Quiet Layoffs: Here Are The Real Reasons You’re Losing Your Job
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In 2020 and 2021, the United States experienced the Great Resignation. Tens of millions of Americans voluntarily quit their jobs to explore better options. This trend subsided as inflation skyrocketed. Americans went back to work. Many did so begrudgingly to low-paying or unfulfilling jobs.
This started the trend known as quiet quitting, where an employee does as minimal work as possible or even less on a job. While not directly related, employers are now using quiet layoffs as a face-saving job termination method. Quiet layoffs are just a new term for employers giving an employee subtle or overtly implied advance notice they will be soon terminated.
Quiet layoffs can be passive-aggressive, with employers passing an employee over promotions, or withholding pay raises or resources that help them do their job efficiently. Quiet layoffs make a work environment as legally unappealing as possible. Here are 10 reasons why you may find yourself on a quiet layoffs list.
1. Lying on Your Resume
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A work contract between an employer and an employee is built on trust. Never lie or fabricate a work history or skills on your resume. You will break the trust of your employer, potentially expose the employer to lawsuit liability, and ruin your own reputation. Careers are empowered by professional connections and references.
Lying about or fabricating your resume can destroy your and your employer’s current professional connections and network. If you are caught years after the fact, you may become a social pariah who has to move to find work, depending on the severity of the lies. If you do these things, don’t be surprised if you find yourself on a quiet layoffs list.
2. Lying to Your Employer
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Anyone can fall for a lie. Human beings want to believe what they want to believe, and employees want to believe that their employees tell them the truth. Employers sometimes become compartmentalized in their situational awareness or multitask too much to know what is going on all of the time.
It may be very easy for you to lie about your actions, work, and the extent of your contribution to a project, and spread office politics slander or gossip to a boss which can help you in the short term. In the long term, you may land on the quiet layoffs list.
3. Embarrassing or Provocative Social Media Posts
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Over 70% of employers now screen the social media accounts of their employers pre or post-hiring depending on the circumstances. The more high-profile and high-paying a job, the more conscious you must now be about the content you post on your social media.
There are numerous news accounts of people losing their jobs because of provocative pictures, videos, and posts on their social media. Many jobs now have morals or professionalism clauses in contracts that could put you on the quiet layoffs list if you break them.
4. Recording Your At Workplace Without Permission
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Many Millennials in recent years have publicly reported being fired for streaming videos or recording themselves and others at their places of work. Unless you work for the military or a corporation with operational secrets, it’s probably legal for you to record in your workplace. Still, it’s also perfectly legal for your employer to fire you or put you on a quiet layoffs list for doing that as well.
5. Stealing From Work
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“It’s only stealing if you get caught.” That is the creed of unscrupulous employees who steal money, resources, or secrets from their employers. In March 2024, a fast food manager was arrested for creating a ghost employee and pocketing over $20,000 in extra salary. You may start stealing pens, paper, and small items at first and then escalate to stealing more. Stealing from work never ends well, so don’t start. An employer can put you on the quiet layoffs list for stealing small and irrelevant items.
6. Creating a Hostile and Antagonistc Workplace
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As an employee, you must hang up your personal issues on the employee coatrack and pick it up when you leave. Get help for emotional issues if you have them, don’t let them fester; however, the workplace is not the place to deal with them. Wittingly or unwittingly creating a hostile and antagonistic work environment will get you fired sooner than being placed on a quiet layoffs list.
7. Violence in the Workplace
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Unless you are defending your own life, there is never any excuse for verbal or physical violence in the workplace. Over 30% of workplace mass shootings, the vast majority of them, occur in workplaces by recently fired, disgruntled employees. This is not to imply that you would ever do such a thing, but it’s the reality.
Employers are on edge about it and hypersensitive now when any violence in the workplace occurs. One instance of verbal or physical violence in the workplace can get you fired or in legal trouble; getting on the quiet layoffs list would be the least of your issues then.
8. Sexual Harassment
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Since the 2010s there has been a seismic shift in gender and office workplace politics. You must be careful now about the comments, jokes, and remarks you utter in the workplace, no matter your gender. Implied or overt sexual harassment, no matter your gender, could get you in legal hot water long before you need to worry about quiet layoffs.
9. Chronic Absenteeism and Lateness
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We live in an era where many people can work remotely or start their own businesses for little money relative to their business plan. It is better to consider your life options than make just enough effort to be chronically absent, late, and leave early from a job you don’t like. You will only engender resentment from employers and colleagues and make your professional life hard to endure.
10. Incompetence and Subpar Work
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The typical American employee spends 13 hours pretending to look busy or doing non-productive busy work weekly. 89% of employees waste anywhere between a minute to 30 minutes daily wasting time on the job. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but such lost productivity adds up and has consequences over days, weeks, months, and years for employers and employees alike. Everyone has bad days at work, but constantly striving not to work or working incompetently will get you fired sooner rather than later.
Quiet Layoffs Only Affect Those Who Don’t Care
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Are you fully engaged with your work responsibilities, colleagues, and employers at your job? Do you like your job and have a multi-year plan for your future? How are you strategizing to merge your ambition with your future job plans?
Quiet layoffs only affect employees who don’t care, have one foot out the door, or feel trapped in a job they hate but can’t leave. All plans take time. So, think about your future employment options, maintain your professional connections, and strategize how you will professionally attain them before sabotaging your current job.
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Allen Francis is a full-time writer, prolific comic book investor and author of The Casual’s Guide: Why You Should Get Into Comic Book Investing. Allen holds a BA degree from Marymount Manhattan College. Before becoming a writer Allen was an academic advisor, librarian, and college adjunct for many years. Allen is an advocate of best personal financial practices including saving and investing in your own small business.
