You’re certainly not alone if you’ve ever suspected an employer trying to get you to quit. Many employees have felt that their boss or manager is trying to set them up for failure, either due to personal or financial reasons. But how can you tell if someone is trying to manage you out, and what should you do if your boss is trying to make you quit?
Decide How You Want To Continue
If you’ve decided that you feel for sure your employer is trying to make you quit, you must determine what your goal is. You have two options: decide to work it out or start looking for another job. This question will help you decide what your next steps should be.
Although before deciding, you may want to ask yourself, is there anything you’ve done that may make an employer want you to quit? Is there a personal or social issue that may have caused this? While these certainly aren’t excused for acting unprofessionally, they may serve as a reason. There’s also a chance you have a bad boss.
How To Tell if You’re Being Set Up for Failure
It can be difficult to delineate whether what you’re feeling is real or if you’re misreading the situation. However, there are a few different red flags you can look for. For example, you might notice an overly harsh work review, a reduction in your benefits, or you’re given consistently challenging clients or jobs. Most commonly, these are signs of employer retaliation, designed to be an act of passive-aggressive revenge to get you to quit.
However, an employer may not try to subtly fire you due to revenge, as it may be for financial or business reasons. If so, you may notice a reduction in salary, a reduced allotted amount of overtime, or a reduction in your scheduled working hours.
How To Approach Your Boss
If you can’t decide whether you want to quit or work it out, it’s worth approaching your boss. There’s always a possibility you’ve misread the situation, no matter how slight that chance may be. Whatever you think the problem truly is, try your best to take as much emotion out of your conversation as possible and rehearse what you’re going to say if you need to. Explain that you feel your boss or manager isn’t happy with you. Remember that this conversation could result in you realizing you were wrong, or it could cause your boss to come clean and fire you outright.
If you feel like your boss is trying to make you quit, you should weigh all your options before doing anything drastic and remain as calm as possible. This way, you can get to the bottom of the situation without giving anyone ammo to fire you or paint you as a bad employee.