The expression "squeaky wheel gets the oil" has been around for centuries for the simple reason that it reflects a timeless problem across different life situations — those who try not to disturb the peace often get passed over for someone who may not work as hard but is more vocal in promoting their achievements and needs.
Over the last two years, social media has been very active in giving names to common workplace problems such as "quiet quitting" (slowly tapping out of a job) and "resenteeism" (remaining but growing more and more frustrated.) The abovementioned situation is increasingly popping up as "loud labor" on social media.
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Coined by Bayes Business School Professor André Spicer at the end of 2022, the term "loud laborers" has just now started taking off on social media by workers who may be frustrated about their own lack of advancement or recognition — usually in reference to the fellow colleague constantly bragging about how hard they work on social media.
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This one thing will help you spot and recognize a 'loud laborer'
"If you have had a colleague who spends more time talking about work than actually doing it, then you have witnessed a loud labourer first-hand," Spicer wrote in an article for The Guardian. "These are employees who see their core task as telling everyone what they have done."
After social media latched on to the term, it has taken on to mean both coining "hard at work" posts for sites like LinkedIn and constantly playing up their achievements to upper management.
It is also being spotted by HR professionals and others in management roles as a problem behavior to watch out for in the office — while Western culture encourages self-promotion, overdoing it can create an atmosphere of extreme competition and otherwise diminish morale among those who may also be working hard but not promoting themselves.
"The constant self-promotion may create an atmosphere of competition rather than collaboration," Vicki Salemi, career expert at Monster.com, recently told CNBC. "It may lead to an imbalance in perceived effort and recognition, which could impact team morale negatively."
Your colleague or employee is a 'loud laborer,' Here's what you can do
As with "quiet quitting," the term "loud laborer" was born out of a sense of frustration over being passed over for colleagues who may be better at promoting both real and imagined achievements.
"While some quiet quitters have silently opted out, the loud labourers have noisily opted in," Spicer wrote. "But in doing so, they have taken up only work that can easily be bragged about. This means people underinvest in the quiet and unflashy work that needs to be done to achieve anything."
On the employer end, some have reported spotting this behavior but not knowing how to put a stop to it. While good bosses should have good observational skills and always be taking a wide view of what's going on in the office, one solution could be to do regular check-ins rather than letting workers control when these discussions happen.
"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,'" Salemi said.
