I am a manager with less than 7 direct reports and are know as someone who does good work and gets work done quickly and efficiently. The other day, I had to present something to my manager’s manager, because my manager was on vacation. Usually, my manager’s manager is aloof and closed off. This time he was so friendly, asking me about my family, and acting like he was interested in me. Also, he likes my direct manager and they have worked together in the past. I took my manager’s manager’s extra niceness as a sign he is laying me off and actually might feel bad about it. What do you think it means if a higher up suddenly is nice to you? Pathetic that you even need to think about these things.
11 replies (most recent on top)
You're not paranoid if they really are out to get you.
Financial Times rticle (free):
https://www.ft.com/content/e50ce245-09fd-4831-a90b-953ef51a2281
"Clearly, in today’s economic climate, the threat of job loss is a real danger. Prof Kramer advocates a dose of prudent paranoia. “Andy Grove’s famous admonition to his employees — ‘only the paranoid survive’"
The manager may want to ask you out, usually a good sign
Paranoia will destroy ya
This is the original poster. I’ll be sure to let you know what happens. In the mean time, I am practicing removing the knife from my back. Lol
Maybe your manager is being let go and you will now become this person’s direct report. Usually, people practice avoidance if they know they have to do something bad to a person, not get overly chummy.
From what I noticed a lot of the managers now are being left in the dark from the top. Now our organization has these almost weekly Q&A meetings with the head manager, who says they don't even know what's going on. So a lot of the managers know they are on the chopping block as well. Honestly, I am not against what's going on at all. There are a lot of managers and employees who are dead weight. There are a lot a lot of managers who should have been let go years and decades ago but have been protected by the layers that they are trying to get rid of.
Managers are people, folks, sometimes we have things going on in our personal lives.
Maybe your manager's life got a little better, something that was weighing on them is no longer a problem. Family, money?
I don't know why people think managers are any different from individual contributors. I know some are jerks, some have ego/power issues, but most are just figuring out life as they go, just like everyone else.
Or your manager just realized you may be asked to rate thier performance, I don't know.
Maybe he thinks you're hot. If you want to get a "head" in this company be open to new opportunities and experiences.
I belly-laughed with this post! Sad but hilarious. Could be insightful on your part. When I was a kid, the dr used to give me a lollipop right before a shot to distract me from the pain that was coming. To this day, when I see a lollipop....
Hope it turns out ok!
Wow paranoid much?
This could just be the first time he really got a chance to work with you and decided to take interest and make conversation.
Also you're fired.