Tag Archive for: #CareerAdvice : 10 things You Should Do if you’re Worried about your Future after a Round of #Layoffs

The fact that a layoff happened indicates something in your company’s business model failed, says Marc Cenedella, founder and CEO of Ladders job search. In turn, your company should have a plan to make adjustments to get back on track.

If you don’t sense upper management has a plan for how the company plans to get better and more profitable, you should look elsewhere, Cenedella says.

When trying to differentiate between whether a layoff will lead to renewed growth or if there’s more bad news down the line, Lynn Taylor, workplace expert and author of “Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant: How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job,” says to pay attention to company culture.

“Does it seem like your work is going unnoticed or unappreciated?” Taylor asks. “This may or may not be personal, but it may be part of a layoff where your boss doesn’t want to make you feel like everything is honky dory anymore because there’s going to be [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][another] layoff.”

Red flags that could suggest your company might make more layoffs down the line include:

• A change in the quality of how human resources handles your complaints
• A lack of friendliness among staff or higher ups
• No encouragement to start new projects or a lack of innovation among teams
• Getting excluded from meetings or feeling ignored by your boss

If your boss is walking around in a pantsuit and holding more meetings with human resources officers, consultants, or higher-level executives, your company may not be out of the woods following layoffs.

“Particularly if your boss or your boss’s boss is involved, that’s something to keep an eye and an ear out for,” says Taylor. “Are they just talking about how we’re restructuring now that we lost a bunch of people, or is there more coming down the line? You don’t know.”

If you have a good relationship with your manager, Augustine says just asking them what they know can’t hurt.

Even if higher-ups won’t allow your manager to disclose details, a conversation might help you figure out whether your role will change. If you sense your responsibilities are shrinking instead of leading to growth, that may be a good sign you should look elsewhere.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with asking, ‘Do you think, do you think that this may be the end of it or is this only the beginning?'” Augustine added. “Everyone’s got rents or mortgages or college, so it’s important to have a sense of where things are.”

Sometimes, your company might say they will become more profitable, but you still have a “gut feeling” that the firm might make further cuts down the line.

In this situation, Taylor says to write down the changes you’ve noticed since the layoffs and talk to a trusted mentor, friend, or former colleague. Sometimes, a mentor will read your frustrations and advise you to look elsewhere, but other times they might tell you to stop overthinking the situation.

“You could go with your gut, but a very good disciplined approach that most people don’t follow is to make a list of those feelings and memorialize it to paper,” Taylor adds.

Sometimes, layoffs are an opportunity for lower-level employees to take over responsibilities unavailable to them in a larger team.

In fact, entry-level or less-experienced workers sometimes get to wear multiple hats and learn new skills when they take over from laid off employees. If you can ask your boss to get some new responsibilities that can bulk up your resume, Augustine recommends sticking around.

“If you were ever trying to alter your role in some way or just develop your role further, this might be a great opportunity to raise your hand and look like a great team player,” she says.

Cenedella recalled an instance where he reached out to the best engineers he knew at Uber following news of layoffs. The engineers told him that not only were they safe, but all the best employees survived.

That signaled to Cenedella that layoffs weren’t necessarily meant to cut the most expensive workers, but rather the teams that weren’t producing efficiently enough.

“They just got away with what wasn’t working for them,” Cenedella said.

The journalism industry has seen routine layoffs for years as companies struggle to make a profit through online advertising. For example, the newspaper publishing industry has downsized employment by 52% since 2007.

While devastating for the workers, Cenedella said it’s not uncommon for industries to go belly up. From paper wholesellers to video rental stores, industries have either decreased significantly or disappeared entirely due to technological advancements.

If news reports say your entire industry is on the decline, you might not have luck finding another job at your current company’s competitors — and you might need to consider a career change.

“If you really know that your industry is gone, then you’ve got to focus on, ‘How am I recalibrating my skills and my background for a new industry and a new role,'” Cenedella said.