The precarious economic environment is leaving us all unsure about the future of our jobs.   According to a poll by the Society for Human Resource Management, 60 percent of businesses plan to cut headcount.  It is enough to make you constantly look over your shoulder, but paranoia isn’t the only thing being felt. The perceived inability to control one’s own fate leaves employees feeling helpless.  Although there is no fail safe way to protect your job security, there are some ways to improve your odds.

Peak Your Performance- Only the strongest survive. When companies decide to make cuts, managers will always look at the weakest performers first.  Right now, your normal performance level is not enough, you need hyper performance.  Think of it as your performance on steroids.  Focus on the quality or quantity depending on your type of work. 

Have the Right Attitude- You don’t have to go around pretending like everything is rosy, in fact, I would advise against.  But being pessimistic and grumpy is the wrong attitude as well.  Instead, be friendly and optimistic.  Even give encouragement to others.  Other people will prefer to be around an upbeat person over a negative Nancy any day.     

Stay Busy- We all have that back burner “to do” list we say we will work on when we get some free time.  If you feel yourself getting light on work, pull that list out and get back to work.  You do not want to be caught surfing the Internet or doing a lot of visiting with coworkers.

Get Noticed- How you go about doing this really depends on the size of your company or department.  Do not go overboard because no one likes a brown-noser, but make sure your manager knows who you are and the important things you are working on.  If you work in a smaller organization, you should try to get noticed by other executives as well, especially if you are working on something that is beneficial to the organization.  The more people at work who know you and know how important your work is the better.  

Take on a Challenge- Be willing to volunteer for extra or challenging work.  By doing so you will stay busy and get noticed as someone who will pitch in when needed; a team player.

Be Dedicated to Your Job- For the time being, you may have to forget about work life balance.  You want your boss to see that you are dedicated to (keeping) your job.  Put in some extra time, come in early, and stay late. 

Above all, stay away from the idea of business as usual.  The more “above the bar” actions you take the better your chances of keeping your job.  Readers, what other tactics can you think of to add to this list?  

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 at 6:55 pm and is filed under Lay Offs, Workplace. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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