How to keep your job. When everyone else is jobless.
Posted on December 3, 2009
Filed Under Jobs, Staying Positive | Leave a Comment
Let’s face it, even now, in 2009 the job market is horrible. Things may be looking up, but the economy is still at a low point. Since the current U.S. recession started in December 07′, nearly 7 million jobs been lost, and thats more than 1.4 million are from ‘Professional’ slots. The labor Department says total emplyment is now at its lowest level since August 04′
So you might be asking: How to make my job more secure?
What skills, attitudes, and attributes should I pocess to make it less likey that my name will be on my company’s next list of who to lay off?
Some of these survival skills of what has been coined “soft” skills – relationships and attitudes – while some skills involve more0measurable tasks. Some of these soft skills may sound obvious, but for may workers, developing them will lead to real, meaningful personal/professional change. The long time worker who gets through the day with his head down and nose to the grindstone, just like the colleague who gets through the day with a constant stream of humor and jokes, will learn that they need to add new tactics to their personal skill-set arsenal.
Thant’s because a vital key is keeping your job in these down times is visibilty – but only positive visibility, and especially positive visibility that has a tangible connection with measurable results.
BOOST YOUR PROFILE AND IN TURN YOUR VALUE
Raise your profile within the company by doing things you haven’t done, things that may seem peripheral to the business but are key to the office. Remember, the office is a social community that’s within the business, and it works, or doesn’t work, just like any other social grouping. It may not be fair, but the odd man – the worker who goes straight home rather than socializing with co-workers – may end up being the odd man out.
Because the office is a social entity, you’ll have to develop a unique standing within it to increase your chances of survival as the entity shrinks through layoffs. This entails building what experts are referring to as a “personal brand”, creating an array of strengths and attributes that are unique to you. This doesn’t mean that you should be the only one to wear a bow-tie or that you should wear a pink dress every day; it does mean that you have enough to offer the bosses that you will be remembered when the time comes.
Workers can raise their profiles when they make the effort to join special committees or even help organize a company-wide social engagement. This can consist of doing something as simple as getting your department co-workers to all go out to lunch together to actually intramural athletic events.
“Conventional wisdom may say that you should keep your head down, especially during an economic downturn,” says Meredith Haberfold, an executive coach who operates out of New York.
However, the reality is that visibility is all-important, she said. But only good visibility. The worst form of visibility – complaining and criticizing – is all but a guarantee of a bad personal outcome, Haberfeld said. Avoid gallows humor (quipping “you want fries with that?” to an executive), or out-loud cynicism (asking, tongue-in-cheek, “hey, boss, you here to fire me?”).
Almost any form of gossiping is poison, and the high-end maintenance employee is at risk, says employment counselor Susan Heathfield.
Author and career coach Alexandra Levit told Money magazine that you should avoid guilt by association, just as you should seek approval by association: Don’t hang out with the down crowd (the “Debbie Downers,” she calls them), and do hang out with the people the bosses (genuinely) like.
The next step toward visibility is upward, rather than outward – making sure that your bosses actually know what you’re doing for the company. This, according to Haberfield, comes down – very simply – to blowing your own horn. After all, if you don’t do it, chances are that no one else will, and chances are very good that someone else will try and take credit for your successes.
If you had a successful sales campaign, let the bosses know. If you’ve been able to show how work now being done by expensive consultants could be done in-house – and for a lot less money – let them know.
“My suggestion is that you work your tail off to be visible about the results you’re producing” says Haberfeld.
And don’t just assume that the numbers speak for themselves. If you’ve developed a new technique in your last sales campaign, tell the bosses. And tell them in writing: a casual remark in the elevator really won’t do. The ‘invisible guy’ is the first guy to go, says Stephen Viscusi, author of ‘Bulletproof Your Job: Four Simple Strategies to Ride Out the Rough Times and Come Out on Top at Work.’
Stepping across boundaries rather than building them is the right approach. If you’re in public relations, but you have a sales lead, share it with sales – and make sure they don’t take credit for it. If there’s a big project that you’ve managed to avoid every time it comes up, change that. Write this year’s annual “Year in Review,” even if you are certain that no one reads it.
the needed skills to Stick out in the workplace.
Being the invaluable, irreplaceable employee no longer means hoarding expertise in just one area. Indeed, that’s just won’t work in today’s environment.
What will work is new skills. Here are some ways to develop them:
- Mentoring your way to Success: Seek a mentor within your organization. Or even better, BE ONE. if you’re low on the totem pole, seek the advice and counsel of someone higher up; and vice versa.
- Stay Ahead of the Pack: Keep up with developments in your field. This is differnt than acquiring new skills; this is going to professional societies and finding out what will be happening in the next few months or years – and being ready for these new trends.
- Embrace ‘Social Media’: Many companies have been slow to embrace the tools and services of www.myspace.com www.twitter.com, and www.twitter.com while the employee’s have jumped right in. Become your company’s ‘go-to man’ for new media outlets.
- Volunteering: I have heard volunteering outside the workplace is a excellent way to expose yourself to new ways of using your skills. Who knows, that company you spend 4 or 5 hours a week with keeping books for charitys or something of the like could turn into a full time position if your current one flakes out.
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