There is a new trend emerging among workers today – the trend of quiet quitting. Essentially, quiet quitting is about rejecting the idea that workers should take on additional tasks and responsibilities beyond what their job description entails. It is about avoiding the hustle culture to prevent burnout and stress.

Quiet quitting may be gaining ground, but what if the reason for workers having trouble at work is because of another hurdle – a form of bullying by a toxic boss? What if “quiet firing” is holding workers back from being productive, efficient and happy at their job?

Read more: Beware the trend of 'quiet quitting'

The concept of quiet firing

Quiet firing happens when employers demoralise their workers until they decide that they want to quit or feel like they have no other choice but to quit. Like quiet quitting, quiet firing is not an entirely new concept. It is very similar to “constructive dismissal” and “managing out,” which are terms that refer to an employee resigning due to a hostile work environment.

Is your boss silently holding you back?

What are the tell-tale signs that your boss is quietly edging you out of the company?

Your boss raises your workload to levels that you can’t keep up with.

It’s easy to detect high expectations from your manager but, in quiet firing, the workload is getting more impossible to manage.

Your boss postpones or ignores your career advancement requests.

You are up for a raise or promotion, but your manager is ignoring that next phase for you. And so, you end up feeling that you aren’t getting the promotion you deserve.

Your boss is micromanaging you.

If your manager is constantly on your back about tiny tasks, they might be in the process of making your work life utterly difficult.

Your boss uses passive aggressiveness to nag you and fault you.

Your boss does not care whether they humiliate you in front of other people or not.

Your boss gives you the worst tasks.

You always get assigned the tasks that nobody else wants to handle and are often not even part of your own job description. Your boss does this just because.

Read more: The good and the bad of quiet quitting

Your boss cuts back on your hours without any reason.

Your manager slashes your work hours without providing a proper context for doing so, shuts down questions, and prevents you from raising concerns.

Your boss leaves you out of the loop.

This time, your manager doesn’t bother CC’ing you in an important email even if you would likely need that information to do your job. You are also kept out of vital meetings.

Your boss constantly talks about you behind your back.

Here and there, you hear rumblings that your manager talks about you negatively. They constantly criticise and gossip about you.

Employees can clear the air with their bosses if they feel that they are out of options. They can share with their bosses and HR that they feel unfairly treated. 

However, in doing so, employees would have to provide evidence – such as emails and paper trails or correspondence with bosses and co-workers – to show that the employee in question is indeed productive and efficient at their job but is being edged out.