Your boss has just informed you that the high value project you’ve been working on for the last four months is being transferred to another staff, who had contributed zero effort to the project from the start.
Your workload has been significantly reduced and your access to certain information has been revoked.
You must be confused as to what is happening and nobody wants to talk to you about it.
Bad news, mate, I think you are being “quietly fired.”
“Quiet firing” is the opposite of the new-age term, “quiet quitting.”
While quiet quitting means doing the bare minimum of work before leaving a company, quiet firing means making an employee’s work life miserable until he or she decides to leave.
The Philippine Labor Law protects the rights of laborers, employees, and workers from abuse. Under the law, termination of a tenured worker without justification is illegal.
Your boss cannot just fire you; he needs a legal reason to. And if you have a good performance, it’s even harder to do.
So instead of doing the dirty work of waiting for you to fail so it can be documented and filed properly for your eventual termination, your boss has taken the route of making your work life so miserable you’ll want to leave yourself.
Let’s be clear, quiet firing is a sign of leadership weakness in an organization. It means that your boss is a coward and can’t properly communicate with you what he thinks is wrong with your performance.
So what could be the reason why you’re being quietly fired?
If you had a pretty good performance the past month, you could be a victim of office politics.
Some people within the office are insecure about their positions so they seek to control and manipulate other people as a show of power.
If you stood up to an office bully recently who might have been chummy with top management, best believe the whispers that reach their ears wouldn’t be in your favor.
Note that a boss who makes decisions out of grapevines isn’t someone to emulate.
On the other hand, you could have been performing negatively, too.
Your direction may have been amiss from the company’s direction. You don’t have a good relationship with your co-workers and nobody likes working with you.
Yet you really haven’t done anything wrong to constitute a termination.
Perhaps you’re just not a right fit for the company and that’s something you need to reflect on.
Now if you’re sure you are being quietly fired, you have two options: to fight for your place in the company, or to save your peace and resign.
If you choose to fight, you’re going to have to be smart. Talk to a leader you trust and confide in him or her your thoughts.
Find a way to talk to your boss to discuss these uncomfortable changes. Reiterate your commitment to the company and the management’s direction.
Essentially, kiss ass. But only if you really want to stay.
If not, resign peacefully and leave.
The chaos of life is constant, but you choose the chaos you tolerate. You can choose not to sit in this chaos ANYTIME.
You’ll find a better job in a better company with a boss that values your hard work and passion.
And remember, God rewards pure intentions.