Do you suddenly have less responsibility at work? You could be getting quietly fired

Employers may be anxious about the workplace trend of "quiet quitting," but recent reports indicate that managers and company leaders are also participating in passive aggressive and punishing behaviors.  

A recent LinkedIn News poll of over 20,000 employee respondents found that 48% of employees have seen what's referred to as "quiet firing" in the workplace, and 35% have personally experienced this practice. 

"Businesses have always really struggled with how to approach terminations and how to approach people's skills being outdated compared to what the business needs," says Andrea Bartlett, the director of people operations at HR software company Humi. "So the concept isn't new, but it's always been a very taboo topic. And now it's getting a lot more focus."

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Quiet firing is a series of subtle actions and attitudes taken by employers that may lead employees to believe that they're undervalued at work or that there's change coming their way, whether it's their role within the department or even at the company at large. Whether intentional or not, employers create a sense of "quiet firing" by distancing employees from their routine and sowing doubt.

"Maybe employees are no longer involved in their weekly or monthly reporting and all of a sudden have less responsibility," Bartlett says. "Maybe their meetings keep getting bumped to later and later, so they no longer feel the sense that work is a priority." 

As a result, employees grow fearful that if they reach out and ask employers about some of these shifts in their role and expectations, it might expedite their termination. Instead, workers choose to stay quiet and become less and less engaged at work until ultimately, their disengagement prompts employers to finally fire them, or they leave on their own accord.

"It can affect people's career growth and their confidence when they're applying to jobs in the future," Bartlett says of this cycle. "Oftentimes, most employers will only think about the immediate time and place and not the longer term repercussions on the individual."

Beyond quiet firings, employees are also on alert for constructive dismissals, another form of indirect termination in which an employer creates working conditions that are not considered to be tolerable. Monetarily, that could look like cutting back hours or slashing a salary. 

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"Constructive dismissal, although it's still very much open for interpretation, is governed," says Bartlett, who lives in Ontario, Canadal. "Here, the threshold is 10%, so if you are suddenly making 10% less in wages whether it's base salary bonus or any sort of variable compensation plan that would be considered constructive dismissal, and [can be taken] to court or a legal professional." 

While these indirect methods of ending a business relationship with a client may seem like the easier way out, they're not just bad for company morale (not to mention, potentially leaving an organization vulnerable to litigation), they're building bad habits that can have long-term damaging effects on a company.

Instead, Bartlett urges organizations to train managers on resolving issues with open communication and transparency. If an employee is underperforming, identify and address those behaviors. Ignoring them doesn't serve the employee, and it doesn't serve the bottom line. 

"If you're not delivering feedback early and often and you're waiting instead for a monthly or a quarterly or an annual review, you're much more likely to find yourself in a situation where you might be quietly firing people," Bartlett says. "You have to prioritize giving constructive feedback to your team members when you see it happening."