Hope this post won’t get people paranoid, but it is always better to be prepared than to be caught off guard. If you feel that your days at work are now numbered, here are some signs to look out for. These might actually prove that intuitive feeling to be true:

The Chat Oh no. You’ve received another memo informing you that the boss wants to talk to you. Great if it’s about a promotion but what if it’s the third talk this month about improving something? And what’s worse, it’s not performance review period. Usually after the talks and the coaching come in the warnings. When you get to that point, you’ll have to start preparing your resume. Yes, there is no turning back beyond that. So try to redeem yourself by doing what the boss has coached you to do.

The Cold Shoulder The boss suddenly discovers it better to hand over tasks to the office plant than to you. If your boss’ behavior starts to change and you find your colleagues getting busier and you, not doing anything, then this means that work is being handed over to people who are going to stay. What you can do is to ask for an assignment and do it really, really well. Be at work a lot. Do overtime if possible. This is your last chance to impress!

The Rejection If you are no longer allowed to attend meetings or your conference travels are refused, start observing. If this happens to other people, then it is probably just a budget thing, or something. But if good assignments are being handed over to someone else then there is cause for alarm. Just do your best on your current ones and make sure that they are better than passable.

If you’ve been getting these hints lately, then you should probably change your game plan. Re-asses your work performance and attitude. You need to do some major overhaul and try to redeem yourself, otherwise you can always get another job – but that is just the easy way out.