What are some telltale signs that a business might be on the verge of bankruptcy? Also, have you ever worked for a company that went under and did you see it coming?

The boss is outside asking a homeless person where he got his blue tarp.

CEO doing things he/she never does before. Getting irritated about every little thing, "why is x employee late by 10 second ? He should be here 10 minutes before start time". Or start micro managing people.

Another one is seeing your office full of your co workers, but no manager.......for weeks. Without notice.

Then one day you find out that person still "works" there, but is no longer even management.

And a few days later, an even more incompetent boss is put in charge. Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Yup.

Showed up to work one night at my part time job, as usual.

Lights were all off. No manager, no workers, no one.

Eventually found out ( a few days later) that it was bought out. (It was a branch of a nation/world wide chain.)

Thanks for the heads up dudes.

Waste of gas and time.

You arrive to work one day, only to find a construction crew demolishing the building, and a huge sign in the parking lot, announcing that it is a future site of a new rugby field.

Surely bad personal judgement to accept employment at such a company - Research first perhaps?

Higher than normal staff turn over, the adverts in trains etc dried up due to not being paid for, and finally salary was late by a few days them a few weeks..... Get out!

Never.

It’s not just abandon a sinking ship with private companies. Haven’t one prefecture’s teachers recently declared a strike when the principal collected his pay but they did not receive theirs? Saw it in passing at the station on Tuesday’s evening news but now can’t seem to find the story again in print or online media.

yes had that experience in past.

main issues why companies went down-bad management,greed,low salary to workers and demotivation of staff to work for them.dont need to mention inability to adapt to foreigners way of thinking and to new situation in the world.simply old style fax-hanko-meeting style is think of past.

Not a first hand experience, but what I heard was if the company begins to lay off workers periodically, managers and bosses are more overworked, new supplies aren't being bought, and there are less company-wide meetings being held.

Most of the companies I worked for here in Japan have gone under and no longer exist. Nearly all. And yes. I saw it coming which is why I left and didn't get hit by the shrapnel.

The biggest telltale signs are poor management, employee turnover, and general morale at the office.