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Tier 5: Resignation Event

What are the signs you're being managed out, and what should you do?

The short answer

Start a private record of your work, wins, and every feedback conversation with dates; ask your manager directly and in writing what success looks like in the next 30 days; and quietly refresh your options in parallel. Signals include scope shrinking, being removed from decisions, sudden written feedback after months of verbal praise, and skip-level meetings you are not in.

What's actually at stake

  • 01A documented request for concrete success criteria is the single most useful move — it either fixes the ambiguity or proves it.
  • 02Everything shifting to written feedback is a process starting, not a coincidence.
  • 03Looking externally is not disloyalty. It is the thing that gives you a choice.

Do

  • · Keep a dated record, stored somewhere personal, of scope, wins, and feedback.
  • · Ask in writing: what does success look like in 30 days?
  • · Refresh your CV and quietly reactivate your network now, not after.

Don't

  • · Do not vent about it to colleagues in company tools.
  • · Do not sign anything the same day you are handed it.
  • · Do not let the record consist only of their version.

A draft you can send now

Wanted to put this in writing so we're aligned: my read is that priorities have shifted around my area. Can you tell me specifically what a strong next 30 days looks like from your side — the two or three outcomes that would matter most? I'd rather aim at the right target than guess.
Tailor this to my exact disaster →

Questions people actually ask

Should I go to HR?
Understand that HR's job is to protect the company. Use them for process facts, not for confiding.
Should I start applying?
Yes, in parallel. Having an option is what lets you negotiate rather than react.

Take it further

Ask Cris about this →

Talk it through with the crisis bot using your actual details.

Grade what you already sent →

Incident Autopsy scores the damage and rewrites it.

Rehearse the conversation →

Spar with a skeptical manager, exec, or client before the real one.

Tier 5: Resignation Event explained →

The kind of thing that gets a retro named after it.

Related incidents

All CYABot tools →