“Quiet Firing”, the consequence of passive-aggressive conflict

“Quiet firing” or “silent dismissal” is a phenomenon that acknowledges managers behaviour in limit employees development. Examples are: i) the absence of career and/or salary progression; ii) impossibility to participate in projects; and, iii) reduce personal development. And, despite not being a recent phenomenon, it is a growing concern for organisations.

With hybrid and remote work, the lack of connection between managers and their teams “quiet firing” has become more frequent; however, it depends on the sense of belonging and/or organisational culture. This reality promotes a feeling of devaluation and abandonment in employees. Even so, “quiet firing” can be observed in situations such as: i) assigning tasks with unattainable objectives; ii) the constant refusal of requests for days off; iii) the lack of feedback; iv) lack of interest in one-on-one moments (meetings and/or leisure time); v) inability to listen criticism in team meetings; vi) not valuing individual effort; among others.

When this distance occurs, a manager´s expectation is the employee voluntarily resign. Although, its origin can be broad: i) low levels of confidence in employee’s skills; ii) poor manager leadership skills; iii) lack of interest or lack of time/ability to talk with employees about their performance.

This phenomenon can be minimised through the integration of a progressive monitoring process, ie., employees feel more followed upon their performance tasks. And, managers need to understand which measures to be adopted for employees better results and motivation. The company must provide managers with training related to some employees typical behaviours upon detachment. The aim is to facilitate communication between both groups.

Concluding, in order to employees feel involved, valued and motivated, they must have a space for progression and a relevant role within the organisation. This reality happens through improvement plans, setting goals and, regular conversations to reduce the probability of “quiet firing”.