Up or out
Up or out (freely translated: up or out ) is a career model in which an employee has to leave the company if he does not reach the next hierarchical level within a specified period of time. This is to ensure the excellence of employees at all career levels. Another name is grow or go . This principle is particularly found in consulting industries, for example in management consultancies and large law firms .
Law
Since this principle is only practicable to a limited extent in its pure form in countries with strong employee rights (e.g. because temporary employment contracts are only permitted up to a certain duration), this principle usually only applies in companies in which employees are also employed who leave the company as part of a “Grow or Go” policy, first-class career opportunities are open (e.g. top strategy consultancies). In other consultancies or law firms it is occasionally practiced non-publicly, in which employees are indirectly advised to change jobs in discussions or there is speculation that employees who have not been promoted will leave the company independently out of frustration. Occasionally there are also allegations of bullying in which employees state that their frustration is deliberately provoked, for example by assigning them to projects with a low chance of success, isolating them from internal communication or otherwise disadvantaging them.
In technical or very knowledge-intensive areas (e.g. IT consulting, auditing), an up-or-out policy is often deliberately not used, as long-serving, but not promoted employees represent a great investment value for the company. This can e.g. B. be caused by the large amount of expensive training and certification that an employee has undergone and for which other companies are in turn willing to pay high wages. On the other hand, employees in the industries affected by grow-or-go policies often go through very steep learning and experience curves, which quickly make the employees interesting for companies outside the consulting industries. This leads to an increased fluctuation of employees, which is used by employers to influence the employee structure in their favor.