Quiet cutting is a strategy from

employers Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any other ...

where

employees Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any othe ...

are reassigned to a different role rather than being

laid off A layoff or downsizing is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or, more commonly, a group of employees (collective layoff) for business reasons, such as personnel management or downsizing an organization ...

. The term arose in 2023 to describe a phenomenon seen in the American

labor market Labour economics seeks to understand the functioning and dynamics of the Market (economics), markets for wage labour. Labour (human activity), Labour is a commodity that is supplied by labourers, usually in exchange for a wage paid by demanding ...

. Although the nation had a strong job market during this time, quiet cutting was being adopted by companies due to economic worries of the future. Companies were observed to use this approach to fulfill crucial roles while simultaneously reducing costs. According to the financial research platform AlphaSense, conversations about reassignments during corporate

earnings call An earnings call is a teleconference or webcast in which a public company discusses its financial results for a reporting period, often providing earnings guidance for future performance. The term stems from earnings per share (EPS), calculated ...

s more than tripled between August 2022 and August 2023. Although the term "quiet quitting" was invented in 2023, the strategy had been seen before. The term "quiet cutting" alludes to the term " quiet quitting" that was observed in the few years prior where employees would do minimal effort to meet expectations. Where quiet quitting reflected that the balance of workplace power was more favorable for employees, the rise in quiet cutting suggests that the balance may be shifting in favor of employers. The

Great Resignation The Great Resignation, also known as the Big Quit and the Great Reshuffle, was a mainly American economic trend in which employees voluntarily resigned from their jobs ''en masse'', beginning in early 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among t ...

showed a strong demand for workers, job openings and wage growth decreased in 2023. Quiet quitting can be considered a subset of "quiet firing". Employees may experience a range of

emotions Emotions are physical and mental states brought on by neurophysiology, neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavior, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or suffering, displeasure. There is ...

, from relief at retaining their jobs to fear of the uncertainty of their career paths following reassignments. It may potentially have a negative impact on

morale Morale ( , ) is the capacity of a group's members to maintain belief in an institution or goal, particularly in the face of opposition or hardship. Morale is often referenced by authority figures as a generic value judgment of the willpower, ...

and

employee retention Employee retention is the ability of an organization to retain its employees and ensure sustainability. Employee retention can be represented by a simple statistic (for example, a retention rate of 80% usually indicates that an organization kept 8 ...

. The practice of reassignment often involves a waiting game, subtly encouraging employees to voluntarily leave to avoid costly

severance package A severance package is pay and benefits that employees may be entitled to receive when they leave employment at a company unwilfully. In addition to their remaining regular pay, it may include some of the following: * Any additional payment based ...

s. Workers may sometimes be deliberately placed in ill-fitting roles, prompting them to resign. The roles may be less prestigious, lower paying, and more demanding. Indicators such as reduced pay or unwanted relocation may suggest such underlying motives. Experts recommend that employees seek clarity from management regarding the specifics behind their reassignments to gain a better understanding of their career trajectory. Transparency on the part of the employer is a key factor in maintaining a respectable relationship with employees. In situations involving reassignment, legal options for employees are limited, except in cases of retaliatory or discriminatory treatment. It may be more practical and effective for the employer to directly terminate the employee rather than engaging in quiet cutting. Between 2022 and 2023, large corporations like

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized in all lowercase since 1949) is a German athletic apparel and footwear corporation headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe, and the second largest in the ...

Adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

and

Salesforce Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, artificial intelligence, and ap ...

have restructured their

workforce In macroeconomics, the workforce or labour force is the sum of people either working (i.e., the employed) or looking for work (i.e., the unemployed): \text = \text + \text Those neither working in the marketplace nor looking for work are out ...

References

{{reflist Labor disputes