Five signs that you should be looking for a new job

Marilyn Haight's five signs to heed if you're employed by a corporation:

1. When your CEO fires your COO, his "right hand man," saying things like:
"[He] has been an important part of the … team for [X] years and provided strong leadership and counsel…"

If the important "right hand man" got canned after doing a good job over a period of years, your chances are of surviving by doing a good job in a role further down in the hierarchy are not promising.

2. When your CEO talks in read-between-the-lines, jargon-filled language saying things like: "We're trying to accelerate the pace of our transition and improve operational execution…"

If a message is that obscure, it could be that it's meant to hide bad news. And "execution" could be a Freudian slip.

3. When your CEO announces that he's going to make "…sweeping structural changes to the company, along with an unspecified number of job cuts designed to 'eliminate bureaucracy.'"

The number of job cuts is usually unspecified when it's big enough to scare you into thinking your job might be included in that number.

4. When the company's quarterly net-income drops 3, or 4, or 5 times in a row.

This scares away the owners of the business—the investors; if the owners are bailing, that's a big sign.

5. When "…a number of acquisitions of small affiliated companies…" precedes a large drop in quarterly earnings, especially one as large as 38%, and especially after a smaller drop or two.

LifeTwo suggests a 6th sign, clicking on headlines that read "Five Signs That You Should be Looking for a New Job."

Marilyn is the author of "Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Boss? 13 Types and How to Survive Them" and "The Instruction Writer's Guide: How to Explain How to Do Anything"