The Top 3 Downsides of Quiet Cutting

While the term ‘Quiet Quitting’ has been around for less than 2 years since it was first coined, the phenomenon of employees knowingly giving less than their best efforts on the job has been around a lot longer than that. 

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The same can be said of ‘Quiet Cutting’-  a term being used for what some have come to consider the managerial counterpart to quiet quitting, in which employers deliberately alter the nature of an employee’s job/role with the unstated intent of causing that employee to quit so as to avoid having to fire them.

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While calling it ‘Quiet Cutting’ may be a relatively recent addition to the popular lexicon, not-so-subtly urging underperforming or otherwise unnecessary employees toward the door without forcing them through it is not exactly a modern invention either.

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In fact, almost 1 in 4 employers has engaged in quiet cutting behavior - with the vast majority of quit cutters (74%) claiming to do so for the sake of performance management. Further, 13% of surveyed employers intend to make some additional quiet cuts from their staff within the next year.

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Even though approximately 8 in 10 employers agree that the more professional approach would be to offer severance to employees whose absence has become more valuable to the company than their presence, it’s understandable why quiet cutting remains an all-too-common practice.  The apparent advantages of indirectly encouraging employees to leave their jobs voluntarily seem obvious, most notably saving on termination-related expenses and avoiding the direct confrontation required to end someone’s employment with your organizations.

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As this article in Bizwomen makes clear, however, the many downsides that accompany quiet cutting - which we have summarized and expanded upon below - far outweigh any benefits the practice may provide.

Why ‘Quiet Cutting’ Is Bad For Business

• Quiet Cutting Is Ineffective: One survey revealed that just under 4 in 10 employees who were ‘quietly cut’ actually ended up leaving the company on their own, while just over one-third of those who had been quietly cut were ultimately fired anyway, and the remaining ~25% presumably still have a job that they don’t want and that the employer doesn’t really want them to be doing, all of which are undesirable outcomes for all involved.
• Quiet Cutting Can Result In Damage To Your Talent Pipeline: More than half (53%) of quiet cuts happen to entry-level workers, which can not only have negative long term impacts on the development and nurturing of skills and experience internally, but can also damage the company’s reputation externally when that pattern of behavior is reported on by the younger generations who have greater sensitivities for equitable work treatment and fewer reservations about sharing their negative experiences at work in public via social media, etc. 
• Quiet Cutting Damages Trust Among All Employees: It should go without saying that employees who are being quietly cut instead of fired often experience reduced feelings of trust toward their employer. What may be less straightforward, however, is the demoralizing impact that watching their coworkers be manipulated and discarded via quiet cuts can have on the remaining staff. More than 6 in 10 (62%) of workers who saw a colleague be quietly cut had feelings of negativity toward their employer as a result and half experienced full-on feelings of betrayal even though they had not been personally betrayed. 

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Clearly, employers would be wise to tread lightly before making quiet cutting a component in their management tool kit given the potential repercussions and limited upside. 

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And these dynamics are especially important to keep in mind in light of the coming compensation discussions that will be happening at companies through the end of the current year and into the beginning of the next, given that passing over employees for promotions and pay raises is the elder cousin to quiet quitting, and given that more than 6 in 10 (63%) of workers plan on asking for a raise next year and about half of the companies that intend to give out raises next year plan to give raises to fewer than half of their employees. 

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You can read more about this topic here.