10.27.2023

I'm sure you've heard of "quiet quitting," when an unhappy employee does the bare minimum to get by and keep drawing a paycheck, but doesn't care much about the job beyond that.

But a counter-trend has been in the news: Quiet firing. This is when an employer does whatever it can to make the job distasteful to the employee, in the hope that the employee will "voluntarily" quit.

Whoa. This "new thing" is old as the hills. There is even a legal term for it: Constructive discharge.

Generally, the courts will find that an employee was "constructively discharged" when the employer deliberately makes working conditions so intolerable that a reasonable person in the employee's position would feel compelled to resign. (This standard may vary a bit depending on your jurisdiction, but that's the general idea.) If a court finds that a resignation was actually a constructive discharge, then legally it's the same as if the employee was out-and-out fired. That means an employee who is constructively discharged can usually collect unemployment benefits. If any alleged illegal motive was arguably involved, the employee can also sue for wrongful discharge, and file a charge or administrative complaint, and recover damages as if he or she was fired. (Notice that I said "and," not "or.") 

Of course, any good employer has to do things that employees find unpleasant. It may have to make (and enforce) workplace rules. It may have to give a "quiet quitter" a poor performance review. It may have to make changes in its operations for business reasons that employees don't like. It may not be able to find applicants willing to fill certain vacancies, which may overburden everybody else. It may have to require employees to go through training that the employees find both tedious and excruciating. This is not what we mean by constructive discharge -- er, I mean, "quiet firing."

JTF Taekwondo

Friday, November 3rd

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

204 Highlands Square Dr,

Hendersonville

Fyzical Therapy

& Balance Center

Thursday, November 9th

4:00 Pm - 6:00 PM

204 S King St,

Hendersonville

1-Tom Plumber

Tuesday, November 14th

11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

9 Legend Dr,

Arden

Empower Hour

Tuesday, November 7th

4:30 PM - 5:30 PM

The Main Event

125 S Main St,

Hendersonville

Business Morning Update

Wednesday, November 8th

7:45 AM - 9:00 AM

Elk's Lodge

546 N Justice St

Hendersonville

Young Professionals Monthly Social

Wednesday, November 8th

5:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Dry Falls Brewing Co

425 Kanuga Rd,

Hendersonville

AM Power Hour

Friday, November 10th

8:00 AM - 9:00 AM

Mast General Store

527 N Main St,

Hendersonville