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3 Signs That You’re Getting Fired

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Sometimes, you can just feel the tension in the air. Something is wrong, you don’t know what, but it is making everybody uncomfortable. Then you get fired, and feel blindsided. Often, the signs that you were about to be let go were there all along.

(Photo Credit: WalkingGeek/Flickr)

“At-will” employees may be let go at any time for almost any or no reason. They may not be fired for illegal reasons, such as race or religion, but outside of civil rights, at-will employees may be told, “Thanks, but we no longer need your services anymore. We will mail you your last check.”

Do You Know What You're Worth?

Actually, this statement does not always come as a surprise. There are signs that your tenure at your current organization is coming to a close. At LinkedIn, Liz Ryan, the CEO and founder of Human Workplace, discusses a few dynamics that indicate you may be replaced, including:

1. Decrease in Responsibilities

If you are part of a big project and suddenly pulled off, this is a bad sign. If your boss has something bigger or more important going on and needs your help, you may breathe a sigh of relief and put your all into the new assignment. If you are confused as to why you were pulled off of the project, go ahead and ask. Indirect or unclear answers should send a red flag.

Sometimes, it is your own project that suddenly goes cold. Last week, your project was a high priority and this week it is considered an after-thought. Ryan says this usually means the project will be given high priority again after you are replaced.

2. You Suddenly Have Valuable Knowledge

Everybody likes to be asked what they think. It makes people feel important. Plus, mentorship opportunities may benefit both mentors and proteges. Proteges get training and mentors are recognized as valuable teachers and leaders.

However, not all “opportunities” to mentor are for your benefit. When suddenly you are asked to teach another worker the things you do on your job, you may be training your replacement. If everybody needs to dip into your knowledge base, it may because they know you won’t be there to ask in another week or two.

3. Conflicts Disappear

This is a sinister one, because a conflict disappearing may seem, at first, as if the conflict were resolved. However, if you don’t know how it has been resolved, but everything is fine and dandy, the resolution may be that you’re are leaving.

Not all conflicts are personal. There may be disagreements about how to best run the office or arguments about other aspects of business. And healthy discussions in which people put different ideas on the table may get heated. This, in itself, does not mean somebody is going to get fired. But if you don’t know why everything is suddenly not a big deal, you may be out.

Tell Us What You Think

Have you ever suspected you were about to lose your job? What happened? Leave a comment or join the discussion on Twitter.


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Petrus JoubertVinnieKenneth StevensMarkJim McNeely Recent comment authors
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Peer
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Peer

In big companies during performance appraisal HR asks each manager to rank his subordinates and forces there should be employees in the bottom 5-10%. They will be given PIP and the managers will force ridiculous KPI’s for 1-3 months. That’s the right time to build a case to fire the affected persons.

Marie
Guest
Marie

I regretfully told my bosses husband that I was retiring soon. Since then, my boss finds lots of mistakes that I supposedly made ( other people have access to the same program). Another girl was hired & I have trained her somewhat but my boss constantly takes away some of my work to give to her, The husband asks me at least once a month if I am still planning to retire this year.I have developed tendonitus in my arm… Read more »

hf
Guest
hf

I was laid off, and funny thing was all 3 signs did happen, for me, I used to work by dispatch, go to this machine fix it, than go to this machine and fix it. well I made the mistake of fixing the machines so well, they reduced 8 employees out of the team, I didn’t know, it was my first job out of college. but later I found out they hired all overseas in China and Japan to do… Read more »

Phill
Guest
Phill

These sorts of articles amaze me – this is hardly rocket science – did someone really get paid to write this?

C
Guest
C

As a snr manager (and previously top performer), I picked up that my boss was committing serious fraud in the insurance company where I worked, reported it….well, I experienced ALL of these and more……felt I was going off my head with all the subliminal things that were taking place, as they tried to get me to leave. I refused to leave on the grounds that I had not done anything wrong, eventually they created situations that made me look incompetent,… Read more »

v
Guest
v

In my case after 8 long yrs of dedication and hard work, I was let go. A new GM came in and he wanted to bring his friend to replace me. So he did. Call me in his office and said ” We are going different direction and we wont be needing you. ” I ask ” Did I do something wrong or not doing my job” and the response was ” no you are a great guy, honest and… Read more »

wllmjunior
Guest
wllmjunior

The Business World of today is no place for complacency or sentimental notions of days gone by. It is fast paced, forever changing, and NEVER has your best interest at heart (unless your name happens to be Mr. U.S. Dollar). The employee is expected to act and behave as if their employment is guaranteed for life while the employer is allowed to terminate one’s employment for nearly any reason / whim whatsoever. Do yourself a huge favor. Always consider your… Read more »

Paul H
Guest
Paul H

Keep your eyes and ears open to everything going on around you, especially in your department! Watch out for telltale signs of the “old-timers” suddenly being let go. Look for subtle changes such as unforeseen or warranted promotions for other employees either in or out of your department, locks or combination entry locks being changed, and upper management movement or “restructuring”. Pay very close attention to your gut feelings and your instincts as they are probably correct! I was let… Read more »

gabby
Guest
gabby

as I was Reading the article, I was so amazed, those 3 signs are definately an indicator that someone is going to be fired, happened to a good friend a month ago.

shashi
Guest
shashi

H what we should all be taking from this is the following: – Put the Lord your God first in all that you do and everything else (all good) will be added unto you – We put all our hopes/ dreams/ energies in work and everything seems to be money, money, greed, worry, strife- this is but a mere distraction from your true purpose. – so what if you get fired, so what if you dont have a job, have… Read more »

Petrus Joubert
Guest
Petrus Joubert

I, was suddenly told that I need to teach other people my work for in case I am not around anymore. Then after that everything I did was questioned. Then I would be called to explain work that did not get done, but was out of my control. I decided to put my CV back on the market. I was fortunate to find another job. My resignation came as a surprise and caught my manager off-guard. I was offered a… Read more »

BR
Guest
BR

One may have many competencies, good in nature, good interpersonal relationships and good performance but still I saw people loose jobs even in strong employee centered companies. Reason say in 99 % of cases
is inability of your direct boss to convince top management. Because Boss may had played low key on your account, hijacking your credit of work, but some of the non-performing key result area, blame passed on to you to save himself.

BillyS
Guest
BillyS

I’d have to say the three ‘signs’ were pretty spot-on for my situation. I was also (as also mentioned by another commentator) promised a vertical move into another to-be-named department after I passed on my present knowledge to three other persons. (Read: it took three different people to take on my main three accounts). In the dark days of Life Fitness (about 2008) the decided they weren’t making enough money for the Board, and heads proceeded to ‘roll’. I was… Read more »

Angie
Guest
Angie

I would certainly fire the person who wrote this article or the person in charge of proofreading it prior to being published to the web. It’s very difficult to take an article seriously when it is full of typos.

Patricia
Guest
Patricia

IBM is notorious for placement of incompetent leaders in charge of million dollar projects then relying on 1-2 staff to keep the ship afloat. No wonder USAF has opted out of continual contract opportunities with IBM. Day one IBM leaders state ” I have NO PeopleSoft experience…HELL, I can barely spell it! “They scramble to find cheap incompetent labor then squabble when the only 2 staff that know anything go elsewhere!

Mark R
Guest
Mark R

These same 3 elements also occur when you are a valuable asset to the company and eligible for retirement. If you mention 6-12 months in advance that you are considering retirement, suddenly conflicts with management go away because they don’t want to upset you enough to leave them hanging on a project. They start trimming down the amount of new work that would normally fall your way. And everyone wants to glean you for every bit of knowledge you have… Read more »

Ellen
Guest
Ellen

Indicators to me that management were going to let me go was that that they kept making empty promises that they were going to upgrade my job based on responsibilities that I was handling were the same as jobs that were paid a higher income. That never happened. Instead, during restructuring I was redeployed to another department at the same job level and pay I was already getting. Upgrading my job would have acknowledged that I was handling responsibilities of… Read more »

Al
Guest
Al

Just going through the same phases. Yesterday I was pulled off a project – there was just too much scope creep and I kept denying the constant requests for changing scope, speeding things up without management really understanding that if you take resources from one side of the fence the stuff on that side of the fence suffers. Always putting the cart before the horse and of course they point the fingers and the vendors and the external project managers… Read more »

K
Guest
K

I am currently between 2 and 3. I began my search several months ago. They definitely seem to be progressing as the article implies. Writing on the wall!

Krishnanand Joshi
Guest
Krishnanand Joshi

Sometimes the Manager is a good actor u can’t even understand doesn’t show any expressions

Rocky Wilson
Guest
Rocky Wilson

Job security doesn’t exist. We all know it, but most of us try to tell ourselves that we have a job / career for life. I was a financial advisor for 3 years and decided on my own to leave the company and pursue something that only I could control the outcome of. If you’ve been looking for something more then just a job, I run 3-4 webinar’s every single day that run only about 30 minutes long. You will… Read more »

Ten
Guest
Ten

I had a situation where I accepted a new position with a small company. After a few months they were moving to a new facility, and I noticed that I was not involved in any of the move discussions or being assigned a desk location. Now that’s a true sign

Jim McNeely
Guest
Jim McNeely

I knew on May 28, 2013 that my promotion would end with a termination. I was fired on May 14, 2014, 50 weeks after my promotion. Muscogee County Schools are run by a corrupt group of inept administrators. JWM

mike
Guest
mike

Yeah those are possibilities, however They can just call You in to the office and
say ” Sorry we have to let you go, nothing personal, ok?.” I call this The sidestep fireing. This is more common termination.

Johnson
Guest
Johnson

These are definitely indicators. In my case, there was also a lack of response from upper management on ideas/requests and also requests for “how things are done” with certain projects that I had developed. Would that I had been more observant and found a new job beforehand. The clincher for me was when I came into work one day and my computer was missing. I finally realized then what was coming.

Cal
Guest
Cal

I experienced all three of these things in progression and when #1 occurred, I began a job search and was successfully able to give my notice just as #3 was beginning. When anyone of these things occurs you should start looking!

Valerie
Guest
Valerie

I was recently let go from a job and saw #1. It was a new position when I started it 5 months ago and they just had a hard time finding additional work for me to do other than mailers. In the beginning, I was working some with online marketing and then the workload dwindled down to addressing 200 envelopes a week and my employer just couldn’t justify 20 hours a week doing mailers so they let me go.

CS Venkat
Guest
CS Venkat

I did not experience any of these warning signs. However, I could feel a tension in the air, and I found my boss was nervous and did not make eye contact easily. I had always had a good relationship with him, and we liked each other. The only warning sure got was a patently false 6 month review, where my performance was suddenly called into question on a number of tasks. When I pointed out to my boss that my… Read more »

Vinnie
Guest
Vinnie

All three happened to me but the partners who own the company, they don’t actually fire you – they use these tactics to make you so uncomfortable that you end up leaving on your own. I confronted them over and over but to no avail – they ignore, delay or deflect every question in order to avoid conflict. I dealt with my situation for 7 years – primarily because it started when the recession kicked in and the job market… Read more »

Kenneth Stevens
Guest
Kenneth Stevens

I too was laid off after the company I worked for acquired the product line the previous company was making and selling product from after 9 months. I kind of saw the consolidation coming about 3 months before the end of the year and started working on updating my resume and start looking at other opportunities. Although this was a blessing in disguise I am still unfortunately in between jobs since the layoff almost 6 months ago. I am close… Read more »

Mark
Guest
Mark

8 years ago I was asked to start training a new person in the work I was doing. This person became a shadow, coming to meetings with me learning the types of reporting etc. I could see there was something up. I had feelers out and landed a better job, I hadn’t made this common knowledge in the office as I didn’t want to do anything to risk the new job. But sure enough I was at a meeting with… Read more »

Deby
Guest
Deby

#1 and #2 happened to me and sure enough I confronted the situation and was told that my job was being eliminated and that I could stay on in a position of less status and 1/2 my salary. I was thankful it wasn’t a sudden dismissal but it was a surprise after 14.5 years of service. I was able to leave with my dignity in tact and found another position but the emotional healing from a year of suspicions was… Read more »

Andrea
Guest
Andrea

I was laid off earlier this year. The warning sign for me was not being included in meetings with my colleagues and being avoided by upper management the days leading up to my dismissal. It was for the best though. I’m actually kind of glad they did it.

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