Surviving A Recession By Staying Employed
I guess it is pretty common sense that if you want to survive a recession you need to keep your job. Not everyone is affected by a recession during at the same time. Many people do not even think about the recession until it starts to affect them. Surviving a recession means that you and your family are not financially ruined. It means that you and your family have not only a roof over your head, a place to live, but that you are able to sustain your current life style. Everything else is extraneous expense. Unfortunately, until people have to start making the tough decisions about paying a power bill or making a mortgage payment they never think about surviving a recession. And, most people do not think they have to make those tough decisions until after they loose their jobs. Your best bet to survive a recession is to stay employed. But, that does not mean you should not prepare for a recession. If you prepare for a recession before you loose your job or suffer some other financial set back then you will be able to ride out the bad economy retaining your current life style.
Yes I know it is easy to say that in order to survive a recession you have to keep your job. But how do you keep your job in tough times? Staying employed, during a recession, may require you to think creatively, or out of the box. Keeping your job may require you to think like you boss. The bottom line, the only people that are truly affected by a recession are those that either cannot keep their current job or cannot find a way to bring in the same income from other sources.
Surviving a recession by thinking creatively does not mean creating art. But is you have the skills why not. Anyway, this means taking a long hard look at your job and coming of with creative solutions to current problems. Any solution that saves money or creates efficiencies will increase your value to the company. The higher you are valued by the company the less likely you are to go during the first or second round of layoffs. More over, you are more likely to be offered a position at a different location if the current location is closed. Keeping your job, surviving a recession, by being a problem solver that adds value to the company and it is less likely that you will be viewed and a financial drain on the company. Besides, each creative resolution or creative strategy you develop adds to your resume, if the unthinkable happens.
Surviving a recession, avoiding being laid off, by thinking like your boss. When layoffs are planned your supervisor will be contacted and asked which employees should be kept and which will be let go. There are several questions that are likely to go through your bosses mind. Which employees can do which jobs? Which employees ad value to the department? Which employees make me look good and conversely which employees make me look bad? Which employees get along and are team players? Which employees do I like? You have to give your boss positive reasons for keeping you.
Surviving A recession By Staying Employed Conclusion
In answering these questions your boss is looking for employees that have the broadest experience across all job functions and who can work as a team. A shrinking staff will require fewer people to more and different jobs, in a more stressful environment. You will need to subtly market yourself as the person who can cover all your boss’s needs. Surviving a recession requires you to stay employed. Think critically about your job and how you can add value and increase your profile in a positive way and you are less likely to loose your job, making surviving a recession much easier. if you know your company is going to be down sized. And, you know you are going to be laid off then prepare NOW. Do not wait. Dust off your resume. Build new skills or certify current ones. Make yourself look fantastic for a new employer. That new employer will be thiniking some of the same things your old employer is. How will he or she add value to the bottom line. Prepare for a recesion; stay gainfully employed.
