A recent trend that many employees were taking advantage of is “quiet quitting.” Quiet quitting is a silent protest attempting to combat unhealthy work conditions by doing the bare minimum of work.
Some employers are also engaging in a trend called “quiet firing.” Quiet firing is the act of making a job unsustainable for an employee with the intent of trying to fire them. The term may be new, but it’s a practice that many employees have suffered from.
Here’s what you should know if you believe you’re a victim of quiet firing:
Has your employer excluded you from work meetings?
Communication between your co-workers may be crucial to your job. This may mean keeping constant conversations with co-workers through text, emails or company chats, or you may attend frequent work meetings. If you’re suddenly removed from conversations, your co-workers are not responding to you or you were excluded from work meetings, then your employer may be trying to make you irrelevant in the workplace or impact your work performance.
Did you get a poor work performance review?
Performance reviews are often used to decide whether an employee should be given a promotion or raise. A common way employers will try to quiet fire employees is by giving them a poor work performance review. You may even have been promised a raise or promotion and given excellent reviews over the year. A poor performance review may be a way of gaslighting you to leave your job.
Are you overworked/underworked?
Your workload may have changed drastically in the last week or month. Maybe you were given so much work that it’s impossible to complete everything. Or, you may have been given so little work that you don’t feel like you are needed at your job. Either of these situations may be done purposefully by your employer so that you’re tempted to leave for better work conditions or opportunities.
Quiet firing may be a form of workplace retaliation. If you’re a victim of workplace retaliation, then you may benefit from learning more about your legal options.
