It's About to Go DOWN: Two Ways to Protect Yourself During Layoffs
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People are voting for Brexits and not knowing what that means. Zika is wreaking havoc. And we're due for a new president in a few months. In short, the world right now is a bit of a hot mess and signs are starting to point towards another recession. Whether big (like the meltdown of 08) or small, any recession is likely to have an impact on your job and your money situation.
Now, nothing can 100% protect you from being laid off. Letting an employee go is often a financial consideration above and beyond a personnel one. But what you can do is stack the deck in your favor. Make the cost of losing you far outweigh the cost of keeping you on.
Here are two ways you can do that -
Be the Best
If you're naturally competitive or achievement oriented, this needs no explanation. Being the best means being the top performer on your team or in your function in a matrixed organization. This means doing your job better than your peers do theirs.
If your effectiveness is easily measured, get the top scores. Have the best sales numbers. Save your company the most money. Bring in the biggest projects. Bill the most hours. If you have set quantifiable goals, don't just meet them, beat the hell out of them. If not, figure out the average amongst the team or company and surpass that.
If the definition of doing your job well is subjective, figure out what the most valued soft skills are. Take a few weeks and listen to the feedback or office chatter about the superstars. Try to chat those people up. Invite the hot shot out to coffee and ask earnestly "you've built such a great and respected career here, what was your secret?" Then, try to do just that.
Stay the latest. Research more. Dig into the details that others ignore. Know every element of your projects inside and out. Go the extra mile and then go another.
The goal of being the best is not to make your coworkers look bad or to secretly gloat. This is about delivering the most value back to your company compared to your cohort. Do this and do it consistently. You'll soon gain a reputation as a star and in turbulent times. And you'll make yourself the least likely to be laid off because your company simply can't afford to lose you.
As you can see, being the best is a lot of work. A LOT. If you're young and trying to have fun, being the best on your team doesn't leave a whole lot of time for happy hours and Kappa boat cruises. But you do have another option.
Have the Strongest Relationships
Very few jobs entail only doing your job. Most jobs require a balance of competence (knowing how something is done) and influence (being able to get it done).
If you can't be the most competent, be the most influential.
Have the strongest relationships with those who help you get your job done. Be personable but go beyond that. Establishing real connections with people on the teams that are critical to your / your team's success will only serve you well and cement your place in the company.
If you are an administrative assistant, have the strongest relationships with the other admins who will help you get meetings scheduled. If you're in corporate events, make sure you are tight with the communications teams that will help promote your events.
Knowing people well not only helps you be able to call in favors and get things done, it'll also give you the inside scoop on movements within the company, personal finish this.
Bonus points - find the person that everyone on your team hates dealing with and establish a connection with him or her. Be the only one that can ever get answers from accounting or Rob in Sales or IT.
Having the best relationships shows your team that you can get things done, manage cross-functionally, and again, helps protect you in shaky times because the team can't afford to lose those relationships with you.
Now, something I've seen over and over again is professionals of color having a lot of strong relationships, but not the ones that count. In the modern American workplace, we brown hustlers tend to be few and far between. And in my experience in corporate America, the other melanin-rich faces tend to be support staff - admins, office services, copy & print. I believe in speaking to and being friendly with everyone, but when we talk about having the strongest work relationships, you have to push past what may be easy, natural friendships and focus on those relationships most crucial to you getting your job done. By all means, grab lunch with the receptionist if you like her, but make sure that you're also getting coffee and building a rapport with the sourcing manager who's going to get you the lowest cost from your suppliers.
Most professionals will do an okay job at both of these at the same time - perfectly competent in their roles and generally well liked. Hustlers stand out by picking one and blowing it out of the park. Don't settle for competent if you can be vastly superior to your cohort. And if you can't be head and shoulders above the rest, spread your tentacles like an octopus and have the strongest relationships across your company that get your job done.
Pick one and start doing it NOW. Even if your company is relatively secure and you don't suspect layoffs are coming. You want people thinking you are the best with the best relationships before the first utterance of the "L" word, so the thought of losing you never crossed their minds.
