Commercial Integrator November 2022 - 40

BUSINESS OPS Labor Force
TO QUIT OR
NOT TO QUIT
(QUIETLY)
AV industry thought leaders Chris Neto and Peter Hansen
dive into the complicated phenomenon of 'quiet quitting'
and provide suggestions on how best to address it.
By Amala Reddie
IS IT ENOUGH just to do the bare minimum,
or should an employee go above and
beyond? This question popped up during
a recent #AVintheAM Sunday morning
Twitter thread. The #avtweeps community
jumped into an intense discussion about the
phenomenon of " quiet quitting. "
Quiet quitting is a trend that has been
observed in all businesses, including those
in the commercial AV industry. But why are
people engaging in it, and how is it aff ecting
AV integrators and their businesses? To answer
these questions, Commercial Integrator
sits down with #AVintheAM founder and
Starin's market development manager, Chris
Neto, and AVIXA's economist, Peter Hansen.
They break down the reasons for quiet quitting
and what employers can do in response.
From Neto's perspective, the commercial
AV industry is built on more than just the
technology; more fundamentally, it's about
40
all the people and the way businesses are
run. " Technology is a tool that helps solve a
problem, " he observes. " However, sometimes,
there are issues that cannot be solved
by just a piece of gear. This is where looking
at the business side comes in. " And that's
why #AVintheAM topics go beyond gear.
Quiet Quitting is Not New
According to Neto, part of the reason for
launching #AVintheAM conversations is
to help #avtweeps stay on top of business
trends inside and outside our industry.
" Quiet quitting is not something that's new,
but it's what people are picking up on, " he
proclaims. " So, I wanted to bring the topic
to the forefront and understand it from the
AV industry's perspective. "
The #AVintheAM thread produced
such a robust debate that AVIXA's Hansen
couldn't help but take notice. " As I read
Commercial Integrator NOVEMBER 2022
[the tweets], I realized that it comes down
to certain burgeoning factors, such as
labor-market issues, " he states. Noting that
this was covered in AVIXA's third-quarter
Macro-Economic Trends Analysis (META) report,
Hansen says, " Leading up to the past
decade, average market raises have risen
from 3% to 5% per year. And yet, many
companies haven't adjusted employees'
wages. Naturally, they are not motivated
fi nancially to work or stay. "
Expanding further, Neto chimes in,
saying, " When the economy got bad, employees
had to pick up the slack for others
who had quit or been laid off . " Those employees,
many of whom were afraid to lose
their jobs in uncertain times and a fi ercely
competitive job market, began multitasking
and taking on projects to which they
previously were not assigned. " In some AV
companies, you had project managers who
were not just leading complex projects but
also delivering and installing the gear, " he
remarks. " Eventually, they reached a point
where they had had enough. "
However, in Neto's opinion, this does
not mean that employees are " giving up. "
He frames it another way, " It is actually
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Commercial Integrator November 2022

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