Signs that you are being set up to get fired at work!
- Feb 14, 2018
- 4 min read
You know that your boss doesn't like you. Maybe you know why, maybe you don't. You may be the best employee in the company or you haven't been putting your best foot forward. Either way, you have a gut feeling that something is not quite right in your workplace. Your boss has been dropping clues that you could be the next one to get the boot. The problem is that you need your job! You have bills, a family, and I mean you mainly just want to be able to eat. Unfortunately, some bosses don't care about you, your needs or your personal life. So, you have to look out for yourself. Your boss will do whatever to get rid of you. These things happen all of the time because there's nothing new under the sun. These situations usually have signs that happen in a particular order, although not always. So if you feel that your boss has it out for you and that you're under a microscope at work, check out the signs below to figure out if you may be being set up to get fired.
1. Confrontation
The first thing that your boss will do is start confronting you about one or more issues that they have a problem with regarding you. If he/she doesn't have a legitimate concern about you, they will make one up. If you've never gotten written up or talked to before about your job performance, this is definitely a sign that something has gone wrong.
2. Gathering Information about you
If your boss has gone back to make sure that you submitted your transcripts or have the degree that you say you have although you've been there for years, this is not a good sign at all. Your boss wants to make sure that your qualified and that they didn't make a mistake in hiring you. They will also start gathering other missing or incomplete information for your employee file so that when they fire you, they don't look like didn't do what they were supposed to when you were first hired. They may even go back and call those references you submitted that they never called or ask for a copy of all documentation that you signed. In this part of the process, the biggest thing that they will do is to go back and look for every and anything that you've ever done wrong. When it gets to this point, it's time to start looking for another job.
3. You get written up and/or demoted
If you have not already, this is where you will become frustrated with what is being done to you. Since everything in business has to be documented so that they can show how you failed to meet expectations over and over again, you will be written up. One write up is not such a bad thing and you can use the feedback to improve you work performance and make your boss happy. However, when you are getting set up to be fired, after the first write up, you will continue to be written up for small things. Some of the things may be the same things that other, more favorable employees have done but the boss closed his/her eyes to. As stated before, they will sometimes make up reasons to write you up. They will twist company rules and policies to make it look like you were wrong and don't know what you're doing. The unfairness of these situations should tell you that something is wrong. You have been targeted! If the boss sees fit, he will also demote you. This should especially concern you if you know that you have not done anything to be demoted.
4. Ignoring
Once the boss have finally decided to fire you, he/she as well as the other higher ups will begin to ignore you. They may also instruct your coworkers who are on your level to give you the silent treatment as well. This may be in the form of emails, phone calls, or face to face communication. If you start to notice that the boss is ignoring your emails, calls, and requests to meet with you, you will most likely be fired. This is especially true if the boss has planned a face to face meeting with you at the end of the week but the days before he won't communicate with you. You are now considered the black sheep or trouble maker and the boss and other employees want to avoid you at all costs. Also, ignoring is a form of emotional and mental abuse. When someone ignores you, to them they have the upper hand because they think that you don't know what's going on. The goal of ignoring is to make you feel bad, like you don't belong, like you have done something wrong, and to break you down so that you cannot fight back.
5. Firing
Finally, if it hasn't happened already, you'll be called into the office for a face to face meeting with your supervisor. He/she will go over all of your past write-ups with you and tell you how it's not working out. You'll be let go and told to sign a termination paper or be asked to resign.
In part 2, I'll discuss how to handle each step of this process and how to fight back against unfairly and cruelly being set-up to be fired from your job.1
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