Katja Sponholz
ANN/THE STAR/DPA – It often starts as a vague feeling of insecurity, but at some point the questions begin to pile up.
Why wasn’t I invited to that meeting? Why am I not involved in the new project? And why does my supervisor no longer respond to my e-mails?
“If you have the impression that you are being excluded,” said Hamburg-based career consultant Ragnhild Struss, “that you can’t do anything right or that you no longer receive any positive feedback at all, then these are warning signals and you should take them seriously”.
Each of these characteristics alone does not necessarily mean anything, messages can go astray, managers have busy schedules.
“But all these behaviours together reveal something that should make you think about your standing in the organisation,” Struss said, adding that it could be that the boss wants to get rid of you.
Employers behaving like this do not want to actually fire the employee, they are sidelining them, in the hope that they will eventually leave the company of their own accord.
Often there are no justified reasons for dismissal, but the unwanted employee just doesn’t fit in, or the employer wants to save on severance pay.
According to business psychologist Andreas Hemsing, companies that really want to get rid of an employee usually take an active approach.
“Sometimes, though,” he said, “they hope that enough psychological pressure develops to make them decide to leave”.
While Hemsing absolutely believes that employees are indeed treated this way, he said it shouldn’t necessarily be taken personally. “It’s sometimes not a deliberate tactic, but rather a sign of weak management.” Struss also believes quiet firing is the result of “an inability to deal with conflict and a lack of communication skills on the part of management”.
She said these managers should learn to address problems and solve them constructively instead of forcing employees to resign.
She believes that quiet firing is not just “a disaster” on a human level, it is also not cost-effective. “Personnel costs are unnecessarily wasted by employing staff who no longer take on any real tasks, and existing potential is wasted.”
Instead, the “quietly fired” employees could, for example, take on meaningful tasks elsewhere in the company and provide valuable services.
But what can you do if they feel sidelined? The first thing is to talk to your manager, describe how you see the situation and compare that with how the manager sees things.
“It could all be due to misunderstandings which can then be cleared up,” said Struss. At the same time, you should honestly ask yourself whether you are actually doing a good job.
Struss recommends offering concrete suggestions on what a different form of cooperation could look like, or even express a willingness to move to another team.
However, if the supervisor does not respond to repeated requests for a clarifying discussion, the only option is to involve the next level of management.
Hemsing said you should announce this step and explain why the problem needs to be taken further.
If, after all the talks, you still have the feeling that there is no longer a basis of trust for working in the company, you should consider changing jobs.
“If my supervisor behaves in a less than appreciative, cooperative and constructive manner towards me, I would question whether I want to work there anymore,” Struss said.
However, there will also be people who, despite all the problems, would rather stay in their old job and just do their duty by the book. “You might take the view that work only serves to secure your income, said Hemsing, “and that, actually, your life has other priorities”.
