I hope this never happens to you, but it might so I want you to be prepared if it does. When a manager accuses you of a performance related issue that clearly represents you in a negative light, you’re in a very dangerous situation that warrants your complete attention. In many of these situations, the individual being accused is alone, confused, and scared. They likely don’t have an advocate and may feel that the people and/or institutions in whom they trusted are now adversaries. They also may not feel like they can tell colleagues about it for fear of being seen in a negative light. So they end up alienated without anyone from whom to seek advice for what to do.

I’m not talking about when you might be accused of behavior that violates your company’s policies; for those situations you probably need to open up a case with HR or possibly hire an attorney. But there are so many other situations, like this one:

Last week I was talking to a professional acquaintance (let’s call her Ally) who was unhappy with her boss (let’s call him Fred). Fred had apparently accused Ally of sabotaging him by making a particular change in their cloud environment. This change got Fred in trouble, and Fred didn’t do the due diligence to get to the root cause. Instead, he blamed Ally’s change on the incident. Beyond that, Fred accused Ally of doing this on purpose in order to make Fred look bad. Ally simply didn’t have enough information to understand why Fred would make such an accusation. After talking to her other team members, they seemed just as confused as she was, and no one had a clear story as to why this accusation was made.

We cannot underestimate the power Fred has to set the tone for Ally’s performance in her organization. Yes, he gives her a rating every year, but also the narrative that he gives to leadership about her is incredibly important to the types of projects, promotions, and compensation that are available to her. Not only that, but her performance at Fred’s company will likely affect what kind of job she’s able to get after that because of the reputation she’ll receive there and the references that may or may not follow.

Whether the accusation is justified or not, if your boss is serious enough about a situation to accuse you of something, then you are in clear financial and career danger, and it warrants your highest priority.

You’re in danger because, if you get on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP), your position at that company has a high likelihood of ending, and you will get no severance package. This is different from a layoff, where you lose your job for non-performance reasons and receive benefits like severance. And when future employers call them for a reference, they will say simply that you do not have rehire status, which will signal to future employers that you had performance issues.

I advise you to do three things to get out and stay out of these types of situations:

1. Build stakeholder relationships beyond your boss

Don’t let your boss be the only voice in the room about your performance. Schedule a skip-level with your boss’ boss every quarter, and in that meeting have a great attitude, get curious about their problems, and educate them about how your work ties into those goals. Ask for feedback and direction. Try to stay away from the topic of your boss. Focus on what you can do to make this time valuable to them.

Beyond this skip-level, you should seek to have another couple of important relationships from people who benefit from your work. These don’t have to be weekly 1:1s either; oftentimes a more strategic and prepared quarterly meeting can be a breath of fresh air to a leader.

Your goal here is to align with their objectives, and hopefully they’ll feel supported by you and maybe even vouch for you when you’re not in the room.

2. Document conversations and commitments with your boss

I once led a team whose manager and technical lead both accused a senior engineer of unprofessional conduct and poor performance. I met with the engineer to get her side of the story because things were escalating quickly. The senior engineer pulled out a black notebook of everything said over the past year. She flipped through the pages of this notebook, outlining specific times and situations where her leadership was acting, in her mind, unfairly toward her. You can imagine how much this changed the entire narrative. An employee with notes, actions, and commitments tracked, is a very powerful employee. The accusations didn’t seem to hold as much water as before.

3. Get intentional and introspective about how you got here

Yes, some of us unfortunately have to work with terrible leaders. But we all have a part to play in the situations in which we find ourselves. Are you in the right position? Could it be that you went hard after that promotion but now you’re struggling with things that are difficult to explain? Or maybe leadership comes up with blanket statements that seem dumb to you? What might you be missing here?

Are you doing your best work? Are you aligned with the core objectives of your team?

I once had a colleague who had received bad feedback from his manager, and I knew he was a great, technical contributor so I moved him to my organization. He thrived there and still thrives on that team. Sometimes a change of leadership is great. But acknowledging your role in a situation is the best way to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. As the saying goes, “Wherever you go, there you are.” So take care that you focus on yourself first.

I hope that this gives you a playbook for how to handle hostile situations that can unfortunately happen with management at times. If you don’t already do these things, then this playbook honestly needs to start today:

1. Establish those important relationships with other stakeholders
2. Document your interactions with people and follow the good
3. Discover the engagement in a role that allows you to do your best work