I'm sad that I can contribute to this topic, but here goes. Even if you're not being fired for a performance related issue, or because you have problems with a manager, there can still be signs. I was universally loved at my job. And I was one of the few employees remaining to never have a write up for poor performance. Just two weeks prior to being fired I was praised for how outstanding my work was and told I should consider applying for a higher level position when it came out. So things were going great (even though I actually hated the job, it was the people who made it worthwhile). Well 2 days before I was fired I had emailed my supervisor about applying for the higher position (he needed to send me the paper work for it), but he never respond. I thought that was really odd because he always did a great job of responding. I shrugged it off though because I didn't think I had anything to worry about and just planned on asking him the following week. Then the afternoon before I was fired, one of my coworkers with a cubicle beside mine started acting distant. Wouldn't talk to me, didn't say goodbye at the end of the day like normal, etc. Again, shrugged it off. The next day myself, and two other coworkers were fired as soon as we stepped in the building. We were fired for having an email thread discussion of stuff the HR manager had done and just general office chatter. This was common in our workplace and I had various email threads going with many different employees, including supervisors. I hadn't contributed much to this one, however the other two participants had taken their complaints to the HR managers boss (who was in another country at the time). The managers boss had told them that she was planning on flying down to discuss the allegations with them in person, as they were serious, within the next two weeks but she had to discuss the complaints with the HR manager first. Come to find out that the HR manager's best friend (the coworker who was acting odd) had made the complaint that got us fired. Even though there is no way she would have had access to our email herself. In the termination meeting I was told they tried to save my job but that it would leave them open to liabilities because of the other two. It was all around a sketchy situation and I wish I had paid closer attention to the warning signs. Tl;dr If your manager stops communicating like normal and other employees feel suspiciously distant, you're probably being canned very soon.