Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

Are you about to get fired?

Author anonymous

Have you ever come in to work one day, and to your surprise (anger, dismay, _____) found a pink slip on your desk? You could have seen it coming if you had known what to look for. Here they are, the 11 critical signs the boss wants to fire you:

Your boss won’t look you in the eye - Avoiding eye contact is the easiest way to avoid conflict, and employers want a dismissal to go as smoothly as possible. If you notice those in upper management constantly looking down when you pass by, or walking the other way when they see you coming, it usually means they are trying to remove themselves from the pending conflict.

You start training someone else to do the same work you do, “Just in Case” - Unless you are shorthanded at your position, or you are building up a team…then teaching a new hire with similar credentials and job description is an obvious early sign that the end may be nigh. While workplace redundancy is necessary, it’s probably time to update your resume.

When you walk into a room, everyone stops talking - Most people can recognize when they are being talked about, and a few occurrences of this is a sure sign that something is afoot. If they aren’t talking about your bad breath, then most likely one of them knows something you don’t.

You no longer get the Memo - While your employer may simply say they forgot to CC you on the meeting invite, repeated occurrences are a definite red flag. Either they don’t want to hear your thoughts, or they don’t care about them, probably both… whether because of your own doing or another’s, being out of the loop is the easiest way to fail at your job, and with failure comes necessary change.

You constantly hear buzzwords like “Outsourcing” and “Right-Sizing” - Who do you think they are talking about, the janitor? Words like this should make you take a long, hard look at what you do…and whether they could pay ten people working from their basements, a lot less. Maybe you should polish your mopping skills.

You stop getting feedback from your boss - Unless you never got any in the first place, a change in behavior like this may indicate your employer thinks you are a lost cause and not worth the headache of reproach.

You notice a crackdown or freeze on all spending - Freezes in spending and hiring all generally point to a shortage of funds. You can bet that your since your employer is so closely monitoring frivolous expenses, that a hard look at payroll (frivolous employees) is next.

Busy work is your bread and butter - This is the preemptive strike by your employer, to hopefully make things so bad you want to quit. If you start getting piles of work no one else would touch, consider it a more passive aggressive route to saying you are replaceable.

Where’s the beef? - No new meaningful tasks means you are either the Corporate Hideout, or someone doesn’t want you to screw something up. Trust in the work environment is scarce, where sayings like “It’s just business, nothing personal” seem so commonplace. Stale or diminished workload is a telltale sign of lost trust, and you will soon be ‘personally’ let go.

Your employee evaluations are always mediocre - Just doing the bare minimum is not the best way to ensure job security. Back to back negative reviews when you have been working your tail off, is a bad sign and could mean your employer is slowly building their case for the HR department. With your terrible reviews, they can point to poor performance as the reason they are letting you go.

You get constantly downgraded - No more company car? Were you moved from a window office, to a 4 person cubicle, then to the basement? Employers will often slowly start to take away perks so that the final act is not as impactful. “You probably saw this coming,” is the first thing out of their mouth.

Any one of these alone most likely will not signify your impending doom. However you should be concerned if could relate with most of them. At some point in our working lives, we will all probably be laid off, the key is being aware of the signs pointing to it and having the escape route planned beforehand. While constant paranoia is harmful to production, hopefully these will help you take a bigger view of your current job situation and make some changes, before they get made for you.

Related Topics: Employee Relations, Marketing    No Comments    

Should I upgrade to Windows Vista?

David Grenda, Founder, Grenda Computer Consulting

As everyone knows by now, the new Windows Vista software has hit the market. The normal path for such things involves Microsoft releasing the new operating system while the previous rendition is still available. In this case, that is the various flavors of Windows XP. Eventually, Windows XP will no longer be supported and Vista will be the version everyone uses.

As the new Windows Vista operating system is more widely used, there will undoubtedly be minor issues that arise and need to be corrected by Microsoft. This is accomplished by the release of what’s called a “service pack”. A service pack is a software update that a Vista user installs on their computer. It contains various fixes and enhancements to the basic operating system programs.

Since as a business owner your primary concern is the stability and usability of the programs in your enterprise, the normal first round problems of a new operating system should probably be avoided. This is why I recommend to my clients that they continue using Windows XP until at least the first Windows Vista service pack is released to the public. Additionally, many of the computers currently running just fine on Windows XP will not have the hardware performance necessary to run well on Windows Vista. After the first Vista service pack is released, Vista should be incorporated into your computing environment as you bring new systems on the network.

This discussion about Vista leads to a related topic I am frequently asked about. This involves the numerous choices available for software, and how there are other options available to a business outside the normal Microsoft platforms. In my next installment, I’ll discuss these options and provide you with some insight into their suitability for various business applications. I’ll also discuss how important it is to ensure your computing environment remains supportable by mainstream technicians, and how not to end up with something you cannot get fixed if you part company with your current IT support specialist.

Related Topics: Computers, Technology    4 Comments