The Secret to Job Security

Not that long ago when somebody had a job, they kept the job for five or seven years or more. If your friend changed jobs more often than every few years, you'd say "Dude! Why do you keep changing jobs?" Now we don't ask our friends why they change jobs often, because everybody changes jobs all the time. Working people can't rely on keeping a job for years on end, even if they do a great job and even if their company is making money. There are conversations happening in far-flung conference rooms right now, in Hong Kong and Philadelphia and Dubai, that will put people reading this column out of work in a few weeks or months. 

You might see it coming, or you might not. It might have nothing to do with you. We have clients who've lost their jobs because a higher-up wanted to hit his numbers at the end of the quarter. Their job was sacrificed for the sake of showing a slightly lower number on a cell in a spreadsheet that somebody glanced at and then immediately forgot. Somebody wanted the numbers on a spreadsheet to look impressive to the high-level leaders in the company, and suddenly a good person was out of a job. How can anyone feel secure on such shaky ground? There are too many variables. There are too many decisions that are out of our control.

At Human Workplace we coach a lot of job-seekers. We love doing it. We meet amazing people every day. There's only one kind of person we can't help. That is the person who says "I'm forty-four. I just need one more job to get me through to retirement." There is no such job - a secure job for the next twenty or twenty-five years. The belief that there is such a magical job is not rooted in reality.

We are coaches. We have a responsibility to tell our clients the truth. We can't reinforce the mindset "I'll get a new job and work there for twenty years, and then retire with a gold watch and everything will work out perfectly." We have to say "If that is your plan and your expectation, we are not the best coaches for you." The world has changed, and the shape of work is not going back to the cradle-to-grave employment system again -- not in our lifetimes.

It was a bubble. It was a good deal for my dad and maybe your dad and millions of other people, but it's gone. The corporate ladder is sawdust under our feet. It's not coming back.

We are all entrepreneurs now. There is job security, but it's not found in a specific job or any particular employer. It's in you. If you could hear the stories I hear from people who twisted and contorted themselves into pretzel shapes at great personal cost in hopes of keeping a job they'd had for years only to have the job evaporate anyway, you wouldn't care so much about clinging to a job just because you already have it.

For some people, moving to a new house or apartment is a huge headache. They dread the thought of moving.

They hate the idea of packing all their stuff and getting comfortable in a new place. Hermit crabs know how to do it. Snakes know how to shed their skin. We have to view job changes the way the snake views shedding its skin. It's a pain in the neck for a short time while you're going through it, but then it's done and you're free of the old, confining skin. You leave it behind on the ground and shimmy off. You have a shiny new skin. You're growing!

When you trust in yourself to survive and grow no matter what changes the world throws at you, your muscles get stronger. You don't fear change as much as you did before. When your body tells you that the old job is not the best place for you any more and that it's time to leave, you'll register the twinge in your body that says "Okay! Here we go again, boss - the wind has changed, so let's set our sails and travel!" and you'll shove off.

You'll see the opportunity in that shove-off, no matter how inconvenient and disruptive it might feel in the moment. You will give yourself permission to run your own career. That is the first step to take. You have to give up the idea that a boss or an institution or anybody besides you knows better than you do what's right for you.

Real life is about constant change, and that is one of the reasons traditional work is so damaging to people and to organizations. Inside our cubicles and boxy offices we pretend that the real world outside our walls isn't changing, when in reality it is doing nothing else. We fall asleep on our careers very easily. We stop noticing the gathering storm clouds or other signs that the wind is changing.

Many companies fall asleep the way working people do. They forget to listen, fall out of step with market demand and are soon history. We can rattle off their company names --  companies that were hot one moment, and gone the next. What happened? They tuned out. They lost their connection to the people who bought their stuff.

If you want to stay in touch with your market the way those failed companies did not, the key is to keep an eye on your talent marketplace and to keep watching for pain in your environment - pain that you can solve, in particular. If you don't do those two things, then you've already fallen asleep on your career, pretending that your job is magically protected and your career is nothing you need to trouble yourself about. If you want to stay awake, notice the pain points around you and pay special attention to the ones you can relieve. Your understanding of the Business Pain you solve is your power in the hiring or consulting equation! We are all consultants now. We are all entrepreneurs. How you get paid is just a clerical detail. There is no difference between a consultant who invoices her clients and a full-time employee who gets paid through the payroll department.

Each person is just as vulnerable as the other. Each person has the same opportunity and obligation to manage his or her business over the long term.

You are your own CEO and you're driving your career. When your job or your clients take you off your path, it's up to you to get back on it. People who value job security hurt themselves even more than the rest of  us do, because they choose jobs that offer job security and none of the other elements the new-millennium workplace requires. Traditional, bureaucratic jobs in institutions attract people who want to do the same thing over and draw a steady paycheck until retirement. Will your muscles grow or atrophy in that environment? When the nearly-inevitable day comes that the job goes away, how will you cope?

Everyone has to take responsibility for his or her own career now. That's where your job security is -- in your preparedness to make a change at any moment. You have to know what kind of Business Pain you solve, and who's most likely to have it. You have to have a list of six to ten other organizations you could work for if your current job evaporates or becomes unbearable.

You have to know what 'your' flavor of Business Pain costs the organizations who suffer from it. You have to know the names of the specific managers in your target organizations who could hire you or engage you to consult if you reached out to them and if they were feeling the pain you specialize in solving.

You have to grow your muscles all the time, even (or especially) when you're working! You won't send Pain Letters out unless you're job-hunting or looking for consulting work, but there are plenty of other ways to grow your muscles. Here are ten of them:

Update your LinkedIn profile every quarter to showcase your coolest new images, presentations, videos and Dragon-Slaying Stories. Get out of your office (and/or comfort zone) and attend a group networking event every month. Bring a friend with you if you like. If you're worried about your boss fretting about your networking, tell him or her your Auntie Liz commanded you to do it.

Get together with a new or old friend or business contact for lunch, coffee, breakfast, drinks, a walk, a bike ride or a workout at least once a week. Every single week -- no exceptions!

Think about your mission on earth. If you are very young you might have 75 years left to do amazing things. If you're my age you have fewer years. What are you going to do with the time you've got? What would you do with that time if you knew that the biggest obstacle to realizing your dreams is your reluctance (until now) to decide what they are? Give yourself permission to dream big! It's your life we're talking about. This is your chance at bat!

Start a Mojo File of your accomplishments at work. Toss your best work in the file, including email correspondence, reports, presentations, manuals or training materials you created or anything that you want to remember for your current job (say, your performance review or a bid at an internal promotion) or a future job search.

When you get in bed at night, congratulate yourself. You worked hard all day. Acknowledge yourself for the day's hard work. Who else will acknowledge you for it?

Make a list of 2016 goals -- goals for your work and career, and goals for your life outside of work. Prioritize your goals and decide on your top three goals for 2016. Get a pad of Post-It Notes, make about 20 notes that list your top three goals, and stick them all over your house and in your briefcase. Write a little song or jingle about your goals and sing it all the time. If you have a toddler, teach them your jingle and they’ll never forget it!

Get a 2016 calendar and write your goals on every page on the year.

Get a MOJO Journal and start writing in it! You can use any journal or notebook. Write every day or every other day or whenever you feel like it.

Pick an affirmation that you like and memorize it. When your day gets stressful or you feel like you can't deal with one more annoyance, say your affirmation to yourself. It'll calm you. Here are some of our favorites:

This hasn't killed me, so it's gotta make me stronger.

Everything happens for a reason. Guess I'm supposed to learn something new!

If I love myself and do my best, I can't ask for anything more.

Your career is your business. Don't go to sleep on it!

If you've been asleep lately, I've just touched you with my magic wand and you are wide awake now. Take charge!

Here are the keys to your career, and there is the road in front of you. Enjoy the ride!

Source: Liz Ryan, Human Workplace