1. Your responsibilities quietly shrink
Projects move to other people. You are no longer the point of contact for a client you have run for years. A new hire absorbs part of your remit and it is described as support.
Redistribution happens for legitimate reasons — growth, restructuring, workload. What is worth noticing is redistribution in one direction only, with nothing coming back, particularly if it targets the visible or strategic parts of your role and leaves the routine.
2. You stop being invited
Meetings you used to attend go ahead without you. You find out about decisions in your own area after they are made. A recurring invitation quietly disappears from your calendar.
One missed meeting is an oversight. A pattern of exclusion from forums where your work is discussed usually means the discussion has moved on to a topic you are not meant to be part of.
3. Small issues suddenly get documented
This is the most reliable signal, because it is procedural rather than emotional. Behaviour that was tolerated for a year — arriving five minutes late, a missed deadline on a low-priority task — begins appearing in emails that confirm conversations you thought were informal.
When a manager starts creating a written record, they are usually building a file. In most jurisdictions an employer needs documented evidence and a fair process before dismissing someone, and this is what the beginning of that process looks like.
4. A performance improvement plan appears
A performance improvement plan is sometimes exactly what it claims to be, and people do come off them successfully. It is also, in many organisations, the final procedural step before dismissal.
Judge it by the specifics. Clear, measurable objectives with a realistic timeframe and genuine support suggest an intent to keep you. Vague criteria, an unreasonably short window, or targets that depend on things outside your control suggest a process being run for the record.
Either way, engage with it formally and in writing. Ask for the criteria to be made specific, ask what support is available, and confirm each review in an email.
5. Your manager's behaviour changes
Direct, one-to-one communication becomes shorter, more formal, more likely to be in writing and copied to someone else. One-to-ones get cancelled or shrink to status updates. Feedback that used to be casual now arrives with a paper trail.
Managers who are preparing to end an employment relationship often become uncomfortable, and discomfort tends to show up as distance and formality.
6. Access starts disappearing
Systems you used to have permissions for become read-only. You are removed from a shared drive or a distribution list. Your budget authority is reduced without explanation.
IT changes are sometimes housekeeping. But access reduction is a standard part of preparing for a departure, and when it happens alongside other signals it is worth taking seriously.
7. You are asked to document everything
A sudden interest in written handover material — process documents, contact lists, "just so we have it on file" — is worth noticing, especially if it is not part of a general team initiative.
Good organisations document knowledge continuously. An urgent, targeted push to capture only what you know is a different thing.
8. The company itself is in trouble
Not every departure is about you. Hiring freezes, delayed supplier payments, cancelled projects, unusual numbers of senior people leaving, or a merger announcement all raise the probability of redundancies.
This matters because the response is different. Redundancy is usually about roles rather than individuals, and it typically comes with statutory consultation and severance entitlements. Knowing which situation you are in changes what you should be asking for.
9. Your feedback reverses without explanation
You had a good review six months ago. Now the same work is being described as a concern, with no intervening incident and no change in what you are doing.
Sometimes standards genuinely change, or a new manager has different priorities. But an unexplained reversal — particularly one that contradicts written records — is a signal worth clarifying directly and in writing.
10. HR gets involved in ordinary matters
HR appearing in routine conversations, or being copied on emails about your work, generally means a process has started. HR is not there to represent you; their function is to manage risk for the organisation.
This is not a reason to be hostile — being calm and professional with HR is always the right approach. It is a reason to be precise, to keep your own records, and to consider getting independent advice if the stakes are significant.
11. Your instinct says something has changed
People usually know. They talk themselves out of it because the alternative is uncomfortable and because none of the individual signals is conclusive.
Treat the instinct as a prompt to check rather than a conclusion. Ask your manager directly: "I have noticed some changes in my responsibilities and I want to check where I stand — is there a concern about my performance?" A straight answer is useful. A vague or evasive one is also useful.
What to actually do about it
Recognising the pattern is only valuable if it changes your behaviour, and the right moves are mostly quiet ones.
Start with your own records. Keep copies of performance reviews, positive feedback and anything documenting your contribution — stored personally, not only on a company system you may lose access to. Get significant conversations confirmed in writing, politely: "Thanks for the chat — just to confirm my understanding..."
Then prepare in parallel. Update your resume while the detail is fresh, reconnect with your network before you need it, and understand your contractual position: notice period, severance terms, what happens to bonuses or equity, and any restrictions on where you can work next. Check what statutory protections apply where you live, because they vary enormously.
And keep performing. Whether you stay or go, the last thing you want is for a self-fulfilling drop in your work to hand them the case they were building.