You Tube Quitter… As Informative as it is Entertaining

Recently Marina Shifrin, who worked at a news video company, decided to take to You Tube to submit her resignation in a You Tube video that, to date, has received more than sixteen million views.

Her issues according to her video resignation (that also features some pretty good dancing) were some disconnects with her boss.  As the video says, her boss “put an emphasis on quantity over quality.”

“For almost two years I’ve sacrificed my relationships, time and energy for this job,” she explains. “And my boss only cares about quantity and how many views each video gets. So I figured I’d make ONE video of my own.”

As amusing as the video is, it serves to illustrate a few critical components when hiring and retaining talent:

Be on the same page – Marina and her boss seem to disagree with what is important. Quantity or quality?  When hiring talent – you’re much more likely to retain and keep that talent happy by putting expectations up front – here at XYZ video, we just need you to crank out as much work every day as possible.

Agree on Metrics Specific for Your Business – In a vacuum, do these two really disagree?  Marina explains that her boss cares about how many views each video gets… so wouldn’t higher quality videos get more views? To that I would say a definite maybe.  This is, after all, a news outlet – so quantity is probably more important in order to comprehensively cover the news.  In another world, quality is more important – for instance Marina’s very own video is an evergreen one – there’s no expiration date on watching someone quit unlike an update on what the Mayor had to say on a given date.

Show Appreciation – Whether it is an accurate assessment or not, Marina clearly feels like she gave more than she got from her job. She talks about sacrificing her personal life and she clearly resents it.  Do you have employees that – or do you yourself – resent the time required to get the job done?  No one wins from burnout – make sure you talk with your employee (or boss) and come to an understanding on how much is too much.

Hiring and continued job satisfaction is not a one-way street. It requires agreement, appreciation, and an understanding on corporate goals to ensure that metrics are met without sacrificing job satisfaction.  Beyond communicating in the interview, continue to communicate… in person, not via You Tube.

When looking for a payroll or HR position or your next hire, spend some time with the Willory team – and less with You Tube.