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It's the holidays and many people are feeling cheerful, but if you're feeling Grinch-like instead this one's for you:
If you've been around for a while, the time will eventually come when a company you work for is in unfortunate shape and will need to "downsize." Having witnessed this at a client of mine this week, I've noticed a pattern and a few warning signs you may find useful...
Here are several warning signs you're about to be laid-off. If you've noticed more than perhaps one of these, your Spidey-Sense should be tingling—it's time to start polishing that resume/CV!
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I. Backups
"Have you backed-up all your work to XYZ?"
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II. Training
"Please train your co-worker on X, we need everyone up to speed on these components."
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III. Important Project or Person MIA
Just like the old Christmas movie, It's a Wonderful Life, where the very existence of the main character is erased from history, a similar fate will happen to $BIG_PROJECT or important people.
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IV. Mandatory Meeting
Subject: Moving Forward in $YEAR+1Content-free meeting invitations or email focused on date periods, especially late-in the year (a nod to tax purposes). "Let's discuss our plan for 2016." **gulp**
That's my list for now, please chime in with any others you can think of.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by VLM on Wednesday December 23 2015, @01:34PM
This is the key to early observation. Random flailing and no one wants to take or delegate responsibility, such that it suddenly requires VP level intervention to fix a printer, because thats throwing good money after bad and the office will be closed before 10% of the toner is used up. Likewise physical plant maintenance, that leaky radiator won't be fixed, those bad ethernet ports won't be fixed, leaky roof/window won't be fixed, why bother?
Also random flailing around from above, if operating the business sanely means we're closing in a year, randomly trying resume stuffers means we'll close in six months but we'll have better resumes. Sales literally never says no, no matter how weird the request.