Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Making Your Career Termination Proof...

If you have a job or have managed to land one in the current economic climate, consider yourself lucky.  For every one like you there are thousands of others who are not so fortunate.  Layoffs, terminations, firings are all becoming commonplace as companies seek to save every dollar they can.  How do you avoid the human resources axe when it comes swinging through your department?

I am a big believer in doing all you can to make yourself absolutely irreplaceable to your hiring managers.  I landed my job as a writer for a basement flooding / water damage lead generation company about a year ago, and I have worked ever since to make sure they did not regret or rethink that decision. 

For starters, and this should be a no brainer……be on time.  Every day.  If you can manage a few minutes early, that is even better.   In addition, don’t sprint for your car the instant the five o’clock whistle sounds.  Putting in a little extra time always looks good to the front office.

Know your goals, then exceed them.  I’m a writer for a water damage restoration company, and after a few days I began to get an idea of just how much writing I could get done in a day.  After that, it became a matter of meeting that goal and exceeding it each and every workday.  If I didn’t quite make it one day, I more than made up for it the next. 

Dress nicely, at least one step beyond the lowest acceptable dress code for your place of business…look sharper than the rest of them out there .  There is a commonly held belief that if you look successful then you will be successful.  Do so.

Take ownership of your department as its own little company within a company, with you as the CEO and overseeing all elements such as productivity, profit and loss, inventory, etc.   And stay on top of it.  The more responsibility you assume (even if it isn’t official), the harder you will work to make everything happen.

Be responsible for your own career advancement.  Everybody else will be too preoccupied with their own climb up the corporate ladder to look out for you.  Take charge of your future, don’t be afraid to ask for new responsibilities and duties as you feel you can effectively handle them.

Keep a positive attitude about your job and your company.  Nothing derails a career faster than talking negatively (it will get back to the front office) or having an irrational fear of being displaced.  If we are that concerned about losing our jobs, eventually we will end up conducting ourselves in a manner that makes sure it happens.  Some call this a self-fulfilling prophecy.  I call it regrettable and sad.

Don’t be afraid to ask your supervisor for responsibility.  When I came on board at my company as Content Director, one of the first things that struck me was the shoddy writing on our company’s websites.  As I got acclimated to the job, I began asking if I could re-write the website copy.  I was given the responsibility and the websites got a fresh new informational face.

Again, at the risk of utilizing a tired cliché’, be a team player.  Make sure everybody knows that you are on board and in it for the long haul.  Snide comments and backhanded swipes at your co-workers accomplish nothing except making you look extremely suspect to the higher ups.

Become the face of your company.  Look for opportunities to represent your company at conventions, trade shows, industry events, whatever presents itself.  There is no single better way to solidify your good corporate image.

Improve yourself at every opportunity.  Take course and training outside of work to help better equip you for the responsibilities you have, as well as the responsibilities you may soon inherit.  If your supervisor knows that you are taking time off the clock to work on improving your skills, he will not let that information pass by unnoticed.

Learn to love change.  With new technology rolling off the assembly line almost daily, it is inevitable that eventually you are going to be handed something that makes you go “huh?”.  Determine that you are not going to be intimidated by the thought of learning how to do something a different way.  Employees that scoff at or resist such change run the risk of being seen as hindrances to company growth.

We can't totally avoid the possibility of termination, but we sure can cut it down a long way.


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