“Quiet Firing” is originally an American term that describes a situation where an employer makes an employee’s job so unpleasant or unrewarding that the employee leaves the organisation of their own accord. This passive aggressive behaviour has been around for many years, and in the UK it falls within the terms of “constructive dismissal” – a practice so egregious that it was outlawed by the Employment Rights Act 1996.
No such law exists in the US, where the practise seems to be on the increase. It would be very unwise for British based employers to follow the same methods, as it puts them at risk of litigation and is also completely the wrong approach to management.
Lou Campbell, Lou Campbell, employee counsellor and programmes director of Wellbeing Partners says:
“Ignorance of the wider issues affecting staff engagement is often at the root of quiet firing and there is a clear answer to this – communication, communication, communication! If a manager is not happy with the effort or output from an employee, they need to address the issue head on to identify the underlying causes.”
So, what are the underlying causes and how can managers respond effectively?
Burnout: many employees are burnt out following the pandemic and are struggling to engage with their work. Wellbeing Partners provides more than 4500 employee counselling sessions each year to British workers and 87% of those seeking support for their wellbeing are presenting with signs of burnout.
Lou Campbell comments on this directly:
“If burnout is the underlying cause of low performance, the employee should be encouraged to seek support from a mental health professional who can help the employee, return them to good health and hopefully better productivity and engagement.”
Identifying burnout is not simply about understanding employees’ malaise but recognising the contribution they have made. Campbell continues:
“Employees have worked extremely hard to keep their employer’s organisations afloat through a global pandemic, and the obvious result of this is exhaustion and a degree of withdrawal.”
Poor Management: managers using “quiet firing” to get rid of unwanted employees are displaying poor and outdated management practices, defined by a lack of interpersonal skills. Again, communication is key and active listening is required so that the manager can hear what the issues are and collaborate on a plan to improve the situation.
As Campbell explains:
“Good managers get to know individual team members and what motivates them to do good work. If a manager doesn’t know what the problem is and uses passive aggression to ‘get rid’ of employees, that is not good management. Leaders and HR teams need to train managers in listening skills and relationship building.”
Grievance Process: as a last resort, a “performance management plan” can be put into place to support the employee if they are still not producing good work. This is a well-worn and legal path to address the situation which may result in a grievance process being triggered and in some cases may result in the employee losing their job. However, in most cases this process helps employees to improve their performance in a collaborative way.
Let’s retire the concept of “Quiet Firing” and get back to good management practices that get the most out of employees doing their best under difficult circumstances. The pandemic has had a similar effect on society as a war – millions of deaths and long-term illnesses, dramatic upheavals to society and workplaces. Imagine the uproar if we discovered that hard-working people were “quietly fired” after the second world war, their dedication cast aside as meaningless. This is quietly happening in this post-pandemic 2022 workplace, and it is time to show respect to hard working, largely burnt-out British people.