Employers warned over ‘quiet firing’

That’s according to a new nationally representative study commissioned by law firm Irwin Mitchell into the issue of ‘quiet firing’ - the behaviour or actions by an employer that make employees feel like they’re no longer wanted, forcing them to quit.

Irwin Mitchell wants to raise awareness of the impact such poor behaviour can have on employee engagement and retention and the important measures managers should put in place to avoid the practice.

After surveying 70 people working in hospitality Irwin Mitchell found that 28% of workers in hospitality have been actively ignored by their manager, 34% of workers in hospitality have been in roles where they’ve not received feedback, 31% of workers in hospitality have purposely had information withheld from them making them want to leave their roles and 38% of workers in hospitality have experienced workplace bullying ‘disguised’ as banter.   

“Generally, the issue boils down to performance management and embedding a culture whereby continuous evaluation and feedback is normal,” says head of Irwin Mitchell’s consumer sector team Charlotte Rees-John. 

“Often managers need support and training on how to effectively performance manage their teams. Sometimes the impact of failing to deal with performance issues in the right way is underestimated.”  

“A lack of feedback was the predominant gripe that workers in the hospitality sector had with their current or previous place of work. Other management failings for employees include being ignored by their manager; being passed over for promotion; and being undermined in a meeting.”

 Commenting on the risks to businesses working in the sector, Charlotte added: “This type of behaviour can form grounds for constructive dismissal if it breaches the implied term of trust and confidence in the employment relationship and can lead to allegations of discrimination, but perhaps as important it can result it teams becoming disengaged and a lack of respect in line management.”