Opinion: A LinkedIn survey of over 200,000 professionals revealed that 48% have witnessed a colleague being ‘quietly fired.’ This isn’t a fringe behaviour, writes Lauren Ryder. It’s a pervasive management failure playing out in plain sight.
If you thought ‘quiet quitting’ was a cultural crisis, its deliberate, toxic sibling will startle you. It’s called “quiet firing,” and it’s the insidious practice where a manager, lacking the courage for a direct conversation, systematically sidelines, demoralises, and starves an employee of opportunity until they resign.
The scale is shocking. A LinkedIn survey of over 200,000 professionals revealed that 48% have witnessed a colleague being ‘quietly fired.’ Let’s be very clear: this isn’t a fringe behaviour. It’s a pervasive management failure playing out in plain sight.
As a specialist in leadership and an expert on workplace culture, I see this not as a clever workaround, but as corporate cowardice. It’s the admission of a leader who would rather poison their team’s culture than do the hard, core work of their job: managing performance.
The underperformance conundrum
The core of quiet firing often starts with a simple reality: someone is underperforming. Perhaps their work quality has slipped. Maybe their attitude has changed. Or the role has evolved beyond their current capacity.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth that fuels this toxic cycle: It’s genuinely hard to fire people. The process can feel legally fraught, emotionally draining, and culturally damaging. Many leaders, faced with this complexity, choose the path of least resistance: avoidance. They think, “If I make their work life uncomfortable enough, they’ll just leave, and the problem will solve itself.”
This is where the logic (and the leadership) fails. You hired this person for a reason. At some point, they were the right fit, bringing valuable skills, corporate IP, and institutional knowledge. People change, roles evolve, but that inherent value rarely disappears entirely.
To quietly fire them is to willingly set fire to that investment. You’re not solving a performance problem by doing this. You’re ensuring you get zero return on your initial human capital investment while simultaneously poisoning your culture.
The high cost of passive aggression
The immediate victim is the targeted employee. But the real casualty is the entire organisation and, ultimately, you as the leader.
Research shows that witnessing unfair treatment creates “vicarious trauma,” eroding trust and psychological safety for the whole team. Observing this passive aggression reduces performance and increases turnover intention across the department. Your high performers are watching, and they’re drawing conclusions about your integrity as a leader.
Financially, it’s unwise. The cost of replacing an employee can range from 20 per cent to 200 per cent of their annual salary. Quiet firing ensures you pay this price after months of paying for declining output, absorbing team disruption, and carrying legal risk from a potential constructive dismissal claim.
It is the most expensive and reputationally damaging way to manage underperformance.
Your job is to manage. So do your job.
The alternative to quiet firing isn’t ignoring the problem. It’s doing the job you’re paid to do: managing.
Their performance is, in part, your responsibility. If an employee is failing, you must first look in the mirror. Did you set clear expectations? Have you provided regular, actionable feedback? Have you offered the support or training needed to bridge the gap? Quiet firing is what happens when a leader answers “no” to these questions but lacks the courage to course-correct.
Here is what you must do instead:
Have the courageous conversation. Schedule a private meeting. Be specific, factual, and compassionate. “I’ve noticed the last three reports missed the key data analysis we agreed on. This is impacting the project. What’s going on, and how can I help you get what you need to succeed?” This frames it as a shared problem to solve, not a verdict.
Re-engage their value. Remember why you hired them. Has the role outgrown them? Could their skills be better used elsewhere in the organisation? Perhaps a different department is a better fit. Exploring internal mobility retains that valuable corporate IP and demonstrates a commitment to your people, transforming a performance issue into a retention win.
Create a clear performance pathway. If the issue is correctable, co-create a 30- or 60-day performance improvement plan (PIP). This isn’t a secret document; it’s a transparent roadmap with clear objectives, regular check-ins, and defined support. It removes ambiguity and gives the employee agency in their own turnaround.
Act decisively. If, after genuine support and a clear pathway, performance does not improve, then you must act decisively and formally. This is difficult but clean. It’s conducted with respect, clarity, and in accordance with company policy. It allows for a dignified exit and sends a clear message to your team: standards matter, and we address challenges directly and professionally.
The bottom line for leaders
Quiet firing is the theft of an employee’s dignity, a team’s trust, and a company’s resources.
The mark of a truly strong leader is not the absence of difficult people issues, but the courage and competence with which they are handled. You cannot hide from your duty to manage.
Put down the coward’s playbook. Have the conversation. Manage the performance. Either you will salvage a valuable employee, or you will resolve the situation with integrity. Both outcomes are infinitely better than the toxic, expensive stain of quiet firing.
Lauren Ryder is a trusted advisor to CEOs, Boards, and Executive Teams navigating high-stakes organisational transformation. She specialises in leading complex change, from large-scale restructures and workforce strategy to enterprise-wide technology and AI adoption, that delivers measurable impact on culture, leadership alignment, and performance.
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