Surviving The Politics Of Losing Your Job
Surviving the Recession- How to Handle Being Laid Off
Jun 10, 2009
When an employee is working for a major firm, it’s normal for them to assume that they have 100% job security and that the company has got their back no matter how dispensable they might be. The unfortunate truth is that in these hard economic times when companies are constantly restructuring and reshaping their internal structures, the employees no longer have the upper hand that previous generations of professionals once enjoyed.
As the unemployment rates continue to rise, more people who are highly skilled individuals are losing their jobs in industries that were once considered to being invincible during turbulent times. Since unemployment is skyrocketing, it’s especially necessary for professionals to be on the lookout for any hints that may indicate that they are next in line to losing their jobs.
In a sense, it requires a great deal of intelligence gathering, a high level of consciousness that focuses on the changing group dynamics that is occurring within any office environment and finally, knowing how to continue fostering an image as a loyal and satisfied employee while developing an exit strategy to protect the employee's self interests when the time comes to officially being laid off.
Being Laid Off Is Usually A Business Decision Vs. Being Personal
Unfortunately in this economic recession, even a loyal employee with an impressive record of productivity and contribution to a firm is still susceptible to losing their jobs in this climate. However, this happens to people throughout the business world and in most cases the ousting of an employee of good standing is merely a business decision as opposed to being personal. It’s especially important to realize this unless if it is a known fact that it is personal. If it is just a business decision then the last thing anyone would want to do is burn a bridge with a soon to be former employer even if it feels like an act of betrayal on their part.
Not Burning Any Bridges Can Help In The Long Run
For example, a guy who is a commercial real estate broker that specializes in the Upper West Side of Manhattan said that his key to success and letting people know that he’s not going anywhere is by not letting failed business deals get to him even though if he was the innocent victim. He would never make a ruckus about it and went about his business because otherwise it would have been bad for his reputation and negatively affect his future business relationships, especially if he were to do business with these same people.
And it turned out that his strategy worked. The partners from the failed business deals would eventually come back to him after a year or two and gave him first dibs on a series of real estate brokerage deals that earned him millions of dollars. The moral of this story is to not take it personal when being laid off or in his case, being the victim of a failed business deal. Otherwise, causing a ruckus would end up tarnishing a reputation and keeping the list of allies and business associates at a minimum.
Indicators Of A Potential Layoff
Recognizing the indicators of a potential job loss is not hard to find. It’s the reality of having to accept these indicators that is the difficult part. Let’s start with some common circumstances that were mentioned during an interview with a group of people in New York City that were recently laid off in the last 6-10 months:
- Constant change in management, funding and department restructuring that comes with new managers and modified perspectives on who/what is important;
- New management wants to bring in their own people that they know are loyal and dependable from previous experiences;
- Getting less work and responsibilities than the standard norm and finding out that co-workers have been ordered not to provide any new items for the individual to work on;
- The individual's traditional roles and responsibilities are slowly being transferred to a junior level employee;
- Being excluded from any meetings, department updates and social events;
- Human Resources is doing a supposedly anonymous electronic questionnaire on how to make employees to become happier and more satisfied with their jobs, colleagues and work environment;
- The boss telling an individual that they would do well in an entirely different industry for no reason at all except with the intention of lowering morale by planting a seed to get them to resign;
- For thirty plus year veterans, it might be that they are being run ragged by their employer for the sake of trying to wear them out and forcing them to retire earlier so that management can stop paying their high salaries in order to employ cheaper and less proven talent;
- A boss tries to create conflict with an employee and tries to get them to admit that they’re not happy with their job situation and suggests that they look for another job, even if the employee is satisfied.
The next article of this two part series on “Surviving the Politics of Losing Your Job” is going to discuss the exit strategy and how to gracefully deal with the bad news while finding a way to renegotiate the severance package (if it's being offered by the firm).
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