‘People aren't quiet these days … once you start to damage your reputation, it is going to be harder to attract people’: academic explains HR’s role preventing quiet firing
May 26, 2025
A recent survey by Zety found that nearly three-quarters of employees said they’ve experienced “quiet firing” tactics, such as increased workload without pay, micromanagement, and exclusion from projects.
It also found that 70 per cent of the U.S. workers surveyed believe return-to-office (RTO) mandates are being used to intentionally push them to quit.
Canadian employers may think they’re avoiding a costly severance process by quietly nudging an employee out of the workplace, but as Ian Gellatly, professor of management at the Alberta School of Business, explains, the tactic may be opening them up to legal and reputational risk.
“It's a very passive way of dealing with your people problems. And, unfortunately, that approach, although it seems easy on one hand, it can be more damaging in the long run,” he says.
“It sends messages to other people. If you're a member of a team and you're a good player, and you know the manager is doing this, targeting one of your team members, that sours the entire team. So when we talk about the impact on culture, I think it's quite real.”
For employers north of the border, quiet firing can expose employers to legal risk, when employees sense they’re being pushed out and decide to lawyer up. In Canada,...
Tensions between India and Pakistan are well-known, including accusations over water sharing under the Indus Waters Treaty. China, while not a party to that treaty, controls the upper reaches of r...