5 Ways to Keep Your Job in a Down Economy
In today's deadspin economy it almost seems expected that at some point your company is going to start cutting cost if they haven't already. Ususally, the biggest and most immediate cut comes in the area of labor. Most small and even large companies try to reduce their labor cost by doing more with less people. HSBC one of the worlds largest mortgage bankers is selling off its US banking operations and heading back to Europe (who is not much better off than the US right now) to do its business where it started. Similar announcements have come from other financial institutions such as Credit Suisse, UBS and Goldman Sachs.
With up to 30,000 jobs at stake in just one company's operations what is a person to do to prevent the enevitable from happening. Aside from the company completing a total shutdown and closing their doors forever here are some pointers for improving your rate of survival.
Build strong relationships – building strong relationships with management and staff who are decision makers is key. After all, these are most likely the people who will decide who will stay and who will go, what positions are critical and what positions are duplicative.
Develop mulitple skills – in the old days we hired specialist to do one thing and one thing well, now we want smart generalist. If a manager on has a budget of a million dollars he can't hire 50 people to do every task he needs done. He may only be able to hire 15 - 20 good employees that can do 3 or 4 different task each.
Be more than willing – be willing to take less money, be willing to do task that you may consider beneath your pay grade, be willing to stay late or come in early. Because managers are forced to do more with less they need to be surrounded with team players who believe in accomplishing the mission at any costs. Even if that costs is personal sacrifice.
Make your boss look good – if your boss is trying to save their own job in this down economy then they are sure to keep their most trustworthy and dependable resources near them. If your boss is continuosly getting pats on the back because of you, there is no reason to keep the guy who is causing them trouble instead of the person getting them accolades.
Be proactive – don't wait until the layoffs are announced to try and save yourself. Be proactive and reinvent yourself before their very eyes so that management has time to evaluate your worth to the organization. There is nothing worse than being unsure about a persons value but pressed to make a decision on a short deadline. You don't want to become an after thought because they were not able to validate the value of losing your talents.
Although most of these suggestions are not demonstrations of your technical prowess they are demostrations of your ability to fit into a very limited system of people and processes that work together to achieve maximum efficiency.
For additional tips on how to improve your leadership skills and elevate yourself higher into the management chain read the book "Lead to Succeed and You Won't Manage to Fail.
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