Marching orders

Last year, Twitter laid off almost 4,400 of its 5,500 contract employees, after sacking 50 per cent of its workforce. These massive cuts were made to bring down the running costs of operations under Elon Musk’s leadership. More recently, Microsoft laid off 10,000 workers, joining other tech companies that have scaled back their pandemic-era expansions.

Layoffs and their aftermath

Layoffs have a significant impact on both the affected employees and the company. When giant corporations announce layoffs, an air of uncertainty and insecurity is created among the remaining employees as well as the economy. These days, an emphasis has been made upon safe and responsible ways to handle layoffs by offering support and resources to the affected employees to reduce the mental health burden that comes with losing a job.

Layoffs, or “being fired” in popular culture, has a connotation to not being needed or not being a good enough employee. But the reality is often far more complex. The reasons can vary from cost-cutting measures to a shift in the company’s strategy or an overall decline in business.

The onus of firing usually lays on a well-trained human resources person who should ensure:

* To be clear and direct;

* To be respectful;

* To be discreet & private;

* To be prepared with required documentation;

* To be prepared to answer questions;

* To provide support;

* To follow legal requirements;

* To be flexible and calm.

What is quiet firing?

Quiet firing is a term used for when the companies create a toxic and hostile environment for someone to work in, instead of outright firing the employee. Hence, the work culture becomes difficult to adapt to and many end up quitting themselves.

In this form of “ghosting” or “phantom firing”, the employer may suddenly stop communicating with an employee, and not formally notify them or even provide a good enough official reason for doing so.

In the beginning it can lead an employee to be confused, angry, humiliated and wondering without proper closure. Common signs of quiet firing include denied raises, stalled promotions, failure to give feedback, overwork or underwork, and subtle yet unfair treatment. The challenges exist around navigating such forms of firing which are clearly unethical and even illegal.

Quiet quitting: On the other end of quiet firing lies quiet quitting. In today’s day and age, some employees resort to doing the minimum requirements of one’s job and putting in no more time, effort, or enthusiasm than necessary, instead of putting in their resignation papers.

Psychological impact of being fired

The psychological burden of this traumatic experience is always hard, even if you were partly expecting it, and it didn’t catch you out of the blue.

One may go through the usual stages of grief of shock, denial, anger, bargaining, sadness, worry and fear of the future before accepting it.

What not to do when fired?

* Do not lash out in anger and fight;

* Do not badmouth your previous employer;

* Don’t beg and grovel;

* Don’t forget your rights and compensation;

* Do not personalise it;

* Don’t consider yourself a failure;

* Don’t let the job define your self-worth.

The ideal response would be to process it, and take it up with dignity and accept it.

Pop culture

‘The Apprentice’ is a show that brought the ugly side of “you’re fired” to screen. Hosted by businessman (now ex-President) Donald Trump, this show evaluated the contestant’s performance and eliminated them with a catchphrase “you’re fired” in a rather gruesome and dramatic manner.

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