I recently stumbled across Anne Fisher’s “Keep your job: A 10-point survival guide” (CNN Money) which is a relatively bland list of suggestions (mostly paraphrased from Deb Bright) for keeping your job in the current uncertain economic climate. I suppose there are going to be more and more of these kind of articles as time goes by and layoffs increase, but one point jumped out at me:

#7 – For now, forget about work-life balance. A major preoccupation when the economy was humming along nicely, “having time for outside interests has to go right out the window now,” says Bright. “You need to concentrate on doing whatever it takes to make yourself indispensable.”

Now this is complete bollocks. Apart from the old adage “if you’re indispensable, you can’t be promoted”, dropping a proper balance – ignoring the bigger picture – and focusing entirely on work (/money) is partly to blame for the current mess. This advice also assumes the current recession/depression is short term – if not, you’ll soon burn out and be no use to anyone, you family, yourself, your company.

“That’s why a time like this, when the bubble is bursting, is a
great time to see how important it is to think about the big picture,
and what matters not just to us, but to building a sustainable economy
in a sustainable world.”
–Work on Stuff that Matters: First Principles

You need to keep a big picture perspective – a nose-to-the-grindstone blind approach will ensure you’ll miss any wonderful opportunities change may throw your way. Remember that Bill Gates started Microsoft in a hotel room in the depths of a recession.

“It’s times like these when tremendous competitive success can be
achieved. It’s times like these where companies can shift positions in
the marketplace. It’s times like these when leaders can become
followers, and followers can become leaders, because we are in a period
where everything is now going to open and unfreeze.“
– Michael Porter, Harvard University.
So I present my humble list of things not to do:

  1. Don’t give up your work-life balance. If you have a family, you need them to keep you positive and support and motivate you. Even if you don’t, you need a life outside the office to maintain a sense of perspective and true happiness.
  2. Don’t stop learning. Read, study, listen to podcasts and always sharpen your core skills (thanks Luke) – expand your mind whenever possible. If you do get canned, you want to be on top of the market and current trends – and in the habit of learning new skills rapidly.
  3. Don’t work for the kind of boss who doesn’t appreciate you unless you file daily status reports. You want someone who is in touch with your achievements, someone who knows what you are worth at a moments notice in case they are called on to defend you / your team.
  4. Don’t work harder (unless you are currently slacking) – work smarter. There will always be someone who can (and will) put in more hours, you want to be recognised for being smart and efficient.
  5. Don’t stay in your comfort zone. The current economic climate should be all the incentive you need to get up and going and push yourself. Don’t assume your job is safe, these are still early days in the crisis and nobody knows exactly how things will turn out. Use the opportunity to self-motivate!
  6. Don’t live in fear of being retrenched. If you hate your job, don’t work to keep it purely out of fear of the alternatives – you’ll only hurt yourself and your team in the long term. Realize that you may still be left without a job – through no fault of your own. A common sanity saving approach to the threat of violent crime in South Africa applies here too – take what precautions you can, and get on with your life.
  7. Don’t accept an attitude of entitlement from anyone, including yourself. You do not deserve employment simply because you have a degree / experience / live in a 1st world country etc, you earn your right to be employed, as does (or at least should :-) everyone else.
  8. Don’t believe you have absolute control of your future (or that anyone else does). Read Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, it will change the way you look at and deal with the world. Sometimes sh1t just happens.
  9. That said, also maintain an internal locus of control. Realize you can influence your life and your outcomes – you are responsible for many of the good/bad that happens to you, and your attitude directly influences your happiness. Do what you can to improve your own situation.
  10. Never, ever, lose your sense of humour. Find something to laugh about (humanity in general always works for me) – after all we live in a crazy world where Scott Adams’ economic opinions are taken seriously :-)Update: Three people so far have pointed out an important omission, so I’m cheating and adding an extra item.
  11. Don’t moonlight (or kill the golden goose – thanks Luke). Some people seem to think they can hedge their bets by moonlighting on the side – a backup plan just in case. This is a fallacy – your efforts need to be focused exclusively on your best option, your current job (if it’s not your best option, you’re doing something wrong). If you don’t focus, the result will be obvious – and you need to be performing at your best.
Disclaimer: common sense should prevail as always. YMMV. I work in an industry which is growing, thank God – for a company which really cares for its people. Anne (who was also recently downsized so she knows exactly what it feels like) did note in the comments on her article that one size doesn’t fit all, there is no black and white – her definition of “work/life balance” probably differs from mine.
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