody alone. It doesn’t. It doesn’t require force in my world. I’m capable of making and maintaining friendships without the element of force involved. People who are there voluntarily of their own free will because they want to be. And I think in some cases, these highly extroverted individuals, it’s it’s almost as if they would have no social life if they didn’t go but in seat into the office. And I find that really sad to either say very tragic about the idea of not being able to find individuals who want to be in your presence, unless they’re there by force, or unless they’re being paid a salary and benefits to do that. There’s something rather depressing about that to me. As far as listening to podcasts or audiobooks or the radio, I don’t have to be in a vehicle or a cubicle to do that. I can do that at home. There are ways that you can create, as he calls it a separation of church and state without having to have a commute and go into the office. So I just sort of scratch my head and say, Yeah, did corporate America learn from the great resignation? No, no. And so to bring this back to Dick, the dictator, in my experience those dictatorial types, because they’re stuck in their ways, they think that their opinion is the only right opinion. And they’re pretty rigid, and inflexible. They also tend to travel in the circle of RTO, or it’s your job, we want you to come on back so we can watch you, we don’t trust you to be productive at home or work from wherever we don’t think that you’re going to be productive any place other than right under our gaze. You need to get in here and be one of us. One of us, you better buy into the company culture. If you can take Jason’s approach and manage the client by setting boundaries, establishing yourself as the authority and then being able to determine what if any part of his suggestions you want, that’s cool, man, that’s cool. Many times have I said, this is not advice. I cannot tell you what to do or what not to do, in my opinion, speaking solely for myself, I try to determine early on as early as possible if I’m dealing with a dictator, dictator. And because the great resignation is ebbing, the economy is in a poop storm right now, whether you want to believe that or not, I believe the economy isn’t a poopoo storm. I do not think that the labor market is still red hot and labor shortage laborers are no, no, I don’t believe that. I am seeing more Dick the dictators crawl out of the shadows and feel emboldened again, why do they feel emboldened? Well, in my opinion, it’s because they know, they know that the unemployment rate is higher, they feel that balance of power shifting back to the favor of the employer and away from the employee. So they have that spirit of boldness to say, No, I want to micromanage you, I want you to do what you’re told, I want you to sit down and shut up and do what you’re told. So at the first sign of that type of behavior, I tried to just cut it loose right then and there. Right then in there, it’s a lot easier before any paperwork is signed before any work actually takes place. If you’re in the vetting process, or the intake process, whatever method you use, and you can tell this person is a dick, the dictator, that’s when I know that I’m going to run, I am going to run fast, and I’m going to run far, I’m not going to write fight with them, I’m not going to allow them to pull me into a Lincoln Douglas debate. I just simply say you it sounds like you are very married to a process that you’re using. And that’s great if it works for you. And that’s the process that you feel is important to utilize, I’m not going to get in your way, I have my own processes that I feel worked best for me and that have historically given my clients and outstanding result. So that’s the process that I’m going to go by those processes are not compatible with one another. So I’m going to bow out of consideration or I’m gonna declined to give you a request for a quote, whatever the case may be. And then I just bail. I just bail and I just go on about my day. And I don’t try to get into an argument. If they try to pull me into an argument. Well, no, we are flexible. I mean, I would be willing to compromise on one or two things. I don’t respond. I have already said what I needed to say. And I have moved on down the line to pursue better options. Now. That’s just my strategy. You have to do what’s best for yourself and your business or yourself and your family. And if you’re in a situation where you are pinched and hurting for money, you may end up having to work with a dick the dictator. I don’t know your situation and I can’t speak on it. Speaking solely for myself, I put Dick The Dictator into my hall of infamy. And I tried to be very conscientious about not engaging with someone who behaves in that way. Unfortunately, because of great many companies did not absorb any lessons from the great resignation in my opinion. High believe we will see more addicted dictators coming out of the woodwork. No pun intended. I’ll see you in the next episode. We hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If you haven’t already, please take a quick second to subscribe to this podcast and share it with your friends. Thanks for tuning in. We’ll see you next time.