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By Michael Angier | |||||
Do You Have Job Security? | |||||||
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“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature
nor do the children of man as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no
safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring
adventure, or nothing.” —Helen Keller The
headlines these days tell of companies laying off workers. In their
attempts to down-size, right-size and correct, some people are losing
their jobs. And it’s
not just the dot-coms. Major manufacturers, airlines and retailers are
cutting divisions, closing inefficient or unprofitable plants and laying
off workers. Some
economists see this as a trend toward to recession. I see it
differently. In the
nineties, we saw the leaning out of American companies. And we did
experience a recession. But while we got more efficient and prepared the
way for one of the biggest booms in history, Japan was trying to keep
everyone employed. They didn’t enjoy the abundant nineties. We may
very well see a slowdown in the economy, but I don’t think we’ll see a a
full recession. What looks like insecurity may very create even better
security than we had before. What
about you? Do you have job security? If you’re
counting on a company or an institution to take care of you, I recommend
you rethink your position. No one
owes you a job. Companies are not in business only to provide for their
employees. They exist to fulfill a mission and to make a profit. And as
Stephen Covey says, “No profit, no mission.” Sure,
good companies try to take care of their people as best they can. It’s
smart today to offer benefits and incentives to attract and keep good
people. But they don’t owe anyone a job. I’m not a
big believer in unions who perpetuate the myth that workers will be “taken
care of.” Collective bargaining organizations that seek only to get more
money for the same efforts will not succeed. I’m not
saying there isn’t a place for unions, I AM saying that many of them have
shortchanged their members by threatening strikes and negotiating to keep
jobs that are no longer needed and get higher pay for the same or even
less production. I think
any kind of tenure is bad for business and ultimately bad for
employees. It might
seem unfair that someone with 14 years’ seniority gets passed over for
someone with only 5 years’ experience. But perhaps the senior worker
doesn’t really have 14 years’ experience. Perhaps the senior worker has
only 1 year’s experience—14 times over. True
security lies in our ability to provide real value to the marketplace. And
it’s up to us to learn and train ourselves to change with the needs of the
market and our employers. I’ve
always liked the story of two boyhood friends who both started out working
for the railroad. Twenty years later, one of them became the president
while the other stayed in pretty much the same job (a laborer) he had when
they started. The
laborer was once asked why he had not advanced and his friend had become
so successful. The
laborer’s answer was interesting. He relied, “Years ago I went to work for
seventy-five cents an hour. My friend went to work for the railroad.” We don’t
work for $10 or $20 or even $100 an hour. We work for the value of the
results we produce—whether we’re working for ourselves or someone
else. If you
want more security, become more valuable to the marketplace. Learn what
you need to learn, develop the skills you need to develop and become the
person you want to become. That’s
the way to have job security. For a related article, see Your Market Value. |
“A recession is when your
neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose YOURS.” —unknown "Only in growth, reform and change . . . paradoxically enough .
. . is true security to be found." —Anne Morrow Lindbergh “The future belongs to those
who see possibilities before they become obvious.” —unknown
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Copyright Success Networks International.
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