Quiet Quitting but what about Quiet Firing?

Quiet Quitting has taken the world of work and social media by storm in recent times, becoming the latest buzzword on the internet, which essentially is workers only fulfilling their job descriptions nothing more or less. But it seems the phenomenon has been quickly joined by ‘quiet firing’. In fact, internet searches for the term saw 16,300 searches in August 2022 versus virtually none in the month prior.

Whilst this may be a new term, this behaviour has existed in the workplace for quite some time. Quiet firing is the demoralisation of a person at work, as a result of toxic behaviour of a senior member of staff within an organisation which typically pushes a person out of employment.

What does Quiet Firing look like?

Exclusion from work meetings, lack of communication, unreasonably increased workload, unrealistic work requests, threatening behaviours, lack of career opportunities. These are all stark examples of what happens within an organisation that lacks strong and qualified leaders.

Leaders within organisations are using these techniques to push employees out of their workplace, while avoiding direct conversations with them about the issues at hand. In fact, a study conducted by Interact found that 69% of managers are uncomfortable communicating with employees and 37% said they’re uncomfortable providing direct feedback and criticism to employees about their performance.

Without direct leadership and support, how can employees be expected to progress and build upon their career to improve performance? It’s a symptom of weak leadership, to ice an employee out.

Quiet Firing as a Consequence of Quiet Quitting

There are more than 4 million Instagram posts tagged with #riseandgrund. In a world of hustle culture where work is glorified, and leisure time is seen as wasted time, could quiet firing be directed at employees who are simply choosing to just fulfill their own job responsibilities and not feed into this 24/7/365 model of working?

It’s food for thought, is this simply a case of weak leadership whereby people in senior positions are conflict avoidant or is this a direct consequence of quiet quitting where employees are being silently penalised for acting their wage.

See our article on Acting Your Wage to better understand Quiet Quitting.

How To Avoid Getting Quiet Fired

Don’t be fooled by that sentence above, if you are being subjected to quiet firing then the problem does not lie with you – but with the organisation that clearly did not deserve you in the first place.

First and foremost, if you are experiencing these behaviours approach your manager directly to vocalise your concerns. If they meet you with excuse after excuse for their behaviour then it’s probably not worth your time.

Remember, your skills are transferable, you can adapt and move between jobs and occupations, and toxic workplace culture will restrict your growth and your own personal wellbeing.

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Think about the examples of quiet firing behaviours – have you ever experienced these on your career journey ?

If yes – how did you deal with them?