Five-Step Guide For Layoff Survivors
How to Keep Your Job and Your Sanity in a Recession
Apr 7, 2009
Office life will become a lot more difficult after layoffs. Workers will now be responsible for their existing tasks alongside those of former co-workers. Some new tasks may be unfamiliar, and the new work schedule will very likely be more hours for the same pay.
Show Initiative
If given new, unfamiliar tasks after a round of layoffs, workers should ask for detailed guidance. In discussions with supervisors, the request should be phrased in such a way that it doesn’t sound like complaining, whining, casting blame or appearing weak. Instead, workers should simply express an earnest desire to help the team get through these tough times. If new skills are required to do so, then discussions with supervisors should revolve around how to acquire those skills.
Show Dedication
It is more important now than ever before to show dedication to the workplace by arriving early and staying late. There may even be a need to work a bit from home, albeit not enough to cause burnout. For the sake of one's mental and physical health, a work-life balance should be reached with family activities and personal hobbies. Otherwise, job performance and possibly even the overall career may suffer.
Be Accountable
Workers must become expert time managers, listing tasks in order of urgency with subsets categorized by things like frequency. This can help workers remain accountable and fulfill commitments to colleagues and supervisors.
Be Indispensable
A worker can try to increase personal value to the team by doing all of the above: showing initiative, showing dedication and being accountable. Taking it a step further, workers should volunteer for committees and projects that matter to the bottom line. Focusing on ways to directly or indirectly add value to the organization will get the attention of supervisors, who usually factor dollars and cents into layoff decisions. In other words, workers should endeavor to become part of the solution, according to Paul Facella, CEO of Inside Management and author of Everything I Know About Business I Learned at McDonald's.
"Identify three to five specific areas where former employees' tasks were inefficient or redundant, and show your employer how processes can be streamlined," Facella said. "Identify some areas where the employer can save money, and submit these cost-cutting proposals in an unsolicited report."
Communicate
A supervisor may not be the most communicative type, and there’s nothing wrong with that. However, in those cases, a worker must take the initiative. Communication is critical for the following reasons: relaying the ways a worker is adding value to the organization; discussing goals and benchmarking progress; requesting training and feedback, and demonstrating a worker's dedication.
Another key communication strategy is to keep a supervisor in the loop when it comes to one's workload and progress. The supervisor will then be aware of just how much work an employee is handling, will share a bit in the accountability, and may be a bit more understanding. Employees should make an effort to schedule a brief weekly or monthly session with their supervisor to handle all questions, updates and general discussion. They can stay on task by keeping a list of things to discuss, in order to make most efficient use of that time. Most supervisors will appreciate the employee's initiative and respect for the supervisor's time.
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