This is the shit they keep complaining about on Fox News, especially the female anchors, so I'm gonna talk about it!
Quiet firing is the opposite dynamic: an employer subtly makes an employee’s job so unpleasant—removing responsibilities, excluding them, withholding raises, or giving impossible tasks—that the employee eventually quits voluntarily. This way, no compensation has to be paid.
But I want to address something deeper - these map to reproductive strategies in evolutionary biology, where competing organisms use indirect tactics against each other to maximize their respective outcomes.
So let's say conditions and leverage are poor for the organism with less structural power. In quiet quitting, energy is conserved rather than expended, and this is done until:
Normies don't want to admit to this - not even the ones on Fox news - because they don't like the notion that human being are animals. Mammals with high metacognition, sure, but still animals. Because of this resistance, information regarding these tactics and behaviours does not tend to reach the general public. Political correctness and flat out censorship further dillutes this information, creating a false sense of security, in which individuals believe they will not be involved in these dynamics - especially being on the receiving end of quiet firing.
Myth #1 - I cannot be the target of quiet firing if I've never performed quiet quitting, because that would be unfair/asymmetrical/nonreciprocal/unbalanced/etc.
Reality - If you think this way you're probably being quiet fired as you're reading this thread, without realizing it. You can be targeted as part of a mass layoff (e.g. for budget cuts), or individually (e.g. if you're a sub5 male).
Myth #2 - I cannot be the target of quiet quitting if I've never performed quiet firing, because that would be unfair/asymmetrical/nonreciprocal/unbalanced/etc.
Reality - Nowadays it's very common for employees to be burned out. Just because they switched jobs/companies, does not mean they forget the horrible things that happened in previous companies, and they will be on the lookout for red flags. This is quite unfortunate for a minority of business owners, that have an open mind about these dynamics or figured out pipelines and techniques to make things better for all involved. The employees with most experience tend to have the most baggage, but the ones with less/no baggage don't have the experience. I guess hiring directly from college could be a possibility here.
Myth #3 - Quiet quitting is a zoomer thing (lol Fox news)
Reality - Zoomers are perhaps more transparent about doing it, but people from ALL generations engaged in it in some form or another. For example, at my uni most teachers were boomers. They barely did their job, if you had a question you would be redirected to google 99% of the time. Sometimes in the middle of the class they would accept non-urgent phone calls. Research work datasets had grave errors (false positives and false negatives), because nobody bothered to check. Tutorials/documentation were not updated since 2006-2008, and presented to students in 2012 (in addition to having errors). My dad often did quiet quitting as well, when he had to work for an employer - however, he did not quiet quit at his aluminum business, for obvious reasons (in that case he was the employer & employee).
Myth #4, similar to #1 - Quiet firing only happens to poor performers
Reality - Read the room. What if the poor performed is Chad, and the high performer is sub5? Also high performers are often targeted when they threaten insecure middle management cucks.
Myth #5 - They're immediately noticeable after being activated
Reality - Nobody wants to get hit with discrimination accusations. If you're sub5, your boss is usually not gonna come up to you and say "lol you're a short and ugly faggot". The hits are subtle, so those on the receiving end of quiet firing do not have enough material to write formal complaints to HR. It just spreads out over time, and people tend to forget in the midst of our current chaotic world. Quiet quitting is subtle too, especially from former high performers. Nobody wants to get hit with accusations of purposefully dropping performance.
Myth #6 - Quiet quitting was caused by remote work, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic
Reality - Plenty of boomers stayed 12 hours a day at the office. Initially I though it was hard work/extra hours, but after investigating a bit, it turns out they were looking at memes on facebook. So that's 12 hours at the office, not 12 hours of actual work. In fact, those who engaged in quiet quitting before COVID would dillute the 8 hours further with "healthy workplace chatter to improve bonds and trust", A.K.A. they would jestermaxx.
Definitions
Quiet quitting means an employee intentionally does only the minimum required, ideally without getting fired —no extra projects, no overtime, no “above and beyond.” It’s a form of boundary‑setting often triggered by burnout, lack of recognition, or dissatisfaction.Quiet firing is the opposite dynamic: an employer subtly makes an employee’s job so unpleasant—removing responsibilities, excluding them, withholding raises, or giving impossible tasks—that the employee eventually quits voluntarily. This way, no compensation has to be paid.
Implications and misconceptions
These two phenomena have been attributed to political inclinations and movements. Quiet quitting is predominantly seen as left-wing behaviour (and indeed, it is the bread and butter of r/antiwork), whereas Quiet firing is predominantly seen as right-wing/libertarian behavior. That could be a discussion on its own, because this mapping isn't perfect - I've seen cases where the tactic and political inclinations are switched.But I want to address something deeper - these map to reproductive strategies in evolutionary biology, where competing organisms use indirect tactics against each other to maximize their respective outcomes.
So let's say conditions and leverage are poor for the organism with less structural power. In quiet quitting, energy is conserved rather than expended, and this is done until:
- conditions improve
- organism switches to a different environment
- (or dies I guess lol)
Normies don't want to admit to this - not even the ones on Fox news - because they don't like the notion that human being are animals. Mammals with high metacognition, sure, but still animals. Because of this resistance, information regarding these tactics and behaviours does not tend to reach the general public. Political correctness and flat out censorship further dillutes this information, creating a false sense of security, in which individuals believe they will not be involved in these dynamics - especially being on the receiving end of quiet firing.
Myth #1 - I cannot be the target of quiet firing if I've never performed quiet quitting, because that would be unfair/asymmetrical/nonreciprocal/unbalanced/etc.
Reality - If you think this way you're probably being quiet fired as you're reading this thread, without realizing it. You can be targeted as part of a mass layoff (e.g. for budget cuts), or individually (e.g. if you're a sub5 male).
Myth #2 - I cannot be the target of quiet quitting if I've never performed quiet firing, because that would be unfair/asymmetrical/nonreciprocal/unbalanced/etc.
Reality - Nowadays it's very common for employees to be burned out. Just because they switched jobs/companies, does not mean they forget the horrible things that happened in previous companies, and they will be on the lookout for red flags. This is quite unfortunate for a minority of business owners, that have an open mind about these dynamics or figured out pipelines and techniques to make things better for all involved. The employees with most experience tend to have the most baggage, but the ones with less/no baggage don't have the experience. I guess hiring directly from college could be a possibility here.
Myth #3 - Quiet quitting is a zoomer thing (lol Fox news)
Reality - Zoomers are perhaps more transparent about doing it, but people from ALL generations engaged in it in some form or another. For example, at my uni most teachers were boomers. They barely did their job, if you had a question you would be redirected to google 99% of the time. Sometimes in the middle of the class they would accept non-urgent phone calls. Research work datasets had grave errors (false positives and false negatives), because nobody bothered to check. Tutorials/documentation were not updated since 2006-2008, and presented to students in 2012 (in addition to having errors). My dad often did quiet quitting as well, when he had to work for an employer - however, he did not quiet quit at his aluminum business, for obvious reasons (in that case he was the employer & employee).
Myth #4, similar to #1 - Quiet firing only happens to poor performers
Reality - Read the room. What if the poor performed is Chad, and the high performer is sub5? Also high performers are often targeted when they threaten insecure middle management cucks.
Myth #5 - They're immediately noticeable after being activated
Reality - Nobody wants to get hit with discrimination accusations. If you're sub5, your boss is usually not gonna come up to you and say "lol you're a short and ugly faggot". The hits are subtle, so those on the receiving end of quiet firing do not have enough material to write formal complaints to HR. It just spreads out over time, and people tend to forget in the midst of our current chaotic world. Quiet quitting is subtle too, especially from former high performers. Nobody wants to get hit with accusations of purposefully dropping performance.
Myth #6 - Quiet quitting was caused by remote work, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic
Reality - Plenty of boomers stayed 12 hours a day at the office. Initially I though it was hard work/extra hours, but after investigating a bit, it turns out they were looking at memes on facebook. So that's 12 hours at the office, not 12 hours of actual work. In fact, those who engaged in quiet quitting before COVID would dillute the 8 hours further with "healthy workplace chatter to improve bonds and trust", A.K.A. they would jestermaxx.
