When an employer wants to be rid of an employee for blatantly illegal reasons, they sometimes resort to a tactic that has been dubbed “quiet firing.”
Quiet firing is when an employer tries to get you to be the one to make the decision to leave, usually by making your life unpleasant or pointless. That way, they think, they get the end result they wanted – you being gone – without running the risk of you later claiming wrongful termination. Or that is what employers who do it tend to believe.
Where employers are wrong is that it may very well still be possible for you to bring a claim against them if you can show that they did “quiet fire” you, even though it appears that you merely chose to leave.
When might an employer do this?
Times an employer could turn to quiet firing include things such as:
- They don’t like people of your nationality or skin color
- They resent the fact that you reported them to the authorities for safety violations
- They are annoyed that you turned down their sexual advances
- They do not want to have to give you the pregnancy leave the law requires them to
- They do not want to have to make the reasonable accommodation you requested for your disability
If your employer came out and fired you over any of those things, they likely know full well they could get in a lot of trouble for it. Hence, their sneaky attempt to persuade you not to stay.
Quiet firing is not permitted under employment law, so be sure to learn more about your options if you suspect this is what your employer is doing.