I’ve been running the same (old) machine for 3 years with no issues. My job is engraving imported items from China. Imports technically aren’t supposed to be in the building, and production uses the newer, better machine.
July 2025: A coworker told me a high‑level meeting included talk about shutting my machine down and moving me to another department.
August 2025: After we moved to a new building, a lead engineer from the merged division confirmed my machine would be shut down once their new machine arrived. Their machine showed up with 4 operators, and even their supervisor heard mine was being shut down.
October 2025: I returned from a week of FMLA. HR questioned why I was in the break room “too often,” even though I was on my normal breaks. Later that day my manager said he’d gotten “reports” of me being in the break room multiple times, which wasn’t true. He ended it with, “It’s fine until it isn’t.”
My yearly review was unusually short. I met expectations, but my manager accused me of “wandering” and “looking busy” when I was actually helping another department.
February 2026: An office worker tried to get me a company email (after 3 years without one), and the request was denied. I asked the CFO about my machine and he said it would only be used for “small tasks” going forward.
March 2026: My manager suddenly started micromanaging me with task lists — undated at first, then dated, constantly changing priorities, highlighting tasks I couldn’t complete, then re‑highlighting different ones. Every time I got close to finishing, he changed the list again. I still finished everything early, and he stopped giving me lists in April.
Around this time, the parent company installed their own VP. He discovered the company was buying imports and retagging them as in‑house production. The guy who retags told him the truth. The VP asked me directly if I was part of production; I told him no, I only do imports. Higher‑ups were reportedly angry that the truth came out. The other guy was later fired (for an unrelated issue).
Last week: I called off because my father was in a critical accident. My manager asked my original supervisor why my mom couldn’t handle it — my mom has been dead for 14 years. After being told that, he said, “I need someone from your department trained while he’s on vacation or not here.”
My original supervisor brushed it off, but multiple coworkers (and even people outside the company) think I’m being pushed out.
Based on this pattern, does it look like they’re preparing to get rid of me?