In these tough times when jobs are hard to come by and you are one of the fortunate few who have a good job, one that you love and would hate to lose, it would be a safe bet that you would want to stick around for as long as possible.

Yet you are aware of a sinking feeling that something is not right at the workplace and the management could be contemplating lay-offs and you’d hate to find yourself on that list.

Assess your own vulnerability and honestly ask yourself if your personal performance merits that the company values your services and you cannot be easily dispensed with. If the answer is no, then its time you watched out for these tell tale signals, if lay-offs are imminent.

If you find out the company is not paying bills on time to its service providers or raw material suppliers, your ears should perceive that as a caution bell. Find out why the company is unable to pay its bills and don’t fall for the excuse that it is temporary cash-flow matter.

All companies make it a top priority to pay their workers salaries and every other expense is less important. If your pay check arrives late, it’s time to leave; your company is in dire financial straits.

If things haven’t deteriorated to the extent that salaries are being delayed, stagnant salaries and lack of bonus incentives also means that the company is going through hard times.

A change in the leadership almost always means that the last leadership wasn’t doing too well. The new leadership will have to rectify mistakes of the earlier regime and take harsh decisions, which could include putting jobs on the chopping block.

Do you find that there is a constant change in the company’s salary and benefit practices? Are older experienced employees quitting. Perhaps they can envisage more than you can.  If the company is not filling posts vacated by quitting employees, the company will offer a million excuses, but the most likely one is that it is running out of cash.

If more and more meetings are being held behind secretive doors and though you may never know what transpires behind the closed doors, the body language of the executives will give the game away. Secrecy can also mean that they are planning something big and need to keep it a secret, but it is more likely that tough issues are being discussed.

Can you sense a fall in employee morale? Are employees strolling in late and leaving early and there is litany of complaints from all people making the work environment miserable and discontented. Dangerous signals that worse is to follow.

If your work schedule is not clearly chalked out, understand that you are sailing in unchartered waters and there is a danger of your ship sinking. Employees need crystal clear directions to work- not getting those means that the company is floundering.

Plan a low-cost strategy that could yield great benefits for the company. Take it to your supervisor and if he is reluctant to allow you to take it to the next level, it probably means that the company is doing enough to barely survive and is fearful of put into practice anything new.

If you find that there are periods of frenzied activity followed by long gaps of idleness, it means the company lacks consistency and the idle periods could increase and the company comes to a standstill.

However, if you find after your study that the company will withstand all its woes and come out stronger, just ensure than you are not one of the workers who might get laid off.

Volunteer a pay cut with the request to upgrade you when things are better. Do extra work and offer to help where extra hands are needed and make sure your boss know that you have the company’s welfare at heart.