This
difference is caused by the rapid changes in workforce
requirements that our current economy demands. Often
the job that a person starts their work career with
will not even exist after 20 years.
Life
is a Chess Game
Many
people faced with the loss of a job lament, “I
had planned to work here until I retired!” They
are caught by surprise when the employer decides to
shut down a factory, or move it to another area.
These
days, workers cannot look at their employers as their
guaranteed protectors. It is better if workers look
at their careers as a chess game. Workers must always
be planning what their moves will be, when changes
in their current jobs come.
Winning
the Job Game
Keeping
yourself flexible, and keeping aware of the business
climate, allows you to make moves before you are laid
off.
Looking
at career moves as a game requires you to do the following:
1.
Learn everything possible, to make yourself able to
move on. If your company is offering training,
take it. If someone on staff can teach you something,
learn it. Learn how to operate all of the computer
programs that your company uses. It is very important
that you keep yourself as flexible as possible, in
order to keep your options open.
2.
Be willing to change where you live. It really
is not so bad to move, but some people are unwilling.
Currently, there is a significant downturn in northern
manufacturing jobs, but the railroads say that they
need people. The only hitch is that people need to
relocate. It doesn’t make sense to stay in one
place and complain that you don’t have a job,
while a job is available with a move.
3.
Keep aware of changes that are coming. We
asked an engineer friend why he had just made a job
move, when it appeared to us that he had liked his
job of 10-plus years. He explained that he was asked
to sit on a committee whose mission was to determine
who would be laid off. Based on his committee work,
he decided that it would only be a matter of time
before his own position was eliminated. So, it was
time for him to look for a new job.
Making
Your Lemons into Lemonade
Most
people who stay in the same job for their entire career
report real boredom with the job in the last 5-10
years.
However,
many people who are either laid off, or jumped before
they were, later report that they are pleased that
it happened, because their new job was better and
paid more.
Accepting
your fate allows you to stop worrying and begin finding
solutions.
About
the author:
For the past nine years, Ruth Haag has been training
managers and employees to understand the dynamics
of the work environment and smoothly work within it.
She is the President/CEO of Haag Environmental Company.
She has written a-four book series for supervisors:
Taming
Your Inner Supervisor
,
Day
to Day Supervising ,
Hiring
and Firing
and Why
Projects Fail.
Visit her online at www.RuthHaag.com.
