“Quiet firing”: a trend where bosses push you to quit

Recently, your line manager refused your leave request for the All Saints’ Day vacation. Recently, you have fewer and fewer responsibilities in the company. It prevents you from working properly. The desire to find a job elsewhere has even tormented your mind. Without realizing it, you have become a victim of “silent dismissal”. But what is it precisely?

“Quiet firing”: what is it?

We know the “quiet quitting”, this phenomenon of silent resignation which affects many young employees. At the moment, another trend is emerging in the world of work: that of “quiet firing”. She refers to this sneaky tactic that some managers put in place to push their employees out.

Appeared on TikTok, this expression is at the origin of a short video in which the American influencer DeAndre Brown, denounces the springs of this most dubious managerial strategy. The latter consists of demotivating an employee until he has no choice but to leave the company out of boredom or frustration. Therein lies the flaw in this method. His departure will not be decided by mutual agreement between the two parties, it would be far too easy. The objective is therefore to push the person to his last limits so that he has a single departure option: resignation.

Quiet firing manifests itself in different forms. Even if the warning signs are numerous, it is not always easy to detect them.

An employer wishing to hasten the resignation of one of his employees can, for example, refuse him a raise or a promotion for several years in a row. He can also restrict him to monotonous tasks, remove responsibilities from him, refuse him any reasonable request for leave, or even claim the merits that should be due to him. Everything is done so that the employee “in the crosshairs” totally loses his motivation and no longer finds his place in the company.

In short, this dismissal by wear and tear can be spread over several months, even several years. In any case, the best solution remains to act before suffering from “brown out”, or even “burn-out”. As soon as you notice that you are a victim of “quiet friring”, do not hesitate to talk about it around you. Having support can only do you good.

Moreover, although this “silent dismissal” is making the buzz on social networks, the idea is not entirely new. For years now, the shadow of being “put in the closet” has been hanging over employees, regardless of their profile or sector of activity. However, the shock of COVID-19 has prompted many of them to question their relationship with work, and to point out all the excesses of a professional world in search of balance.

Big resignation, “quiet quitting”, “quiet firing”… All these terms have, in reality, one and the same goal: to push the leaders to rethink the organization and the relations in their company to improve them. The challenge is on.