A short advice video by Donna Genie advising small business owners on responding to the TikTok 'quiet quitting' trend. The speaker argues that employers should remove underperforming or disengaged employees promptly (timely termination), explains unemployment-insurance implications, discusses 'at-will' vs. 'for-cause' firing and recommends protecting morale and retaining good employees by removing 'bad apples'.
The latest trend on TikTok is quiet quitting now. If you haven't heard about this, keep your eyes open. The new trend is to now do the absolute minimum you can to keep that paycheck rolling in from your job, but don't agree to put forth any extra effort. Don't do anything more than you have to do to keep your job. Just keep from getting fired. Well, a lot of small business owners have a lot of concerns about firing employees, and I want to alleviate some of those today. First off, many are concerned about what it will do from an unemployment rate situation. Unemployment rates are based on your experience level. So first off, unemployment rates won't change for many years into the future because your experience rating is based on the whole history of your business. So if you don't routinely let people go, you're not going to experience much of a rate change. So you shouldn't let that be a factor in your decision to fire someone or wait for them to leave. Virtually anybody can get unemployment now. They're going to blame everything on you as the employer. And in most cases, there's not a lot you can do to dispute having to pay unemployment. Now, you do not pay the unemployment directly. It's paid by the state. But you pay into unemployment insurance as you process your payroll and that covers it. So it's like an insurance policy. Yes, your insurance premium could go up in the future, just like if you wreck your car, but that will take a while to catch up to you. So my point is, don't let that stop you from getting rid of a bad employee. A bad employee is poison. Think of that. When you think about it every day, if you leave that poison person in your staff, you're killing the morale of your other employees too. So don't take all your bad employees and allow them to turn your good employees into bad ones too. Get rid of that bad apple quick. So my answer to quiet quitting is going to be timely termination. Get rid of them. In termination, you have two reasons to terminate people for cause, meaning they did something wrong that violates your policies, where you would have to prove that they were doing something wrong. You may be in an at will state. At will means I can get rid of you anytime I feel like it. I don't even have to have a reason, and that's okay. So learn what state you're in. If your state has an at will employment status, then you don't have to have any reason. If you have to terminate for cause, make sure you have good documentation to do that. But the big picture again, get rid of them before the problem gets even bigger. Help your employee morale. Most of the time your employees would rather work harder and longer if you'll just get rid of that bad apple and let them have the leeway to do more for you. And lastly, make sure that you are taking care of the good employees. Again, taking care of the good employees means getting rid of the bad ones. If someone turns in their two week notice, do you really want them there for two weeks? Do you really want the poison in your staff for two weeks? Now, in some cases, they may be an exemplary employee who has a really good track record with you and you may be okay with having them stay the two weeks. In my world, anybody who has the advance warning to say they're leaving, I would much rather just let them go. Even if it means I have to pay them. I would pay them not to be there and not to mess things up. People get very lazy when they know their time is coming and they don't put forth the best effort, the best customer service and they may even try to damage some things. So in my world, I'd suggest if somebody wants to leave, how about you let them go today, right now. No time like the present. So do that timely termination in response to Quiet quitting and don't let that trend go any further. Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Please make sure to check out our blog and our website linked below. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell to be notified when we post. You can email me@donnaampgroundaccounting.com.
