There has been a lot of media coverage recently about actions and behaviours in the modern workplace which are not properly communicated. Firstly, it was the concept of quiet quitting, which became so popular that it was named as one of Collins Dictionary’s words of the year. Now, it is the rise in prominence of quiet firing.
What is quiet firing?
Quiet firing occurs when a business owner or manager, by their behaviour, makes an employee’s job unpleasant or unrewarding in the hope that this action will push them to leave on their own terms rather than following any proper process to deal with issues.
Such behaviour could include:
- Holding back career progression – employees seeing their colleagues promoted while they remain in the same role.
- Denying salary increases – an employee isn’t being paid properly whilst their co-workers regularly receive pay rises.
- High-profile projects going to other co-workers – employers entrusting preferred projects to other team members.
- Being overworked – managers regularly changing an employee’s responsibilities, adding new tasks on top of an already busy workload, schedules unnecessary meetings, or just generally make a worker’s schedule hard to manage.
- Underworked – Alternatively, an employer could give an employee dull and meaningless tasks or insufficient work, which will demoralise them over time.
Quiet firing happens when the employer-employee relationship has deteriorated, beyond repair, over time and the manager or employer does not address the situation.
What trend has caused quiet firing?
Whilst the concept of quiet firing isn’t a new one, it has come into the spotlight since the move to hybrid working, a practice that many employers adopted because of the pandemic.
Statistics published by Microsoft on work trends have shown that while 87% of workers felt they were productive, 85% of managers felt that hybrid working made it difficult for them to believe this.
The move to home working appears to have accelerated the previously mentioned quiet quitting trend as lots of people sought to draw boundaries and naturally felt disconnected from their employers’ organisations. Those who have continued to work remotely might not be as engaged as other staff and there may be fewer opportunities for their managers to communicate with them.
In addition, there is evidence that some organisations are stepping up their employee surveillance systems with research (VMware) showing that 57% of UK businesses have already rolled out or are considering implementing measures that monitor workers’ productivity since the shift to hybrid working.
This sort of action could severally impact working relationships and could even put off prospective workers. In our view, technology should perhaps be used to enhance the employee-employer relationship. For example, communication platforms such as Teams or Zoom could be used as a tool to discuss problems that lead to disengagement.
Claims against employers as a result of quiet firing
Employers adopting the process of quiet firing could, if proved to be doing so, face some significant employment law issues.
The employee could potentially bring a constructive unfair dismissal claim, or a claim for harassment or other discrimination if the actions taken by their employer related to a protected characteristic.
As the threshold criteria to bring a claim for constructive dismissal are challenging, employees should keep records of their employer’s behaviour and refer to these instances when communicating their concerns to their employer informally, or formally if necessary.
Alternatively, the employee could bring a personal injury claim if they have experienced mental health issues because of a hostile working environment.
Comment
It is advisable that employers find a way to get on top of these trends – quiet quitting and quiet firing.
Communication with all employees is essential including those with hybrid and remote working patterns. Employers need to talk with their employees to understand how they are feeling and how motivated they are. If these conversations assist with bringing any issues (e.g., pay, promotions, working hours, relationships with colleagues) to the fore, that can only be good for people and organisations as these issues can be addressed.
How can we help?
Laura Kearsley is a Partner in our expert Employment Law team.
If you would like any advice in relation to the subjects discussed in this article, please contact Laura or another member of the team in Derby, Leicester, or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online enquiry form.
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