Last year, I was fired from my job for the very first time in my life. It was shocking, hurtful, and jarring: What would I do now? My one saving grace—if you could even call it that—was that I’d only been there for three weeks, so I wasn’t emotionally invested yet. It was a bad fit right from the start, and both my boss and I knew it.
But here’s the thing: Not everyone’s ax situation is quite so obvious; sometimes, your termination can come somewhat randomly, seemingly out of nowhere. With this in mind, I checked in with Vicki Salemi, career expert and author of Big Career in the Big City, to find out how to tell if you’re about to get the boot so you can brace yourself for the fall. If any of these warning signs start happening to you, you may want to begin looking for a new job…
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1. Your Job Starts to Shrink
“If someone on your team starts doing something that you used to do or your boss starts delegating a task that you always did, you’re likely getting phased out,†says Salemi. It may happen slowly, but even so, it’s a big sign that he or she is trying to reformulate the company to function without you in it.
The same goes for a reduction in hours. Let’s say you’re a bartender or a waitress, for example. “If they start giving you fewer shifts, chances are, they’re giving you a subtle hint of what’s to come,†says Salemi. In other words, it’s no accident that you’re not being put on the floor as much. “If you don’t know the reason why—perhaps they want to bring in someone new, perhaps your performance isn’t great—you may want to ask your boss to explain the reduction,†says Salemi.
2. People Start Dodging You
Look, not everyone has a good poker face when it comes to secrets. If a colleague knows you’re getting fired, he or she may not be able to act normal around you. “Maybe your coworkers will avoid eye contact when they see you, or maybe they’ll all of a sudden stop inviting you to lunch when they’re all going,†says Salemi. “If they start acting weird around you, it’s a sure sign that something is up.â€
3. You’re Not Invited to Meetings
Maybe you see everyone going into a closed-door room and you’re not asked to join. Or if you work remotely, you’re not invited to the conference calls you used to be invited to. “If your company doesn’t need you in these meetings, it may mean that they don’t feel they need you at all,†says Salemi.
4. When You Ask About Vacation Time, Your Boss Gets Awkward
That beach trip that you want to get approved to take in the summer? Not happening if your boss has anything to do with it. “If his or her response is, ‘Oh, we don’t really know what’s happening this summer yet,’ and then he or she just trails off, it’s a sign that they could be envisioning you gone by that time and don’t know how to tell you yet,†says Salemi.Â
5. Your Company Just Got Acquired or Bought
Wherever you work—at a newspaper, at a bar—it’s never a great sign for your future employment when your company gets taken over by a new owner. “There’s always going to be a shake-up when new ownership comes in,†says Salemi. “And that could mean that they bring in their people and get rid of the old ones.†If that happens, there could be redundant jobs—and yours could fit into that category.
6. You’re on a Performance-Improvement Plan
This one is pretty obvious, but it has to be said anyway: If your boss is monitoring you in any way, there’s a big chance that he or she is going to let you go eventually. “Chances are, the real reason they’re documenting everything you do is so that you can’t come back and say, ‘Oh, but I wasn’t aware of that rule’ when they do let you go,†warns Salemi.
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And now, for some closing remarks: Getting fired is no fun. It makes you get all existential for a bit and question your place in the world. But although it sounds super cliché, sometimes it really is the best thing that can ever happen to you. It was for me. Because I got fired, I decided to go freelance, and that opened up so many doors and led me to do cool things I never would’ve imagined myself doing. (I spent a month writing in Costa Rica, I traveled to Australia for a freelance assignment, and I started dating a boy from India and went to stay with his family in New Delhi, to name a few.)
So what’s the moral of the story? If any of these signs start showing up at work, watch out—but don’t freak out. Make moves to begin finding yourself a new gig, but remember: Your career is not going to go in a straight line. Most don’t—and curvy career paths are often the most interesting and fulfilling ones anyway.
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