Am I getting fired?
Hi all, I’m relatively new to the OPS and hoping to get some perspective on a situation I’m dealing with.
I’m a fixed-term employee with roughly two years left on my contract. I recently interviewed for a higher-level position in another ministry, and my manager did not seem to take it particularly well.
Since then, I’ve noticed a pretty significant change in how I’m being treated. I’m being excluded from meetings I would normally expect to attend, some of my responsibilities appear to be getting reassigned to other employees, and I’m receiving very little work.
There’s also a separate professional-development dispute that has made me more concerned about the timing.
I’m part of a CPA pre-approved program, which is essentially an employer-sponsored training program for CPA candidates completing their practical experience requirements. When I joined the OPS, I had already completed most of my required experience. My previous experience report went through without any major concerns.
After I interviewed for the other OPS position, however, my manager initially refused to sign off on what was supposed to be my final CPA experience report. The sign-off is required before CPA Ontario can assess it. She eventually signed it but included adverse comments questioning my competency, autonomy and quality of work.
I’ve asked for specific examples supporting those concerns but haven't really received any. Given the timing and the change in treatment after the interview, I’m concerned that the CPA issue may be connected to my trying to leave the team, although obviously I can’t know her intentions.
I escalated the matter internally, and senior management has essentially told me they want to wait for CPA Ontario to complete its independent review before deciding whether any further action is necessary.
At this point, I honestly don’t particularly mind being underutilized. I’m happy to do whatever work is assigned to me while I look for another OPS opportunity. My main concern is whether the sudden exclusion from meetings, reassignment of work and lack of new assignments could be signs that they’re preparing to end my fixed-term contract early.
For anyone familiar with OPS management/HR practices: does this sound like someone being managed out, or could management simply be limiting involvement while the dispute is being reviewed and because they now expect me to leave?
Aside from through documentation is there anything else I can do to protect myself?
Edit: Some additional context if anyone has a substantial experience with the CPA pre-approved program here at the OPS. The way my team administrates the program seems a little weird too. Maybe I'm wrong but it's my understanding that this program is supposed to be one on a rotation. 18 months for accounting and reporting in another 12 months for risk. So I'm guessing there are supposed to be specific tasks that we work on throughout the year. However it seems like in practice there's no specific structure to how this is done. We are usually just assigned work based off of whatever is available and there are times where the type and complexity of work that I do compared to my other CPA candidate colleague is vastly different. Can anyone confirm if this is normal?