After the Plague
As immersed and fascinated as i am by this teeming metropolis that i live in, therez a part of me that has always been ineluctably drawn to scenarios of urban devastation, destruction and/or decay. Not because i scorn urbanity, or wish it ill in any way - i don't. More because it is so easy to get caught up in it, and forget that it is all transitory. To that end, I saw I am Legend over the holidays. While as a movie it has its issues, i have to admit that as a citizen of New York, it did have some effect on me. Not the least of which is my growing collection of potential zombie vampire hive locations.
All's Fair in Love and RIF
My current client is going through a pretty massive downsizing (not related to my projects
)... It is interesting to be an observer during this - throughout my career, i've been on both sides of restructuring. It may be the fact that i've been self-employed before and had to bust ass every few months for my next project with a new client, or that the very nature of being a management consultant means moving from client to client on a frequent basis, but my perspective on layoffs has changed radically since the early 90s.
My very first experience with "rightsizing" was as a middle manager with a high tech firm. I remember looking at a list of my reports and being told that 10 percent had to go. (Later it would be an additional 5 and then another 2 percent more). I'd already counseled out those few with performance issues and I had to fight over the 6 unfortunate severance candidates with my HR business partner. I remember referring to one employee and telling him, "But she developed best practices that we've been using for two years - I can't let her go!" His answer would ring in my head years later during my own "outplacement" from a different firm: "Yeah, but what has she done for us this last quarter?"
A lot of people take their first experience of being laid off personally. The truth about your employer is that their memory is only as long as the preceding quarter. The days of working for one company until you retire with a nice pension ended in the 60s, if not earlier. It's not about you, it's about EPS.
A friend of mine was let go from another high tech firm during a restructuring. He'd even gotten contribution and client satisfaction awards the quarter before. The reason? His product lines were not strategically important and were either being cut or outsourced to Malaysia. Market and industry pressures can make you obsolete. If your work isn't highly placed within the transformation plans, be worried and be looking. In fact, you should always be looking - if at least just to know what your market value is and to stay on top of what skills are hot in your field. Ask any COBOL programmer.
If you stay with a company for a long time, you forget that the very nature of your engagement with your employer is incremental. You are paid for the work you do, as you go. They usually keep the intellectual property you create as well. This is the agreement.
But if you think your life ends when someone you've worked for for over a decade decides that you aren't necessary, then wake up. The 6 employees that i had to let go of in the early 90's moved into much more satisfying careers and lives after their severance. Some got phatter new jobs with competitors, some went back to school and reskilled, others went independent and worked for themselves. I know, because i kept up with most of them afterwards. And i know people in certain fields (read "technology") that have been through layoffs several times and each time managed to better their next position.
That doesn't mean it's always a happy story. I have family members that weren't so successful. But the lesson for everyone is the same: everyone is always at risk. Nothing is forever. Not that you shouldn't be committed to a job (i certainly am), but you should treat each work experience as a chance to extend you business network, and each new colleague you work with as someone who can give you a good referral or reference in the future.
You know you would for them.