Work is rough right now.

I mean, the world is rough right now.

But it seems like work, whatever that means to you, is particularly bad.

The impending recession, the rise of automation and AI, weird post-pandemic management ploys, and that 73% of workers right now are contemplating quitting their job could all contribute to workplace misery seeming particularly pronounced. This includes tech and office jobs once considered fairly lux, many of which are facing massive layoffs and automation. It’s bad enough that 1/5 of Americans hate their jobs so much they wouldn’t wish it on an enemy. 

Still, it’s not all bad news for workers. These troubling vibes probably helped with the resurgence of the labor movement — or least, they didn’t hurt. From the WGA Writers Strike to UPS, to the many other unions picking up steam in their rank-and-file organizing, workers are unionizing like never before.

And, less labor-y, these bad work vibes have also led to some bizarre phrases proliferating in the culture, including “quiet quitting,” and “ghosting” — in other words, doing your job and going home. People, particularly people with MBAs, love to make up words, so the ubiquity of these phrases isn’t particularly interesting compared to say, workplace strikes growing by 52% in the last year.

Quiet Quitting Hits The C Suite

But forget about workers for a second. Who cares about them?

Because, lately, it seems that workplace melancholia isn’t just for employees. The suffering has seeped upwards, and those at the top, the people who really matter, are starting to feel it too.

Powerful, very wealthy people are starting to notice that they’re miserable, in spite of their stock options. And as a consequence, a sense of workplace malaise is increasingly present in one of my favorite morbid obsessions: the world of workplace leadership and self-help.

These self-help pundits, primarily active on LinkedIn, love to recommend both dubious life hacks and comprehensive organizational shifts. In the early stages of the pandemic, they got in their feelings, quoting Brene Brown and pushing for “radical authenticity.” As workers started to have more power than employers in the marketplace, they moved to “being your real self” (though they never went as far as to suggest things like “paying people more.”)

But the days of radical vulnerability are over.

Work is so bad right now that even performative productive feels like too much of a heavy lift for the LinkedIn C Suite.

So, since “unionize” or “build a working labor movement” isn’t exactly a part of the managerial toolkit, these erratic LinkedIn scam artists are suggesting something else.

The same tactics used by their employees.

“Don’t Like the Meeting You’re In Right Now?” asks one recent CBNC article. “Just Leave.”

A more holistic piece in Fast Company advises leaders on “how to manage quiet quitting when you want to quiet quit too.”

If you’re twisted, it’s kind of delightful to see the MBA-fluencer set espouse “Ghosting In a Girl Boss Way.”

And I definitely see Ghosting Leadership among local government officials in Chicago (though I doubt that they’ve ever read any of the LinkedIn posts prescribing this).

Including Dorval Carter Jr., Chicago Transit Authority’s President.

Chicago Transit Authority: It’s Tough Out There.

Though the CTA was voted as one of the top transit systems in the world recently, the department is facing extensive complaints.

The most prominent issue is regarding ghost buses, or trains and buses that show up hours late or never show up at all.

Ridership is down 50% post-pandemic, and they’ve had trouble retaining bus drivers and train operators. The group Commuters Take Action has called for service improvements and more investment in the CTA, as well as transparency in hiring and retention, linked to the service gaps.

There are also myriad concerns about security on CTA. Thus far the CTA has addressed these concerns by adding more private security guards including a $30.9 million contract with security dogs, but they’ve also struggled to hire and retain for those roles. In a story by Block Club Chicago, one guard who asked that their name not be used, said “They just gave us a flashlight. What are we gonna do with a flashlight? … We’ve been spit on, attacked, all types of stuff.”

And, like Policy Director Julie Dworkin of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless said in the same article, funding officers on trains “disproportionately impacts” unhoused people, including policies prohibiting sleeping and bags blocking seats. Safety on transit, particularly for people who have nowhere else to go, was highlighted by the horrific public attack in New York that killed Jordan Neely on public transit this week.

Ghosting City Council Council

Alder Andre Vasquez (40th) has made CTA reform a critical part of his work, potentially because the entirety of the New Urbanist Memes for Transit Teens meme group lives in the 40th Ward.

Though I’m sure if you ask Vasquez or any other transit advocate in Chicago they would happily spend the rest of the day sending you bar charts and explaining their policy agenda, right now there’s one very simple change they’re trying to make.

So far, their platform has been: “getting the people in charge to show up to meetings sometimes.” Because Carter, the President of the CTA, isn’t showing up to the Transit Committee meetings they’ve called.

From dressing up as a ghost bus to filing an ordinance that mandates Carter’s attendance, Alder Vasequz has done a lot to put pressure on Carter: simply to show up and talk about the issues facing the CTA. The CTA has responded to many of these concerns in the media and with scorecards — but they’re not going to these meetings.

People on Twitter have told me that Carter’s not legally mandated to comply with Vasquez’s request (which is in part why Vasquez filed the ordinance), that he holds monthly meets that neither I (or Vasquez?) attend — and that Carter shouldn’t have to attend additional meetings to report on his work. On one hand, I am a closeted LinkedIn tech guy: I read every Cal Newport book and believe that no one should have to go to meetings if they don’t really want to and don’t feel the imperative to.

On the other hand, I don’t make $350,000 to manage the Chicago Transit Authority, Dorval’s raised salary in 2022.

It’s also not the best look to ghost these meetings while still making time to check out City Club Chicago, the political forum for city officials whose long-time executive director was just found guilty of attempting to bribe Mike Madigan.

It’s especially not great to not ride the CTA at all. As Block Club Chicago reported a few days ago, Carter used the Chicago Transit Authority once in 2021, which means he was on the CTA three times fewer than my mom that year when she came to visit for the weekend.

Others have also speculated that Carter’s avoidance is not Girlboss Ghosting but instead, a 3D chess move from Lightfoot (btw, since it seems weird not to mention it, I hope Greenfield gets better soon).

Either way, Carter’s ghosting is an example of how easy it is to throw a spoke in the train wheels (sorry) of local government.

Because what Carter is doing is a little different from other city officials, or the many recent resignations, (resigning, btw, is different from quiet quitting because you actually quit). He’s a Leadership Quiet Quitting Champion.

Not showing up to a meeting really is a power move, just like the LinkedIn influencers say, when you’re in charge of implementing any potential directives from those meetings.

It means that many of the issues in CTA not only can’t be resolved but also can’t be discussed (beyond the department itself, where the meeting agenda has a different vibe than “having to answer questions you don’t like”). It’s hard to discuss the impact of different public safety measures on transit when you don’t show up to the meetings about transit.

A Post-Ghosting City Council (and CTA)?

As Brandon Johnson takes office on May 15th, the ghosting ghost bus situation could be over. Johnson could appoint a new head of the CTA, or not. Carter was originally appointed in 2015, by Emanuel, and he continued on with Lightfoot.

Like I said to begin with: work is bad right now, for everyone. It’s hard to make things work well — even with a lot of power and a pretty wild salary. So maybe there’s nothing that Dorval Carter Jr. could do differently to address ridership, security, ghost trains, or staff retention.

It seems rough to be in local government on any level.

So maybe everything that’s happening right now is as good as it gets in terms of managing this wildly complex transit system. But we don’t know, because Carter has no technical impetus to come to these committee meetings: he can ghost away.

With ridership down, complaints rising, and security concerns growing, it would be cool to have a CTA leader who takes progressive and meaningful action to address some of CTA’s problems, including… coming to meetings.

And the sheer challenge of getting Carter to those citywide meetings reflects how inertia and old corruption can stall even the simplest parts of running a city, even with a Mayor and many new alders trying to change it.

Let's hope that the future for the CTA (and Chicago) includes open communication, transparency, and, most importantly, nothing you could find in a LinkedIn influencer post.

Want to get involved with CTA reform, or have a great ghost bus costume in mind? Check out Commuters Take Action. You can also follow @Andrefor40th @chi_streets @SlowRollChicago on Twitter for transit advocacy and other updates.