Signs Your Job Is in Jeopardy

Yahoo lists five signs your job is in jeopardy as follows:

• Mergers and acquisitions can mean only one thing to employees: duplication.

• A clear sign that your company has fallen on hard times is when the president trades in his posh Jaguar for a Volkswagen Rabbit.

• You used to be the "go to" person when people were seeking advice on critical projects.

• Your calendar used to be filled to the brim with meetings. Now you have time on your hands to sneak in a manicure.

• Constant pruning by your competitors is a sign that your industry is in despair.

Let me add a few others based on my almost 20 years of work experience:

• The president and VPs are huddled in meetings most of the day and talks of "restructuring" are in the air.

• You see a new job offer to a candidate that's basically a description of your job (this actually happened to a friend of mine.)

• Someone under you is hired and their project list looks almost identical to yours (I've seen this tactic used a few times.)

• Your last performance review was "excellent" and now you're suddenly "below expectations."

• Your boss does an out-of-cycle performance review on you and it's not positive.

• New agencies are being interviewed that do basically what your department does.

• The economy is bad and you don't contribute to the organization in a vital way (like saving money, bringing in sales, etc.)

• Layoffs are rumored and you don't have an advocate/mentor in the group of people making the decisions on who goes.

• Your high-up-in-the-company advocate/mentor is let go and more firings are looming.

I could go on and on, but I think these cover most of the situations I've seen. How about you -- any to add to this list?

Comments

[Mike S]

A few days ago, someone called my wife and basically said:
"I heard your moving on and wanted to know your daily responsibilities."
I'll take this as a fairly reliable sign that she will be axed very soon.

[MasterPo]

These symptoms not withstanding (and they are true too), it has been my unfortunate experience to say that when the axe comes you'll probably never see it until it's on your neck. The boss may smile, shake your hand at the holiday party and say "Good job!" then 3 weeks later adios. Or may be your pal on Monday and hand you the pink slip on Thursday. The new reality.

[poor boomer]

Someone I know works for a Big Name which recently laid off a bunch of people. (That, in the context of recent events, should be sufficiently vague for obfuscation.)

She said there was a Morning of Doom (she didn't use quite those words) during which the employees awaited a dreaded tap on the shoulder and a box presentation (not to be confused with Boxing Day). The whole thing sounded eerie. She escaped the axe but nobody knew for whom the bell would toll next.

Does it really happen this way?

[TStrump]

Where I work, the company has been bought out and the ENTIRE finance department is being let go.
It seems to be all about eliminating duplication these days.
Thankfully, they're getting nice packages, though.