Pre-emptive layoffs

The difference between the current downturn and previous ones is that companies are laying off people in anticipation of bad times ahead. Redundancy has traditionally been a last resort when times are shown to be tough but now 'belt-tightening' is rampant. 

I'd say about half of the Outplacement (Career Transition) projects I'm currently involved with are pre-emptive strikes. 

This is somewhat intriguing as research shows that 2/3's of downsizings do not increase profits. While the immediate strategy can be justified, I wonder what will happen in 12-24 months when the market starts to pick up again? According to IBISWorld Chairman, Phil Ruthven, Australia will experience full employment (4.5% - 5.5% unemployment) for the next 25 years. 

Balancing the short term risk of profitability and the long term risk of organisational sustainability is a difficult one.

Emotional Labour

My mother-in-law recently spent over a month in palliative care at Canossa Private Hospital before passing away. A difficult time for all involved but something we have to face eventually.

I've been amazed, as I am everytime I engage with a hospital, by the dedication and care displayed by the nurses and other staff who work there. These individuals undertake arguably the most demanding work of our century: emotional labour.

First coined by the sociologist Arlie Hochschild Emotional Labour involves managing one's emotions so that they are consistent with what is expected from someone in that occupation or organisation, regardless of the person's internal feelings.

A nurse, for example, is expected to display empathy all the time. Even when they are having a bad day. This is the challenge of emotional labour.

The demand for Emotional labour will continue to increase over the decades ahead. An ageing population, increased life expectancy and the move from the information age to the experience age will drive this demand.

If you are an emotional labourer, I thank you.

If you are not, go and thank someone who is.

Thank god we have them.

Use technology to stay updated

A key career skill is to keep your skills and knowledge up-to-date. Continuous learning is not a buzz word, it is an essential part of a successful career.

Fortunately, there is plenty of information out there.
Unfortunately, there is plenty of information.

Use technology to easily stay updated. Let me share what I do. I'm certainly not advocating that it is the best or only way, but I've been experimenting for a few years and this is my latest approach:

• Understand what a RSS feed is. Basically, uptodate information gets 'pushed' to you rather than you visiting dozens of sites.
• Use a Reader to subscribe to RSS Feeds from the websites that you want to stay up to date with. I use Google Reader.
• Subscribe to great sites. I recently found Business Spectator. A great way to quickly hear about breaking news.
• Check your reader regularly. I use a reader on my phone (HTC Touch, I know, it's not an iphone). So whenever I have a spare 30 seconds (traffic lights, lift, coffee queue...) I do a quick check.

Don't be afraid to use technology. Book in 20 minutes to set this up. You'll get this time back in the first week.

Financial crisis and the 6/6 job

First, let me apologise for not writing for a while. July saw our family expand by another little person and while there was only a 25% increase in numbers, there was a 100% increase in workload! All is well and things have settled down into a nice routine.

So, back to the career landscape....the financial crisis will have many repurcussions over the coming years. It is already having a devastating impact on some companies and individuals who have lost their jobs. The one positive impact, from an organisation's perspective, is that there is likely to be more workers available in the near future.

Not just from those who have been retrenched, but from those who now need to go back to work. Superannuation has been decimated and for many people it may no longer be enough for their retirement. A colleague of mine summed it up: "I may as well have just sat here and ripped up $100 notes".

This group of people won't want full time work. They'll want flexibile work options that still allow them to lead the retirement they want. And not just the traditional 'part-time' work, they'll be creative. The 6/6 job will become popular: 6 months of work followed by 6 months travelling.

I just hope managers and their organisations are flexible enough to take advantage of utilising the impressive expertise and talent that is out there.

The Natural Rhythm of Work

Our working life operates in rhythmic cycles, no different from the physical, emotional and mental cycles that we experience. You know those times in life when everything is just hard work, when you're tired and every action is a battle? Other times life flows so smoothly that you aren't even aware of living as things just happen seemingly without effort.

As with life, our career also has these rhythms. Sometimes work is just hard and it is difficult to find daily motivation. It is easy to confuse these short term dips with full blown career dis-satisfaction. More often than not, these are not the times to make spontaneous decisions. Make sure you give this challenging period the time it needs so that you can learn and grow from the experience and successfully ride into the next peak.

The end of the generation debate?

There are few topics that generate more corridor conversations and opinions than the impact of the different generations in the workplace. Silent Generation, Baby boomer, X, Y, Z etc have stereotyped people of different ages to behave in a particular way. I'm not a convert to the generational debate. Here are two of the main reasons why I'm a sceptic:

1. It oversimplifies people dynamics by ignoring the role of individual differences on people's behaviour in the workplace, and
2. It's a red herring as I see people use the generational definitions as a scapegoat to explain and accept trouble in the workplace...rather than directly addressing the interpersonal issues themselves.

Recent research summarised in the AFR BOSS magazine (May 2008 issue) found that the generation gap isn't really that wide. What's more, it was found that the environment that different generations thrive on is remarkably similar. As the findings state:

"it involves immediate and constructive feedback; leaders who are caring and aware; inclusive, engaging, non-passive behaviour; being continually informed about the business; having personal goals linked to business goals; new experience; being coached; and sharing the less interesting tasks".

Food for thought.

Rejuvenate

Apologies for being a bit quiet over the past few weeks. I spent just over a week in Tasmania on holiday and attending the Career Development Association of Australia's annual conference. Having 4 days in a cabin at Cradle Mountain was a time to slow down and rejuvenate. This time in the fresh air led to many ideas particularly about the necessity of slowing down.

Our day-to-day life operates at a such a fast pace as we race from activity to activity in the vein hope of actually crossing off all our to-do's in our diary.

We view this as normal.

Yet those mere 4 days at Cradle Mountain of unscheduled time was like plugging into a power socket and being recharged. Feeling refreshed like that, is that not normal? Are we so used to our frantic pace that we see fatigue as an unfortunate but necessary part of life, rather than an indicator of going too fast?

So consider this post as a gentle reminder to slow down. In the next 24 hours do one thing you enjoy doing...read a book...go for a long stroll...play a game of scrabble...

I will share some insights from the conference, but not now. I'm off to do one of my favourite things...a run in the forest....