Terminated.? Fired.? Laid off.? Loss of job due to restructuring.?
It’s all the same.? One moment you were working, getting a paycheck.? The next moment you aren’t.
Do you know if you are about to hear any of these words?
There are things that are telltale signs that a separation of you and your present company is about to happen.? Are you ready for it?
First off, don't ever take anyone's word that your job is safe.? People struggle when they know there is bad news coming.? They will lie, they will shift the subject away, they will try to keep the conversation going in another direction.? No offense to them.? I have come across a couple of people in my business life that will literally tell you bad news regardless of its level of badness.? We all should appreciate those people…but they are few and far between.??
Here they are.? Some of the many telltale signs you may be in the market for a new job:
- You are no longer included in meetings you attended in the past. ?
- You get the sense that coworkers are beginning to intentionally not interact with you. ?Some coworkers have a difficult time looking you in the eye.
- Parts of your job start to go away.? Either you are told the task is no longer necessary or it’s being given to others.
- Coworkers start to come to you in private to see "What’s going on?"? As in, they have heard something and want to hear from your perspective.
- Company financial troubles.? Usual things around the company start to disappear (coffee, cleaning service, utensils in the breakroom, shred bins…those are the usual signs cuts are being made before human cuts are coming).
- No more work travel except for extenuating circumstances.
- Executive leadership changes (and frequent changes are never a good sign…like a complete executive leadership change three times overs 7 years, for example).
- You really begin to get stressed over your job (probably because of some of the above reasons) and you notice it affecting your outside-of-work life.? Is it because you suspect a separation of you from your job is coming?
- Your title stays the same, but you are reassigned under someone with the same leadership level.
- Your leader all of a sudden starts complaining about everything you do.? And they’ve never done this before.? It’s a conscious/subconscious thing that will make it easier in their mind when it's time to cut you loose.
- And here's one that's really eye opening - you are actually looking for signs of being let go.
Next Monday, what you can do now to prepare for that fateful day.? And you don’t have to suspect strongly you are about to lose your job.? You can still do these things to get ahead of the hammer falling.
