I’m going to have to really restrain myself not to make this episode too ranty. But I have been soooooooo fed up with the level of entitlement going around lately.

And when I say lately, I mean post COVID. There was definitely a switch, and it wasn’t a good one.

Now, it really depends on who you speak to, because many people will say that COVID improved most things and that life got so much better.

As if you think about it, it’s what kickstarted working from home, or flexible working in most companies. In our creative agency, we were doing that way before COVID, but it wasn’t the norm. We only did it every so often too.

So yeah, from the outside, more people talk about mental health openly, it’s become acceptable to put yourself first sometimes, there’s more awareness around work life balance and we’ve opened up possibilities due to the advancement in digital technologies.

However, there’s a whole other side of what happened to the workforce during COVID. Yes, lots of positive stuff came from these conversations, but some people took it to the extreme and they decided it meant they could slack off and do nothing, but still get paid.

Now, there’s this shift in energy, where employees think they have the power and they can refuse to do any work that they simply don’t enjoy. Or they can take time off whenever they want because of overwhelm and if you say otherwise, then you’re being a toxic boss.

I’ve spoken to so many small business owners over the last 4 years who are just freaking out. They can’t seem to get good staff anymore.

The attitudes have completely changed.

Small business owners have had to give in to every demand, only for the employees to still be unhappy. Then, I don’t even want to get onto the salary demands. They have been crazzzyyyyy. We have graduates with zero years of experience applying for a digital marketing assistant position with us wanting north of £80k as a salary.

Now, we advertise our salary bands quite clearly on every role so that we don’t waste anyone’s time.

This person would see the salary and demand more than double what was advertised. When we’d explain that this was out of our range, they’d reply with “I know my worth”.

Thank you for that, Instagram. Because that’s who I’m blaming. Social media in general.

The “I know my worth” posts that constantly get circulated are actually damaging people, not helping. Think about it… what is the purpose of these posts? To help those who lack the confidence to demand to be paid what they’re genuinely worth.

The people who do these probably are not great at speaking up about money issues and feel awkward about it. Maybe they don’t even realise their value, so need help realising their potential.

However, the people who already are super confident, and dare I say, arrogant, are not going to need to hear these words. But these are the people who absorb these posts and just regurgitate it. They get it in their big head that it means they can demand whatever they want because they want it and THEY believe they deserve it.

I’ve had people say to me in interviews “I don’t need to prove that I can do this job well.” And I’m thinking…. Isn’t that the whole bloody point of the interview?? But it’s somehow now considered rude to question someone’s ability.

It’s making things so difficult for entrepreneurs right now who are trying to ease their workload and hire people. But who do you hire if they’re all so expensive and don’t want to actually work?

But it’s not their fault – it’s society’s, right?! There’s so much focus now on doing what’s right for employees and then all the TikTok videos showing a DITL of an employee at different places, which are completely unrealistic. We’ve had people take a job with us and get annoyed when they have to do anything other than make dances for TikTok. They GENUINELY thought that that was what the entire job would be – TikTok dances, drinking and eating cupcakes.

All these things are what started that whole quiet quitting era we saw, and there’s still some of that attitude left in the air.

Of course, there are some incredible employees out there and thankfully I still have some. But it’s getting harder and harder to find.

So if you’re a founder looking to hire right now, definitely take your time. I know it seems like you desperately need help because you’re so swamped and overworked and without finding someone to help, you’re going to burn out.

I get it. I’ve been there. But also, please trust me when I say that hiring the wrong person will only cause you more stress!

If you’re also bootstrapping, look at getting in contractors too so that you’re not overcommitting to salaries. I’ve hired too quickly and then realised they don’t actually have that much work to do. You end up paying too much and they get bored. It’s a lose lose.

Especially with the budget announcements now, contracting seems like a better option. Plus, the way the market is going, more and more people are leaving employment and going freelance, so you have a much bigger pool of talent to choose from.

And on that note, the entitlement situation doesn’t just relate to employees. Oh boy. Founders are getting even more entitled than ever and it’s getting quite disgusting.

Now, you’ve always had your entitled folk – those who grew up with more money than others and just believed they were of a higher status. That’s kinda par for the course. But then you also have those people who had helicopter parents and they were sheltered from failure as a child.

There’s so much research around helicopter parenting and how it contributes to feelings of entitlement and a lack of emotional regulation in children. This then affections professional relationships and decision-making in adulthood.

Studies show though, that those who have been brought up in this way are more likely to overestimate their abilities and undervalue collaborative efforts. Which is kinda interesting because they often struggle with autonomy and often want others to solve their problems as they’re not as good at making decisions. But because they push away collaboration, they’re often not surrounded by people who can help!

You can really see this in entrepreneurship at the moment. There’s a new founder every minute. Some of them have come from money and do not want to go down the traditional job route as the idea of slogging away in corporate settings just does not appeal. So, they start their own brand doing something fun.

A lot of the time it’s not that meaningful, but it’s a passion project and they have a lot of financial resources behind them so they can do quite well.

However, we’ve seen now that some of these individuals enter the world of entrepreneurship and constantly expect success and support. So when they’re faced with challenges, they feel victimised and launch into that victim mindset. Check out the episode on this from a couple of weeks ago!

But the problem in the world of entrepreneurship at the moment is that it’s very heavily glamourised. It’s all about the vanity metrics and perception of success.

The entrepreneurs that people talk about all have a YouTube channel, they’re very active on social media with huge followings and great engagement, and they are constantly seen to be doing something or hanging out with cool people.

So, now, this has caused there to be a lot of faking it until you make it in entrepreneurship because people want to LOOK successful so they can show off to their friends.

There’s now even so much hype around social media stats that these entrepreneurs are believing their own hype and becoming so entitled that they expect instant success without any effort. They consider themselves influencers and expect free promotion, publicity and brand deals because of their social media following.

The amount of people I see asking for their company to be featured in TechCrunch or Forbed when they haven’t even done anything is crazy. It’s because someone else has paid for the coverage, or lied about the coverage and so they want it too.

While I’ve been working with partners for N0BS, I’ve been speaking to so many of the brands about our partnership terms and they’re often so apprehensive about what to offer. This is because apparently, entrepreneurs demand so much from them “just because” they’re entrepreneurs. It’s like a badge of honour now and they use their social following as a currency.

But with all this external validation, these entrepreneurs do develop this insane level of entitlement. They expect the world. They overvalue their ideas and expect recognition or investment without demonstrating traction or hard work.

They develop this perceived specialness about themselves and it leads to narcissistic traits. Again, it can easily come down to childhood if they had parents who blamed others for the children’s mistakes. These entrepreneurs then struggle to take responsibility and it’s always the fault of their “dumb staff” or the “stupid market” or perhaps a “competitor screwing them over”.

Entitlement can be really detrimental in entrepreneurship, whether it’s in the founder or the employee. The problem is, there’s so much content on social media that’s pushing this. In addition to the examples I gave earlier, there’s the whole manifestation trend that’s happening. People are creating “motivational” content that makes things look super easy. All you have to do is write something down and believe in it and it will come true – no action needed.

We are in a world of instant gratification. You click something and you get what you need in seconds. So, there’s not as much patience out there anymore and people expect instant results everywhere.

So what can we do?

Well, entitlement usually represents something a lot deeper – perhaps they’re masking underlying fears or inadequacies. If we understand the root of the entitlement, ask appropriate questions and then communicate clear boundaries, then this should help to put you on the same wavelength.

I think some radical candor here is also necessary. You need to be really clear and articulate what you can or cannot provide and try to keep the conversation grounded in reality to avoid any emotional escalation.

If you’re dealing with employees like this, it’s really important to lay things out clearly and fairly. Lengthen your application process if you need to and include personality tests and other screening procedures to get the right people.

I know it may put people off, but the right people are the ones who are willing to go through it all.

Ask them to explain what value they bring to the team and how they will contribute. If they don’t think they need to because they don’t have anything to prove, then this is a red flag.

For the founders showing entitlement, then my suggestion is to just look at the facts. Just because someone has a large social media following, it doesn’t mean they run a good business. It doesn’t even mean that they have any good skills to offer.

These days, it’s so easy to manufacture a social media following, that anyone can do it. They can buy followers, fake engagement, the lot.

The people you look up to could have faked their entire business.

But look at what they’ve REALLY done. Meet them in person. Speak to their real customers. Don’t just take “social proof” as the evidence for their success.

The more validation you give to the people with these big followings, the more entitled they will be. If you buy their courses and constantly agree with everything they say in their comments because you think it’s “networking”, then you’re just feeding their ego.

Of course, there are fantastically knowledgeable people with large followings and you may agree with what they have to say and want to network with them. But please do your homework first.

If you’re not sure about anyone, please feel free to message me and I will always give you my no bullsh*t opinion. But if someone feels off, they may just well be.

Anyway, I hope this episode was helpful, and if you feel like someone else needs to hear this today, please feel free to share it with them.

But until next week, keep sniffing out the bullsh*t.