This post, on the warning signs that it’s time to quit your job, isn’t that interesting but it did get me thinking. I’ve worked for 3 companies, all three of them are now deceased but I’ve never been made redundant (I left a week, a few months and a year before they went under, respectively). Perhaps have I have feeling for these things (most but not all are from personal experience):

1. When the water coolers go, so do you. In fact, it’s probably already too late: you’ve got about a week to make preparations for leaving.
2. As nice as the salary rise is, if you know that it is beyond your market worth, then the company is trying unreasonably hard to keep you. Ask yourself why and whether this is sustainable.
3. Flat screen monitors (back in the days), data projectors and Aeron chairs for every employee is not a wise way to spend money.
4. Porsche Boxsters as company cars (that’s got “bubble burst approaching” written in big red neon letters).
5. The CEO doesn’t have a wife and family but does have a flash car and plenty of nights out
6. In hindsight, if your first paycheque bounces then it is not a good omen (and no, it’s not “a problem with your bank”). Your suspicion should increase if this happens to at least one person on your team, every month.
7. Ask yourself where’s the money coming from. If you can’t answer it, you need to accept that your salary might not appear in your bank account.
8. Your major clients no longer have much interest in the company.
9. The company no longer appears on client roadmaps.
10. The company takes on long-term projects upon which they will barely break-even (or even make a loss).
11. The company ploughs an unreasonable amount of resources into a spastic product idea with no clear vision for recouping these costs
12. Utilities (data feeds, telecoms services) or rented equipment (servers) are being returned “because they’re not needed anymore”
13. The people who hire you, leave within 2 months of you joining
14. More experienced people, whom you respect, have started jumping ship (warning bells should be sounding)
15. Less experienced people, whom you don’t respect, have started jumping ship (that’s the death moan as the back of the ship begins to break)

On the other hand, perhaps I leave too easily. Maybe next time I’ll stick it out and see what unemployment is like