From Missing Tissues to Shifting Duties: Is Your Company in Trouble?

Young social media users are sharing a tongue-in-cheek test of workplace stability: check whether the company’s bathrooms still have tissues. The joke treats the disappearance of a basic supply as the quickest and most reliable warning of trouble.

Behind the humour is a concern about how employees can spot problems before their employer offers an explanation. Small changes in everyday office life can attract attention precisely because staff encounter them firsthand.

The discussion also draws attention to changes in work assignments. For employees trying to gauge their company’s health, shifting duties may raise questions about whether something bigger is happening behind the scenes.

Neither an empty tissue dispenser nor a revised task list, however, is proof of a financial crisis. Such changes are better treated as reasons to seek clarification than as a verdict on the company’s future.