Yuppie Sherpa

Spy on your boss? Why would anyone want to do that?

I’ll admit the title sounds rather sinister.

In a perfect world, showing up on time and excelling at your job would be enough to grant you job security. However, there are times when circumstances beyond your control give you reason to fear for your job.

A great example of this is when a new boss is hired to manage a department. While some managers/directors are happy to draw upon the existing human capital in a company, others prefer to restaff.

I was presented with a situation like this some time ago. A new director had been hired to manage a small, 4-person team that I was a member of. Despite each team member’s efforts to welcome and accommodate the new director, he chose instead to actively make enemies whenever and wherever possible.

Why would a director do that? Well, rather than try to win over a small team that had been working together for years, his plan was quite obviously to get rid of the team one at a time and hire a new staff that would be loyal to him. Failing that, he could simply outsource as many jobs as possible and convince his boss that he was saving the company money.

He was fired within a month.

Should you find yourself in a situation where you have a reasonable suspicion that your company may be looking to replace you, here are a few ways to get an advanced warning.

1. Set up a job alert at Indeed.com

Indeed.com is a job search website that pulls listings from top job hunting websites, newspaper ads, and “careers” pages on company sites. When you run a search, you can ask to have future results for that query sent to you via email.

Set up “Email Job Alerts” for your company’s name and also for your title in your area. Here are two examples:

Job Alert 1 - “JoeBob’s Media n’ Things” in Michigan

Job Alert 2 - “Media Planner” in Kalamazoo, MI

Employers will often withhold the name of the company from their job posting, especially if they are using a recruiter or staffing agency. However, because there are probably not hundreds of Media Planner positions open in Kalamazoo Michigan, any that come up in the search might be yours.

Naturally, this works best for small and medium-sized companies and in small and medium-sized cities. If you were to set up Job Alert 2 for New York, NY, you’d be spending a lot of time combing the results.

Remember, do not check the email address that is receiving these alerts from work. As discussed earlier, the IT department is probably already spying on you. If they see you’re getting emails about other jobs in the area, you may have a problem.

2. Apply for your own job

No, don’t actually send a resume and cover letter.

When your employer is looking to fill a position, they are likely to either ask for candidates by posting the job opening or to look for candidates by browsing profiles on job sites.

I can’t sit here and actually tell you to create a fake profile on Monster.com.

Let’s just say that if someone with all of your qualifications, but a different name and different companies on their resume created a job seeker profile online, your employer might contact them about the job. This person would live in the same area as the company, but have different personal and contact information.

Hypothetically speaking.

3. Talk to your boss

This often-overlooked strategy is less devious and more valuable than diving through the company dumpster looking for resumes.

You don’t want to plant the seed in your employer’s head that there might be someone better out there for your job. You can, however, ask for an informal performance review. Make it clear that you are not asking for a review to milk them for a higher salary. Show your boss that you value his/her opinion and have a desire to please them with your work. Gauge their responses and determine whether you still have reason to be suspicious that you may soon be replaced.

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