So an Irish perspective here.
Seeing so many stories of off the cuff and immediate firings it makes me realise one thing Ireland got right was employee rights. But we also deal with so much similar shit to the reddit stories here.
For instance my job has gone through a mass exodus of experienced staff since just before covid. We are now less than half capacity and they cannot hire new people because wages are not competitive. This has led to many repeated bouts of pressure to perform better and work harder by management.
The service department gets blamed on everything that goes wrong despite glaringly obvious errors from other departments. This leads nicely into my title. Work To Rule.
It is what we have now, as colleagues, decided to do.
This is an Irish term I've heard since I was a kid in the 90's.
Quiet Quitting and Work Your Wage are not new concepts.
Band together and everyone Works to Rule. Do what your contract says and no more.
For me this was a method of pushing back when you and your colleagues got along well, worked well together and generally liked where you worked but a particular manager or the like decided they were having a bad day and wanted to try shit on you or wanted more output for no more reward.
This way they couldn't give you a warning, verbal or written, because you have not done anything wrong. What it does do, it highlights how much extra you were doing compared to what your actually employed to do. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But it's not an overnight fix. It can take months.
So folks maybe adopt the Irish 'Work To Rule'.
Side note it only works when the workforce are all on the same page. Not just you and one co-worker (unless it's just the 2 of you) but for example, a workshop, machine shop, bodyshop. You need to be united, your only as strong as your weakest link. If only half you guys stick to this, you're undermined by the other half who falter to manager intimidation.
I wish everyone in this sub the best of luck going forward.