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As the title implies, I have the gut feeling that things won't be that good in the next three months of my job.

Because I have already committed several failures during my first two months of stay in my current employer (due to my lack of adaptation to culture and unwritten software engineering policies), I feel the need to look elsewhere.

However, this is the twist. The contract states that I cannot terminate the contract by resignation during my probationary period. If in case the job didn't go well, this will lead me to another gap in my job history, and if successful, I can be a regular employee, and at the same time, can terminate the contract at anytime.

Currently, I can still manage myself with what's happening. When we are outside the office, we're all relaxed, but then when inside, things get hot like a love-hate relationship, especially during release days to production.

My question is that, should I start looking elsewhere having the feeling of being terminated, and if ever (hoping it might not happen), will I tell this part on my next potential employer?

EDIT: One of the situations is when they are busy that asking questions with them like asking for help regarding my task, they'll first shout at me and approach me in my workstation (and the area is just 10 steps away), while when my co-workers ask him, he doesn't do that. Then when I ask sensible questions, they sometimes do not answer them, which makes me more clueless on my tasks, and causes delays.

Another is this one. Before my first day at work starts, the team leader told me that surfing the Internet (including social media and everything) is allowed.

One day after eating, since it's still break time, I did browse my Facebook. When he saw me, he told me that this will be noted and will affect my KPI during evaluation, which in reality, I do browse my social media once in working hours (during breaks only) and nothing else, while everyone are already doing video streaming (YouTube) and wasn't told that way, which made me bothered, what's up with this people?

Also, my current company is a startup with less than 10 members in it.

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  • As answers below suggest, you can look for other opportunities but don't give up on what you're doing now either. You mentioned in your Q that you made mistakes but didn't mention your team lead's reaction to these mistakes or what actions you took to manage the mistakes and/or correct for them. To just "give up" after you've made a few (correctable) mistakes is probably never the right approach no matter where you go.
    – Brandin
    Apr 16, 2015 at 21:54
  • I've edited the question to add situations why I have the feeling of looking elsewhere.
    – Ju-chan
    Apr 17, 2015 at 7:16
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    On reading your update, I would say that your organization has issues.
    – Jane S
    Apr 17, 2015 at 7:59
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    That's why I feel there's no room for being pro-active. As much as possible, I won't compare my performance with my previous employer since I could say I've performed well before. I'll still try to do ask my manager about this one, and probably this may backfire to me.
    – Ju-chan
    Apr 17, 2015 at 8:09

2 Answers 2

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If you feel there is a risk, perhaps the first thing to do is to schedule a meeting with your boss. It can be formal or informal. I would specifically ask how he feels you are going, and say that you feel you are struggling a little.

Depending on the place you work, you may or may not have been assigned a mentor. If you have not, it is probably worth asking if there is a mentor program.

Either way, your boss may give you constructive feedback that could help you avoid being fired in the first place. Being proactive to a problem is far better than being reactive to an outcome.

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    +1. Feedback is essential. One shouldn't have to wait til the last minute to know whether there's a risk of being fired
    – maria
    Apr 17, 2015 at 1:41
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    @l19 I know that as a manager, I want to make sure my staff are aware of where they stand. Also, hiring is an expensive exercise in both the monetary and time required, so it is better to try to help someone you have hired to reach the potential you saw in the recruitment process. As a staff member, if I feel like I'm struggling, that is a risk to both myself and to the project I am working on. It needs to be flagged and managed like any other risk.
    – Jane S
    Apr 17, 2015 at 1:46
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    Unfortunately, not all managers are like you. I would love to work with a manager like you since you do try help your hires to maximize their potentials. In my case, my manager doesn't even bother asking me how am I in the company in terms of work because they always see me happy even though things get rough.
    – Ju-chan
    Apr 17, 2015 at 7:21
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    Sometimes it's necessary to manage upwards. If I have had unresponsive managers, I would be proactive in trying to address any issues I felt were impacting me in the workplace. Definitely ask about any mentoring programs your organization may have.
    – Jane S
    Apr 17, 2015 at 7:38
  • Mentoring programs may not be existent currently because the company's startup only.
    – Ju-chan
    Apr 17, 2015 at 7:44
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If you think you're about to be fired, you're probably about to be fired

You may or may not actually be at risk, but if you're feeling like you're job is in jeopardy there's a fair chance it truly is. That said it's worth looking around and at least getting the process started in seeing what your options are. Say you won't be able to start until whatever day your contract is supposed to end.

This will give your employer the chance to hire you if they want, if not you can show good intent on staying and if you are terminated you can just go to whoever you're working with at potentially getting hired and offer to start early or just take some time off before starting the new job.

You could move now...

Okay so it sounds like there are issues at your current employer... If they hired you would you really want to stay long term? if not you really might want to consider your options. Probation works two ways. Are you a fit for them and are they a fit for you. If both aren't "yes" probably should start looking.

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  • Should I put in my resume my 6 months probation or I'll stick with my longer job history entry (btw I have been working only for 2 years at least.)
    – Ju-chan
    Apr 16, 2015 at 19:26
  • generally I would start looking personally if I'm unhappy, note I'm speaking from the US market so not sure if things are different there culturally speaking on this subject.
    – Eric J Fisher
    Apr 16, 2015 at 20:11
  • Oh, sorry misread, I would just not include the 6 month probation. When they ask about the gap you can say you were pursuing a job but it wasn't what was expected/described so moved on as it wasn't a good fit.
    – Eric J Fisher
    Apr 16, 2015 at 20:13
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    I'm from the Philippines as well. From the posts I've read here on Workplace I'd say it's much harder to fire/get fired in the Philippines than in an at-will environment. That being said, the OP shouldn't be complacent either.
    – jcm
    Apr 17, 2015 at 15:01
  • If you think you're about to be fired, you're probably about to be fired that sounds more like a self-fulfilling prophecy. There is an adage that if you really think something will happen, you will unconsciously behave so that it will happen.
    – Juha Untinen
    Jul 15, 2016 at 8:13

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