How to Keep Your Job in a Jobless Recovery

[Editor's Note: The latest in an occasional series that looks at unique career strategies for navigating the jobless recovery.]

These days, we're all facing unemployment, whether or not we're working.

That's because as unemployment rises, as layoffs continue and as prospects for a "jobless recovery" escalate, losing a job is top-of-the mind, if not all-consuming and all-encompassing.

Even the top workplace performers see the statistics and government reports. Since the current U.S. recession began in December 2007, almost seven million jobs have been lost, more than 1.4 million of them among professionals. The Labor Department says total employment is now at its lowest level since August 2004.

All this leads to the question: What can I do to make my job more secure? What skills, attitudes, and attributes should I have to make it less likely that my name will be on my company's next list of those to lay off?

Some of these survival tactics consist of so-called "soft" skills - attitudes and relationships - while some skills involve more-measurable tasks. Some of these soft skills may sound obvious, but for many workers, developing them will lead to real, meaningful personal change. The long-time worker who gets through the day with his head down and nose to the grindstone, just like the colleague who gets through the day with a constant stream of humor and jokes, will learn that they need to add new tactics to their personal skill-set arsenal.

That's because a vital key to keeping your job in these down times is visibility - but only positive visibility, and especially positive visibility that has a tangible connection with measurable results.

Boosting Your Value By Boosting Your Profile

Raise your profile within the company by doing things you haven't done, things that may seem peripheral to the business but are key to the office. Remember, the office is a social community that's within the business, and it works, or doesn't work, just like any other social grouping. It may not be fair, but the odd man - the worker who goes straight home rather than socializing with co-workers - may end up being the odd man out.

Because the office is a social entity, you'll have to develop a unique standing within it to increase your chances of survival as the entity shrinks through layoffs. This entails building what experts are referring to as a "personal brand," creating an array of strengths and attributes that are unique to you. This doesn't mean that you should be the only one to wear a bow-tie or that you should wear a yellow dress every day; it does mean that you have enough to offer the bosses that you will be remembered when the time comes.

Workers can raise their profiles when they make the effort to join special committees or even help organize a company-wide social engagement. This can consist of doing something as simple as getting your department co-workers to all go out to lunch together to actually intramural athletic events.

"Conventional wisdom may say that you should keep your head down, especially during an economic downturn," says Meredith Haberfeld, an executive coach who operates out of New York.

However, the reality is that visibility is all-important, she said. But only good visibility. The worst form of visibility - complaining and criticizing - is all but a guarantee of a bad personal outcome, Haberfeld said. Avoid gallows humor (quipping "you want fries with that?" to an executive), or out-loud cynicism (asking, tongue-in-cheek, "hey, boss, you here to fire me?").

Almost any form of gossiping is poison, and the high-maintenance employee is the endangered employee, says employment counselor Susan Heathfield.

Author and career coach Alexandra Levit told Money magazine that you should avoid guilt by association, just as you should seek approval by association: Don't hang out with the down crowd  (the "Debbie Downers," she calls them), and do hang out with the people the bosses (genuinely) like.

The next step toward visibility is upward, rather than outward - making sure that your bosses actually know what you're doing for the company. This, according to Haberfield, comes down - very simply - to blowing your own horn. After all, if you don't do it, chances are that no one else will, and chances are very good that someone else will try and take credit for your successes.

If you had a successful sales campaign, let the bosses know. If you've been able to show how work now being done by expensive consultants could be done in-house - and for a lot less money - let them know.

"My suggestion is that you work your tail off to be visible about the results you're producing" says Haberfeld.

And don't just assume that the numbers speak for themselves. If you've developed a new technique in your last sales campaign, tell the bosses. And tell them in writing: a casual remark in the elevator really won't do. The 'invisible guy' is the first guy to go, says Stephen Viscusi, author of 'Bulletproof Your Job: Four Simple Strategies to Ride Out the Rough Times and Come Out on Top at Work.'

Stepping across boundaries rather than building them is the right approach. If you're in public relations, but you have a sales lead, share it with sales - and make sure they don't take credit for it. If there's a big project that you've managed to avoid every time it comes up, change that. Write this year's annual "Year in Review," even if you are certain that no one reads it.

Needed New Skills to Seek Out

Being the invaluable, irreplaceable employee no longer means hoarding expertise in just one area. Indeed, that's just won't work in today's environment.

What will work is new skills. Here are some ways to develop them:

  • Mentor Your Way to Success: Seek a mentor within your organization. Or, better yet, be one. If you're low down on the totem pole, seek the advice and counsel of someone higher up; and vice versa, Ana Dutra, chief executive officer of Korn/Ferry International's (NYSE: KFY) Leadership Development Group, recently told The Harvard Business Review. Getting a mentor is an effective way to gain new skills - while also boosting your visibility to higher-ups: "How do I do this in Power Point?" soon leads to "Teach me how to do that neat thing you do, that Dreamweaver thing." And that leads to a new skill set. All of these techniques come close to bootlicking; it all depends on how you do it. Some experts such as Viscusi advocate taking this a step farther by sharing your personal travails with the boss. This may seem like a risky strategy, and would depend on the personalities involved. But if you're learning new skills from a company elder, you're doing good for them as well as for yourself.
  • Embrace 'Social Media': Many companies have been slow to embrace the tools and services of MySpace.com, Facebook Inc., LinkedIn Corp., and the like, while their employees have jumped in. Become your company's "go-to" for new media; even if it's an unofficial position, it'll increase your perceived importance within your organization, and if you handle it correctly it will also build your network of allies. (One key point: Whatever you do, don't spend your office time on Facebook unless it's officially sanctioned and everyone knows it!).
  • Stay Ahead of the Pack: Keep up with developments in your field. This is different than acquiring new skills; this is going to professional societies and finding out what will be happening in the next few months or years - and being ready for these new trends. In fact, you can even position yourself as the "informed source" inside your group by letting folks know just what's beyond the horizon in your business - again, creating for yourself a position of perceived value.
  • Volunteering: Some experts recommend volunteering outside of the workplace as a job-preservation skill. It can expose you to new ways to use your skills. For instance, an executive from a communications firm volunteers and finds a new type of audience to write for and helps her firm expand into seeking non-profit clients. Volunteering can also be a way to increase public awareness of the company's name and brand.
  • Seek Certifications: There are other technical skills that can (and should) be acquired formally, through a professional certification. Remember, you don't need to go through a lengthy, costly certification process to learn important job skills such as becoming an Excel pro. You can learn through a mentor but you can also learn through expert user groups that meet regularly; you can even take a course at the local community college. Look, too, at low-cost seminars that many professional groups hold.

[Editor's Note: In future installments in this series, Money Morning will look at such jobless recovery topics as executing the perfect job interview, managing your finances, planning for retirement, and the most promising sectors for the future. The first installment outlined an entire career-survival plan for those who've lost their jobs. And a sidebar to this story, which appears elsewhere in today's issue of Money Morning, talks about how employees can use new certifications to bolster their value. To read that story, please click here.

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