Job Security

Surviving in an Insecure Economy

The dominant emotion for many workers today is FEAR... fear that their job is on the line, fear that they won't be able to make ends meet, fear that job security is a thing of the past (which it is). The present economic troubles don't help much either; when every new issue of Time or Newsweek features a cover story like "How To Survive The Coming Slump" or "Is Anyone Safe?", it's understandable if you feel just a little bit paranoid. In one recent Internet poll, fewer than 50% of respondents said they felt secure in their job, and that's from people who are computer savvy enough to point and click.

What can you do to help yourself in times like these? Here are some suggestions. They don't provide an iron-clad guarantee that you'll never experience a downturn in your life. They do provide some strategies you can implement to keep the downturn from turning into a bottomless pit.

Strategy #1: Take responsibility

The days when you could expect your employer to take care of you are long gone. Those days weren't so great anyway; watch any movie about "company towns", from How Green Was My Valley to October Sky, if you don't believe me. Learn how to take responsibility for the outcome of your own career, by recognizing that employment is not an entitlement. Responsibility is the flip side of freedom; you can't have one without the other. Humanly speaking, no one cares about how your life turns out as much as you do, so don't pass the buck. Realize how much choice you have and how important your choices really can be.

Strategy #2: Take stock

Major on your strengths. As Peter Drucker puts it, "It's much easier to move from competence to excellence than to move from mediocrity to competence." Don't spend a lifetime trying to make yourself over into someone you're not: be who you are. The world needs all kinds of people for the specific reason that no one person can do everything. Know yourself well enough to be able to state clearly what you do magnificently, what you do adequately, and what you should never be allowed to do without adult supervision.

Strategy #3: Have a Plan B

If your present career became obsolete tomorrow, or were outlawed by an arbitrary Congress, how else could you package and repackage your skills into some other way of making a living? Don't become a prisoner of your job title. Martin Yate argues that everyone should have three careers going at all times: one that pays the bills today, one that has the potential of paying them tomorrow, and one just for fun. That doesn't necessarily mean three jobs, but it means pursuing more than one vocational identity. It means having a parachute strapped to your back in case you're thrown out of the plane without warning.

Strategy #4: Stay connected

People who need people usually end up with lucrative singing careers. They also find it easier to stay employed, because people hire people they know, like, and trust. Don't hide your light under a bushel; make yourself known. The time to network is when you don't have to: when your job seems completely secure, when you're riding high, when you're in the catbird seat. Networking doesn't mean active job hunting; it means staying in contact with others, knowing what's going on in the world, helping others -- first and foremost because that's the right thing to do, second because the best place to be when you're out of a job is to have all the world's power brokers owe you a big favor.

Strategy #5: Stay current

Today's cutting edge is tomorrow's dinosaur, so keep learning. Don't rest on your laurels; don't assume that you already know everything that's worth knowing. Have an answer to the question (which your employer, or some future job interviewer, may some day ask you in earnest), "What makes you more valuable as an employee than you were six months ago?" And while you're at it, remember to diversify your skills. Make sure that you have more than one skill base, more than one marketable competency. If you can only sing one tune, your name had better be Celine Dion. (Yes, I know she's not singing any more, but that punch line is simply too good to resist.)

Strategy #6: Redefine loyalty

In the old world (circa 1951), loyalty primarily was owed to your employer. Today, loyalty is owed to your profession. Be a person of integrity, do the very best you can, give a full day's work for a full day's pay, keep your promises, work hard, represent your company ably and honestly, speak well of those not present: but don't think that you can purchase job security by being a model employee. It's not that companies don't care; it's that global competition and an increasingly fickle marketplace has made it impossible for even the most altruistic and most solvent organization to promise you a job for life. Don't let that make you bitter (it simply means that corporate America is breaking a promise it never should have made), but do let it make you better -- "wise as serpents but innocent as doves", ethically blameless but also savvy to the way things are.

Strategy #7: Keep hoping

Winston Churchill was once asked to give an inspirational speech. The complete text of his speech, summarizing the philosophy that had carried him through a time when England's back was to the wall and it looked as if Western civilization would succumb to the Nazi menace, was as follows: "Never give up. Never give up. Never give up."

The recent movie Cast Away ends with the protagonist commenting that, when your rational plans and your logical prospects fail, you keep hoping because you never know what the surf is going to wash up on the beach the following day. Plan, but rely on something higher than your plans. Life often works out better than you have a right to expect. People like me call that the prevenient grace of God. Others use terms like serendipity or synchronicity, but however you define it, don't think that it all depends on you. Thankfully, it doesn't.

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