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5 Signs You Are About To Be Fired
"Living is easy with eyes closed."
Have you have ever thought about the phrase "ignorance is bliss?" I believe in many cases that it is good that we don't know what others think of us or that we don't know that someone almost picked our pocket in a crowd. However, when it comes to your job, being in a mental fog about the possibility of losing your job is not blissful. So, what are the signs that your job is in jeopardy either because of your performance or because of the company's finances? Read below for the painful clues:
- The company is having "receivable" issues. This was my case. As part of the management team, I would hear week after week that the company I worked for was not able to collect a huge payment from a client because that client was not collecting from one of their clients. This may not be a reason to run for the hills, but if this is happening in your company, I would definitely retrieve that long lost resume and spruce it up.
- You are no longer invited to meetings that you once attended. While I did not experience this at the fizzling company I worked for, this is often a sign of a performance problem. Your boss will say to you, "You do not need to bother with this meeting anymore as I want to make sure you are focusing on increasing x or decreasing y".
- You see your position posted in the newspaper, LinkedIn or other social media sites and you know your company is not expanding in your area. While you should not get paranoid at this point, a curious question to your boss about this advertisement would be in order to see if anything is awry.
- You are invited to a meeting with your boss and/or HR and they will not give you the reason for the meeting. This clue is really important if you have had tough performance talks already with your boss and he or she asks you to a meeting with HR and they do not give you a reason for the meeting.
- Other employees are being laid off. This is where my naiveté was most evident. I thought others were being laid off because of performance issues. I just said to myself, "Oh, they must have been doing their job poorly!" If good people are being let go around you, you need to find out why and assume you will be next.
Question for You:
Are you seeing, or feeling any of these five signs in regards to your job? Has your boss had one or several tough conversations with you about your performance in the last six months to one year? Is your company struggling financially to the point that good employees are being let go?
Answer for You:
If you see these hints as a reality in your work world, stop and take a deep breath. If you caught the hints early, you need to do some soul searching to see if a different position or company would better suit you.If you have a good relationship with your boss, approach him or her with your questions about the company's financial standing or about your future with the company. Finally, if your boss is vague in his or her answers to you, brush off your resume, begin reaching out to your network of potential employers or decide to reinvent yourself by going back to school or possibly starting your own business.
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."
Aldous Huxley
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