Sometimes, employers create legal but unfavourable conditions to encourage employees to quit voluntarily. Here’s a breakdown of how and why this happens and what employees can do if they feel pushed out.
Why Employers May Want Employees to Quit
- Cost Reduction: High operating expenses, outdated roles, or AI adoption may make positions redundant.
- Avoiding Layoff Costs: Voluntary quits help companies save on severance, benefits, and administrative time.
- Restructuring: Companies might need to reshape their workforce to meet new goals or challenges.
Tactics Employers Use
- Full Office Return: Mandating in-office work can prompt remote-first workers to resign.
- Job Frustration:
- Reducing responsibilities or excluding employees from key projects.
- Micromanagement or setting unrealistic expectations.
- Offering poor performance reviews, skipping raises or bonuses, or initiating performance improvement plans (PIPs) with no real intention of improvement.
- Cultural Changes: Subtle signals that employees don’t belong or aren’t valued.
Risks of These Strategies
- Unintended Attrition: High performers may leave first, creating gaps in critical roles.
- Damage to Culture: Remaining employees may feel demotivated, impacting overall productivity.
- Operational Chaos: Without planning for replacements, workloads increase for remaining staff, leading to disarray.
What Employees Can Do
- Stay Visible: If you want to keep your job, focus on excelling and making your contributions known.
- Know Your Rights: Understand if you’re being pushed out due to discriminatory reasons. At-will employment rules generally favor employers unless discrimination or contractual breaches occur.
- Exit Strategically:
- Avoid badmouthing your employer online to maintain a clean professional image.
- Start searching for new opportunities discreetly while still employed.
Experts suggest offering voluntary termination packages to allow employees to leave amicably. This preserves company morale, retains top performers, and avoids costly turnover-related issues.
This story was originally featured on CNN
