6 Subtle Signs You're Being 'Quiet Fired' From Your Job
It can feel isolating and hopeless to be forced out.
damircudic | Canva You’ve heard of quiet quitting, but what can you do if you’re being quiet fired? According to a LinkedIn poll, 35% of people reported experiencing this problem directly, while 48% observed it occurring in their workplace. Unlike quiet quitting, quiet firing is much more sinister.
Essentially, it’s when a manager works to make life at that job so untenable that their employee is forced to quit. This saves the company severance, sure, but it also gives them cover to point a finger when the employee leaves. A real “It’s not me, it’s you” situation.
I was only six weeks into a job when I logged in to find that my boss no longer worked at the company. Though I never got confirmation about what happened, he disappeared overnight, so I assumed something bad must have happened.
I was automatically assigned a new manager from my department. In my six short weeks with the company, I had seen my new boss oppose almost every decision my former boss had made. I dreaded meetings with the two of them because it often devolved into arguing.
As his newest hire, I got the feeling that maybe my new manager had a bad impression of me just because of my proximity to him. In my first meeting with her, after he was fired, I got confirmation when she let me know that she didn’t love that I was hired as a remote employee and probably wouldn’t have done that herself.
Immediate red flag. Unfortunately, the flags kept coming until each day was like a wall of crimson. Before my time in the workplace, I thought if someone got fired, it was really direct. Maybe it would look like a meeting where your boss told you to pack your bags, turn in your badge, and never come back.
Though I’m sure that happens, in my experience, getting fired can also be slow torture until the employee breaks and leaves. There’s a lot of talk about quiet quitting, but there should be more conversation about quiet firing.
Here are 6 subtle signs you're being quiet-fired from your job:
1. Your boss suddenly enforces a new rule
Out of nowhere, I had to be in the office one to two times a week even though I lived hours away and had been fully remote up to that point.
2. Your boss retroactively creates rules
After looking at my monthly output, I now needed to be doing double what I was currently doing and reported to her boss that I had been failing against that rule for the entirety of my employment.
3. You're chastised for not going to 'optional' team outings that aren't during work hours
After not going to brunch or barre class with some of the other female employees on a Saturday, I was chastised because I “wasn’t a team player.”
4. Your boss tells you you need to improve, but won't share how
She told me that I had one month to improve or she would begin the process of firing me but wouldn’t tell me the criteria she would be using to measure if I was improving.
5. You feel like your boss is setting you up to fail
Gave me multiple projects with deadlines in the past and told the client it was my fault that they were off schedule.
6. Your boss stops including you in meetings
Scheduled meetings without me, invited me last minute and then told the group that I did not show up for the meeting. To any outsider, it’s pretty obvious that I was in a no-win situation. Though I didn’t deserve that, I did learn a few lessons about what to do for anyone who finds themselves in this unfortunate situation.
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Janica Kaneshiro is a writer and life coach dedicated to helping women, queer folks, and BIPOC people navigate major life changes and find themselves in the process. She is a contributing writer focusing on DEIA topics, relationships, communication, workplace conflict, and self-improvement.