'Quiet hiring' will dominate the U.S. in 2023, says HR expert--and you need to prepare for it

[TheBlackAdder]

29. If the employee is a solid performer and liked by management, inter-department transfers

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are often signs that the employee is being groomed for promotion and management wants them to be exposed to multiple aspects of the firm, especially in the division they are working.

I've had people express to me in the past that they were openly pissed off that they were being shafted by management and could not understand why. Knowing the promotional pipeline, I told them that this was a good sign. Management does not divulge the reason why they are shuffling the employee around to see how they react to on-demand changes. It's part of the promotional test.

I would tell them what's up, and sure enough in a year or two, they would move to a mid-management position.

Managers like people who relieve them of pressures, with little resistance. It's the same we all feel, would you like someone who has your back or someone who complains and causes extra demands? Now, there are quite a lot of companies that abuse employees outright, but if you are in a good firm, dutiful work with minimal direction secures your position or improves it over time. What I like to tell people in other firms, you don't have to kill yourself, just do 10% better than the rest of the people to be the top performer, and if there is a crisis, be flexible to fill the voids.

Unforeseen shit happens in most every company, whether by fluke or management error that caused an issue. When I look back at the past 40+ years of employment, the people who were discharged were the ones that were unreliable, caused friction or complained or abused company benefits. The ones who stayed, after downsizing or trimming, were those who were reliable, flexible and nice.

I remember in one company, they were going through a tough time and asked if people would take a 10% cut in pay to keep all employees working. They needed to trim about 5% of the workforce. Guess what 5% they trimmed? The people who refused to take the pay cut since they were more self-affecting than looking out for co-workers. That made management's choice easy. A year later everyone's pay was restored, with an annual raise to boot. Sure it sucked to take that kind of pay hit and required sacrifice, but most of the employees were great and that would have sucked more to see them getting laid off.

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