When times are good and the economy is expanding, companies grow in a variety of ways. They build in some redundancy so that key functions survive even if an employee leaves. They add capacity hoping to grow the size of the core business. They consider new projects or products that might enable the company to enter new markets. All of this is reflected in a growth in the number of employees at the firm.
When the economy takes a downturn, leaders immediately look for places to trim costs—and the base of workers is often an easy place to start. That is when the layoffs may begin: this year companies have already eliminated 800,000 jobs. So, what can you do to minimize the chances that one will find its way to you?
Be good at your job
Perhaps the most important thing you can do to protect your job is to be really good at it. When a company first starts to consider downsizing, they usually start by looking for candidates to lay off whose contributions won’t be missed that much. So, the first people to go are usually those whose performance has been lackluster.
Continue to develop your skills to become expert in your job function and facile with any new technologies that may improve your productivity. Work to stay motivated to provide great service to your team, your clients, and your customers. Even on the days you aren’t “feeling it” you still need to bring a positive attitude to your work. Be the kind of person that your leadership notices.
That effort will get you past that first round of layoffs that often targets the folks that management is perfectly happy to see walk out the door.
Be mission-critical
When companies look for ways to trim costs, they often focus on their core businesses. The dreams of new products and services take a back seat to a focus on the central drivers of revenue in the near term.
That means the safest place to be in the organization is working on things that are recognized to be mission critical. Take a look at your daily responsibilities. If you have some latitude about where you’re spending your time, focus most on those tasks that are easily identified as contributions to the core current drivers of revenue and success. You may have a passion for some of the more innovative or future-focused parts of your job, and you can continue to do some of that work. But, make sure that the bulk of your focus is on projects that are not potentially expendable.
Play well with others
When high-level leadership wants a reduction in force, they often send headcount or budget targets to managers who then have to identify the people who are let go. When it reaches that stage, managers are in a mindset of rejection. They are thinking about which individuals will not make the cut to stay with the firm.
Whenever you’re looking to eliminate people (or options) from a set, you tend to focus on the negative characteristics of those options more than the positives. That means that your negatives are going to loom particularly large at that moment.
One factor that is easily under your control is whether you are a pleasant colleague to work with. Being nice to others, doing favors, and being a team player puts you in a camp of individuals who make the workplace pleasant rather than unpleasant. So, you are unlikely to stick out of a list of people being considered as potential layoff targets.
On top of that, managers are also human. They are likely to give more consideration to people they generally like than to those they don’t. Being nice to others won’t guarantee you’ll keep your job, but it will make the decision as difficult as possible for the manager faced with making tough choices.
