Put on your tin foil hats, because there might be a conspiracy afoot to get you to bail on your job.
Driving the news: Employers are upping the use of performance improvement plans (PIPs). It’s a tool that is nominally meant to set goals for underperforming workers, but is generally acknowledged as a way to covertly tell these employees to start looking for another job.
- Per HR Acuity, 43.6 out of every 1,000 U.S. workers were subjected to PIPs and other formal performance procedures last year, up from 33.4 in 2020.
Why it matters: HR experts speculate that some workplaces are using PIPs and other methods to force out unwanted workers or create a pretense to fire them. This includes new RTO policies, pauses on promotions, fewer perks, and to-the-letter rule enforcement.
- That last strategy is perhaps best exemplified by the viral story from October when Meta fired about two dozen employees for misusing their $25 meal vouchers.
Why it’s happening: Many businesses are still overstaffed — or at least overstaffed with people who aren’t good fits — following pandemic hiring sprees. These “quiet firing” tactics allow employers to let people go minus the panic and scrutiny that come with layoffs.—QH