Do you worry about getting sacked

Brie

prettyandfluffy said:

JReacher1 said:

Always good to have a slightly incompetent colleague who you can use as the “canary down the mine”. As long as he’s still there then I know my job is safe 😃

Not always a safe assumption as some seemingly incompetent people remain in the same job year after year whilst others are let go; perhaps they are seen as useful in a way that is not obvious to you? Better to keep your head down and focus on doing your job to the best of your abilities.

So true.  I've seen the incompetents promoted as they are too incompetent to be competition of management and not so self promoting that they offend.  And I've seen massively competent people made redundant/sacked. 

One ex colleague was told that she wasn't up to the job when in fact the problem was that she wasn't a self promoting type in a very competitive department.  So when someone needed to be let go it was her.  They gave her 2 weeks to train someone who was taking on her "easy job" along side their other tasks.  Once she was gone they realised what a disaster it was and they had to bring in someone from another part of the team to help do the work she'd been doing for several years.  And then they needed to bring in another.  And then another.  No one had pegged how massively productive she'd been as she had simply kept her head down and been quietly overachieving. 

And having been made redundant and given a payout, she cleared her mortgage, got herself a nice job closer to home, saving her time and money on commuting and merrily go on with life without a fuss.

Nebulous2

There are big differences in the level of risk in different roles or industries. 

I've worked in care most of my life and a lot of that is very secure, particularly in the public sector. 

I worked for a charity for about 8 years and we had three major funding crises in that time. That didn't feel very secure. We were also pressured by council staff to do some things which weren't in the best interests of the people we cared for. That felt precarious, as the council were also our main funder. 

You have your own responsibility to behave in a way that means your employer has no cause to get rid of you. Make sure you are aware of and follow any professional code of conduct and company guidance to minimise the risk of being sacked.