I’ve been discussing a variety of topics with friends and family now that I have some spare time so we started compiling a list of things that we can look at to understand a company’s health. I’m not talking about balance sheets, or financial statements or anything that is generally “privileged” information but stuff that most people who work at a company can see fairly easily.

1. Friendly calls from vendors and suppliers that you invoices are overdue and should be remitted for payment as soon as possible.

2. Sudden changes in executive leadership positions described as “Retirement” or “Resignation” or “Restructuring” when there is no clear reason or purpose for the sudden change.

3. Sudden departmental changes that baffle the mind (e.g. Human Resources suddenly in charge of IT or Human Resources reporting to Treasury).

4. For public companies, stock price drop of over 80% and a huge increase in a short ratio.

5. For private companies, sudden rumors of the company “borrowing” from 401k plans.

6. Sudden change in 401k contribution matching such as from 6% to 0%

7. An increase in “suits” walking around your office building that you’ve never seen before: bankers, lawyers, auditors, etc.

8. Sudden requests for budget detail usually in the form of “How much money are we spending on……..”

9. An e-mail from an executive in your company saying that all office supply purchases must be approved by the President himself.

10. An e-mail from an executive that all travel is canceled until further notice, particularly if your company operates offices in more than one city or country.