from Forbes

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One of the most important things every working person must learn is that not every manager deserves your talents.

There are great mentors in the business world and there are other managers who are not qualified to shine your shoes. You have to be able to tell the difference. Sometimes we only learn that a person’s degrees and work experience have little connection to his or her maturity and professionalism when they stab us in the back!

If you are smart and capable, some managers will be ecstatic and others will become fearful and hostile. These fearful managers don’t want smart and capable people around them. It intimidates them when they are not the Queen Bee or the master and commander of the department.

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They will cut you down with cruel comments to let you know who’s boss. They will thunder at you for insignificant things, and take other steps to try to knock you off-balance.

All the while you’ll have no idea what you did to bring your manager’s wrath down upon you. You didn’t do anything wrong. You just showed up in the wrong department and did your job a little too well for your fearful manager’s taste. Maybe you weren’t quite as docile and deferential as your boss wanted you to be. That’s enough to put a big target on your back.

Here are five signs your boss wants you out and will take the opportunity to fire you the first chance they get.

Your Reporting Relationship Changes For No Reason

Unless your boss is the CEO, he or she is likely to need a higher-up manager’s approval before terminating you. Sneaky, bad bosses will engineer a role or title change that seems harmless to you but is actually intended to make the higher-up boss aware of your manager’s “concerns” about your performance.

Here’s how that works. Your manager tells you out of the clear blue sky, “James, I’m going to have you report to Elizabeth, because I don’t have time to work closely with you.” You say, “That’s fine.” It’s no big deal. Elizabeth is much more empathetic and much smarter than your boss is, anyway.

However, your boss told her boss something much different. She told her boss that she had to put you under Elizabeth because you’re failing so badly in your job. The insignificant change to the organizational chart is a cover for your fearful boss. It is the first step in your manager’s plan to paint you as a poor performer and ease you out the door.

Your Manager Will Only Communicate With You Via Email

Why would a manager stop talking to you in person or over the phone, and put all of her communication with you in writing instead? They’ll do it if they want to create a “paper trail.” You can assume that all of your manager’s email messages are being copied to HR or to your boss’s boss when the face-to-face and telephone conversation disappear and suddenly the only way your manager will communicate with you is in writing.