Resurrecting an old post from an earlier version of my blog, originally posted October 3, 2007 – and I have no idea where the original source is, but one could probably Google it readily enough:

1. You don’t fit in. Your values don’t match the company’s. If your colleagues are “dishonest and focused on getting ahead regardless of legal or moral barriers,” Bayer says, it’s time to quit before an Enron-style scandal sinks the ship.

2. Your boss doesn’t like you and you don’t like him or her. If your boss never asks your opinion, and never wants to chat or have lunch with you, and if you disagree with her agenda and dislike her style, your days are numbered. Adds Bayer: “If you’ve ever done something that undermined your boss, you might as well get out now.”

3. Your peers don’t like you. Feeling isolated, gossiped about, and excluded from the inner workings of the organization is a very bad sign, as is feeling that you’re not part of the team and wouldn’t socialize with your colleagues even if they asked you.

4. You don’t get assignments that demonstrate the full range of your abilities. “Watching all the good assignments go to others, while you’re given the ones that play to your weaknesses or are beneath your professional level, should tell you something,” says Bayer. Likewise, if it seems the boss doesn’t trust your judgment, you’re in trouble.

5. You always get called upon to do the “grunt work.” Everybody has to take on a dull or routine task now and then, but if you are constantly being singled out to do the work no one else wants, alarm bells should ring.

6. You are excluded from meetings your peers are invited to. Sound familiar? If it’s painfully clear that your ideas aren’t valued, why stick around?

7. Everyone on your level has an office. You have a cubicle in the hallway. Bayer notes that, whatever your title, your digs can speak volumes about your real status in the organization. If your peers have offices with windows and you’re asked to move into a broom closet – no matter what the official explanation – start cleaning out your desk.

8. You dread going to work and feel like you’re developing an ulcer. Ah, here’s yet another of your symptoms, and a particularly nasty one at that.

Only posting it here because I feel I’m on the positive backswing from many of the symptoms listed. It wasn’t too long ago that I really was feeling most of those at work.

Then there was a reorg.

Then another.

Then I was reassigned temporarily to another team.

And now… now, I feel like I’m actually learning something useful.

Maybe not contributing nearly as much as some of the other serious rock-stars we have (I’m more of a roadie to their rock-star) but definitely putting in my time on something worthwhile.