This month, we learned which cover letter gaffes turn hiring managers away, what kinds of work-related stress may actually be useful, and why the cybersecurity sector may want to consider recruiting musicians.
These are the stories you loved in Leadership in October 2016:
The days of the cover letter may ultimately be numbered, but they’re still widely used to screen candidates. These are some of the most common immediate disqualifiers, according to one experienced hiring manager.
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Got your eye on a raise or promotion by the end of the year? To get it, you’ll need to make a case for what you’re worth to your company. This month, one CEO shared the basic math he uses to make decisions like these, saying, “For every dollar that you hope to get in increased pay, you need to bring in three to five dollars to the business for your raise to make sense.”
Chances are your to-do list is a bit of a jumble, right? You’re not alone—the very act of prioritizing your daily action items sometimes doesn’t feel like a top priority. But with this straightforward method, you can give your work tasks some much-needed structure, and all you need to know are your ABCs.
Chronic stress can be a workplace killer, but researchers believe that smaller doses of “acute” stress may actually help us develop our skills and boost productivity. Here’s a look at a few ways to make limited amounts of job-related stress work in your favor.
The legacy carmaker isn’t exactly known for its fast-paced, innovative culture, but CEO Mary Barra is trying to change that. With several key acquisitions under its belt, GM is picking up a few things from the tech world, hoping the best and brightest will take note.
Becoming a new manager isn’t easy. For Buffer’s Katie Womersley, it didn’t help that she felt the people she was tasked with managing were better developers than she was. Here’s what she says it took to shake that self-doubt and settle into her new role.
Paltrow told Fast Company this month that recent rumors she’d be leaving Goop, her lifestyle brand, are dead wrong. The company is growing fast, thanks in no small part to the “lean” startup methods that inform its new, curated product lines featuring just a handful of items at a time.
Email is only as effective as what it gets done, so this week we learned how to trim the inefficiencies out of our messages to make sure they accomplish more in fewer words.
Data breaches are becoming so commonplace that the cybersecurity sector can’t seem to grow fast enough to help organizations defend themselves. In fact, the sector is at 0% unemployment, and the race to find qualified talent is driving up wages. That means looking for crossover skills in unlikely places, and some believe that musical training may be one of them.
There’s plenty of advice out there for faking confidence, but the better approach may actually be to persuade yourself to actually feel the vibe you’re trying to project. Here’s a look at the latest psychological research on how to trick your brain into greater self-assurance.
https://www.firstsun.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/free-man-at-beach.jpg350486First Sun Teamhttps://www.firstsun.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/logo-min-300x123.jpgFirst Sun Team2016-10-30 13:12:212020-09-30 20:50:17#Leadership : From Landing A Promotion To Harnessing Stress: October’s Top Leadership Stories…This Month’s Top Stories may Help you Put your Stress to Good Use, Write Better Cover Letters, or Even End the Year with a Promotion.
Employee compensation can be an emotional subject, especially if you’re the employee. It is often daintily tiptoed around in interviews and loudly complained about in bars. Personally, I’m a firm believer that compensation is a reflection of an employee’s value to a company. As value goes up, so does pay.
When I express these opinions, however, I often get disgruntled rebuttals like, “Yeah, right. Corporations have no concept of loyalty”; “Layoffs are completely arbitrary—it doesn’t matter what you’re worth”; and, “The only way to get a raise is to change jobs!”
Since these complaints are made to me—the CEO of a company that clearly isn’t so callous—it’s obvious that these stereotypes cannot be universal. Putting aside this irony, though, even if every company in the world were as ruthless and coldblooded as some believe, value and compensation would still be inextricably connected. Let’s take a look at why this is the case and how you can increase your value as an employee to get paid what you deserve.
WHAT HAPPENS BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
Let’s be a fly on the wall in that dim, coffin-shaped room where lanky, black-suited business misers drum their spindly fingers together and cackle over that most evil of subjects: layoffs.
When they discuss the customer support floor, they decide they need to lay off one person, and gradually narrow the options down to two employees:
Option 1: “Bill” is an old-and-true company standby. He’s worked at the company for 20 years and has been completely faithful to his job expectations. He clocks in and out on time and delivers his customer support perfectly on script. As a result, he’s accumulated a number of raises over the years and now makes $20 an hour.
Option 2: “Shelly” has only worked in customer support for five years but has obtained advanced technical certifications, has an excellent interpersonal manner, and routinely turns upset customers into loyal patrons. Clients who get support from her are 30% more likely to purchase additional services and to refer friends.
She talks off script a fair amount but keeps track of what she says and how customers react. As a result, she has submitted many helpful modifications to the basic IT script, resulting in a 10% increase in customer satisfaction for the whole floor. Due to her high performance, Shelly also makes $20 per hour.
Which one gets the boot? It’s Bill without question.
The company is actually losing money on Bill. If they fired him, a new employee would work for only $12/hour and could read the script just as skillfully as Bill does within two weeks.
If Shelly were fired, however, the company would lose out on a major source of sales, referrals, customer satisfaction, and an internal system for improving the whole department—they can’t afford to lose her!
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VALUE IS NOT THE SAME THING AS YEARS ON THE JOB
But what about faithful old Bill? It would be so mean to fire him! Bill’s problem is that he hasn’t really done anything to justify his increased wages. Small raises have accumulated on his paycheck like moss on an old river rock, but his real value is still around $12 an hour.
However, since Bill has been working at the company for so many years, he probably “feels” like he’s worth $20 an hour. Never mind the fact that he couldn’t get paid $20 an hour at a different company, he’s “put in his time,” so he’s worth $20 an hour, right?
Now, I’m not trying to understate the value of experience and wisdom. Good employees learn and grow over time, so they provide more value for their employer. As a reward, they get raises. The problem is, those raises are often based on meeting minimum standards for specified periods of time—not the value an employee brings to the table. As a result, when push comes to shove and a company needs to actually evaluate the worth of an employee, “years on the job” means far less to the business than added value.
BUSINESSES PAY FOR VALUE, AND EMPLOYEES ARE THEIR ASSETS
Many employees are confused about what their salaries pay for. When people first enter the workforce as teenagers, they usually start with an hourly wage. The equation is simple: The more you work, the more money you get. Unfortunately, after a couple of years, many people begin to translate time into money and begin to think, “I’ve put in a lot of time at this job, so it stands to reason that I should be making a lot of money! I need a raise!”
Allow me to burst that bubble. Value isn’t a function of time. There are 24 hours in a day whether a company pays for them or not—it’s what you do with those hours that counts. Even for hourly employees, businesses aren’t paying for time—they’re paying for value. To put it simply, an employee is a company asset, and compensation is an investment in that asset.
Let me explain what I mean: If I were to invest $5,000 in a new asset for my business—say an online marketing account—you might think that I would have to make $5,000 in sales to justify the expense. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite work that way. I won’t get too deep into the math of contribution margin, but in short, since my business expenses aren’t just limited to what I spend on marketing, it turns out that the account would have to make me at least three times my investment ($15,000) just to break even.
If the asset started producing four or five times more money than I put into it, then it would really be profitable. In fact, I’d be willing to invest more if I knew my payoff would be that good.
The same goes for employees: If I’m going to invest in people, I need to know that having them around will make my company at least three times what I’m paying them. The more revenue an employee drives for my business, the greater their value and the more I’m happy to pay to have them as an asset. An employee who produces less value, however, loses me money and—unless they can become more productive—I can’t afford to keep them in the long run.
Now, I think we’ve looked at things like a ruthless businessman for long enough to show why companies care about the value their employees bring to the table.
In most real businesses with real, warm-hearted people (like I try to be), the same principles are still at play, but the focus is more on encouraging employees to become more valuable than on eliminating dead weight. In general, this encouragement comes in the form of salary. The more value an employee brings to the table, the more they deserve to be paid. The question then becomes, how do employees increase their value?
There are three basic steps:
Ensure that you’re meeting the basic expectations of your job.
Identify areas where you can add more value.
Create and execute a plan to exceed expectations.
Step 1: Meet expectations. Before you start trying to expand your horizons, it’s a good idea to make sure that you’re at least fulfilling the minimum requirements of your role.
Of course, it can sometimes be hard to figure out what those requirements are. A recent Gallup poll revealed that up to half of employees don’t really understand what is expected of them at work. Many companies have very little in the way of formal job descriptions. Others have long lists of tasks and expectations around hiring time, but when you start the job you find that half the stuff on the list you never do and half the stuff you do isn’t on the list.
So if you’re not sure what your job expectations really are, the easiest way to get that question answered is to talk to your manager. Havea discussion about what workplace success looks like. You might even ask how your position adds value to the company. This gives you a target for increasing your value later on.
If, in this discussion, you discover work expectations that you weren’t aware of or that you haven’t been meeting, your first priority should be to start meeting those expectations. You may also find that, as Gallup’s poll also suggests, somemanagers are just as confused about your role as you are. If this describes your supervisors, then a sit-down conversation is especially important. Defining together what your core responsibilities are will help them to know when you are exceeding expectations.
[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”][Related: 5 Ways To Get The Most Out Of Your Annual Performance Review]
Step 2: Find areas in which to excel. As part of your conversation, you should also determine a list of projects that could add extra value to the company that fall within the scope of your job.
It’s important to choose these projects in conjunction with your manager because you need to be sure that when you go above and beyond, it’s in areas that your company finds important. What’s more, you want your extra efforts to be recognized for what they are.
It’s helpful at this stage to come up with a way to document your performance. Remember Shelly—how she increased customer satisfaction by 10% and got 30% more referrals than average? These numbers make her value pretty undeniable, but they wouldn’t exist if she or her managers weren’t keeping track of them.
If you work in an area like sales, it’s pretty easy to document your performance with hard figures, but for many other jobs performance is less easy to quantify. Documentation is still important in these cases, but it may look a little different. For example, this is a scorecard my marketing director and I use to measure his performance each month (shared with his permission):
The first column contains a list of his basic job expectations. If he meets all of these he’s producing enough value to justify his base salary. The other two columns contain things that he can do to go above and beyond his normal duties to provide added value to the company.
This is a very simple documentation system, but it’s surprisingly effective. When it comes time for me to hand out bonuses and raises, I don’t have to wonder whether he’s earned it or not—I just look at the scorecard. If he’s consistently performing above expectations, then he’s adding extra value and he deserves to be rewarded.
Step 3: Make a plan and execute it. Finally, you need to put everything you’ve learned into action. If your goal is to increase your compensation at work, you can start by deciding how much more you would like to be making.
Take your current job expectations and salary as the baseline for what you’re worth to the company. Then realize that for every dollar that you hope to get in increased pay, you need to bring in three to five dollars to the business for your raise to make sense. Pick from your “above and beyond” list some projects that would add this kind of value to the company. Make a plan to complete these goals in addition to your regular tasks and present the plan to your manager.
Trust me, this will go over a lot better than the old, “I’m getting married so I need a raise” conversation. Your manager may not agree with every detail of your plan, but you will definitely come off as a motivated employee who really gets it. And even if your managers don’t buy in right away, it will be a great opportunity to discuss their priorities again and work together to come up with a plan that accomplishes things that really matter.
Don’t skip this important conversation. I’d hate to get a comment on this article saying, “I wasted six months doing what you said only to find out that nobody cared about my contribution.”
If you haven’t figured out by now, communication with your superiors is going to be a critical part of this whole process. Unfortunately, business plans are rarely static and you may have to chase a moving target, but if you’re willing to be flexible, you should be able to keep moving forward toward your goals.
Now, I know you’re probably thinking, “This all sounds great, Jacob, but it also sounds a little too idealistic. It would never work at my business.” Maybe not. I can’t predict every circumstance, and there’s a chance that yours is an exception. But isn’t it worth a try? The relationship between employee value and compensation holds just as true in “big ruthless corporations” as it does in more supportive ones.
For example, one of my employees recently related to me his experience at a prior company. This was one of those more stingy jobs and had a high turnover rate for entry-level employees. However, he applied the principles I’ve described. He developed a number of specialized skills and got deeply involved in some really important projects.
The miserly company was happy to be getting more out of him for the same pay—until the day he started looking at taking his skills elsewhere. His value was so great by then that the company would be set back months or years if he left, so when he suggested that he would need a 40% pay increase to stay, they felt like it was a worthwhile investment.
Despite the money-grubbing attitude of this company, he was providing so much value that he had become an asset they couldn’t afford to lose. As a result, he was able to negotiate a much better situation for himself. The moral of the story? If you feel that you deserve a raise, don’t get drunk and holler about it every Friday night. Take inventory of your worth, talk with your managers, and start working to become a more valuable asset.
https://www.firstsun.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/logo-min-300x123.jpg00First Sun Teamhttps://www.firstsun.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/logo-min-300x123.jpgFirst Sun Team2016-10-12 12:15:592020-09-30 20:50:30Your #Career : I’m A CEO—Here’s How I Decide Whether To Give You A Raise Or Lay You Off… This Exec Reveals the Arithmetic Companies Typically Use to Assess Employees’ Value.
When someone from HR tapped me on the shoulder and invited me to join her for a private conversation, I knew what was coming. By the time I had my, “We think you’re great, but you need to exit the premises right now,” conversation, several former colleagues had already had the talk. In fact, two rounds of layoffs had preceded mine within the past 18 months or so.
The first one didn’t affect my team directly. That meant it was relatively easy to ignore it and still spend the majority of my allotted stress-about-my-career-time reading studies stating that sitting at a desk all day was shaving years off my life.
The second round hit closer to home. Suddenly my solid job didn’t seem so solid. I responded by firing off a few applications for positions that looked okay, did a few interviews that went okay, and before long, settled back into the same old routine of doing my job.
This was a mistake. And I don’t mean I should’ve launched a massive job search at this point, because I truly believe getting laid off led me to make career choices that I never would’ve made otherwise. (And I’m certainly not the only person who feels that way.) But I do know that taking a few steps during this in-between time would’ve made that first unemployed week far less frightening.
So if you’re currently employed at an organization that feels a little shakier than you’d like it to feel (for the record, I like my companies to feel 0% shaky), I’d suggest taking these three simple steps.
1. START WARMING UP THE OLD NETWORK
You know what’s really un-fun after losing your job (besides having to think about what sad half-eaten stale snacks the person packing up your desk is finding in your drawer)? Sending awkward, “I just got laid off, know any openings?” emails to people you haven’t spoken to in a while.
You know what’s less awkward? Sending notes to those same people sans the scent of desperation.
For example, I wish I’d sent a message like this to a few old colleagues after the first round of layoffs at my company:
Hi,
How are you doing? That campaign you shared on LinkedIn last week looked really awesome. But you always were the graphics wizard at the office. I’m starting to think about making a job move and I’d love to grab a drink and talk about your experience working at Company X.
I’m free most nights after 7 p.m., let me know if any work for you in the next few weeks or two.
Looking forward to catching up, Jenni
Meeting for coffees while you’re still employed doesn’t just make it less awkward to send out follow-up emails if you do actually lose your job. But it also means your conversation won’t just be a pity party full of inspirational quotes that leave you both repeating tired mantras about silver linings and turning lemons into lemonade. Instead, you’ll remind people why you’re so awesome. That way, if the worst happens, they’ll be far more eager to help you out in the way of leads and references.
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2. UPDATE YOUR RESUME AND LINKEDIN PROFILE
Ugh, I know. You were totally hoping that I wouldn’t say “resume.” But trust me when I say that spending a leisurely Saturday afternoon bringing yours up to speed is far less stressful than doing it in a hurry after losing your job because your cousin just sent you an opening that’s filling up so fast.
Plus, it’s much easier to remember your impressive accomplishments andquantify your bullet points when you have access to your files and inbox. Because it’s actually really hard to figure out exactly how many users you helped the website acquire when you can’t see the internal company spreadsheet that lays out the month-to-month growth oh-so-nicely.
Not to mention, you’ll be less likely to come up with bullet points like “Grew Facebook by 4 billion users, not that those selfish idiots appreciated it” if you’re in a good place mentally.
3. CREATE A BUDGET
First, I recommended you update your resume, then I asked you to create a budget. I know—I’m the worst. But hear me out. When you go from making any amount of money to none overnight, it’s really (really!) scary. And even if you have emergency savings for times just like this, it’s still a little nerve-wracking to actually start transferring those funds out. (Trust me, the moment when you have to do this, you’ll realize that you always assumed “emergency fund” was just a shorter way to say, “My life is together because I have an emergency fund, so I’ll never have to touch this.”)
Here’s what I suggest: Figure out how you spend your money each month. That’s it. Right now, you don’t need to change a thing when it comes to your spending habits. And tell you what, you can figure this out in any which way you like. Personally, I love Mint, but there are lots of budgeting apps out there. And if you don’t trust apps with your confidential information, people also swear by Excel.
Why do you need to do this? Because if you do find yourself unemployed, you’re going to very quickly need to make changes to your lifestyle. And it’ll be far easier (and therefore, way less anxiety-provoking) if you can determine right away what can be cut out. While the dinners and the drinks are obvious, it’s often the small things that will surprise you when you see how you spend your budget.
I waited until the very end to tell you the best part of taking these three steps. And it’s the fact that even if you never get laid off, they’ll only benefit you. Unless, of course, you’ve met the one person in the world who trudges around town, ruing that Saturday she spent updating her resume.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Muse and is reprinted with permission.
https://www.firstsun.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Laid-off-Worker-with-Box.jpg6001200First Sun Teamhttps://www.firstsun.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/logo-min-300x123.jpgFirst Sun Team2016-09-30 20:00:102020-09-30 20:50:35Your #Career : Take These Three Steps At The First Sign That Layoffs Are Coming…A Layoff isn’t Necessarily a Catastrophe, Especially if you Can Snap into Action at the First Signs that Your Job May Be in Trouble.
Redundancy and layoffs are typically worries for low-wage, blue-collar workers — at least these days. Technology and automation are creeping into the picture, and that has millions of workers on edge about the future of their jobs. But white-collar workers haven’t experienced the same anxieties, at least not to the same extent. Sure, white-collar employees face layoffs as well, but they’re typically less expendable and have a bit more job security.That may be changing, however, as some of the nation’s largest employers are starting to cut back not only on low-skilled workers but on those in the professional class as well. That is, it’s not only cashiers that may be on the chopping block. Accountants could be next.
White collar workers faced layoffs at Lehman Brothers in 2008, and now they face them at Walmart
For proof, you need to look no further than America’s largest private employer, Walmart. The company recentlyannounced the layoffs of 7,000 back-office employees, mostly those working in accounting and invoicing. These jobs will now be handed off to automation systems, which Walmart had been experimenting with in several hundred of its stores prior to deciding to make the call.Walmart did say that the fired employees would have chances to remain with the company in other capacities.
Walmart layoffs
A woman at a closed Walmart trying to make sense of it all | Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images
7,000 employees being fired by the nation’s largest private employer isn’t that big of a deal, really. The company has earned a reputation for being an adversary of the working man, in many respects, and has had little troubleclosing entire stores on a whim due to talk of unionization, or other perceived dangers to its business model.
Wal-Mart says the move is being made in an effort to expend more resources in its stores themselves. Walmart has earned itself a reputation with American consumers, and though millions love shopping there, a large contingency also avoids its stores for a number of reasons. Facing increased competition from online options — Amazon, mostly — Walmart execs are trying to make their stores more pleasant to shop in, to lure consumers away from their computers and into brick-and-mortar locations.
With that comes a cut down on back-office staff, or those who aren’t helping them achieve that goal. This, from what is being reported, anyway.
This is more or less standard fare for a changing economy, though. Jobs are created and destroyed when new technologies or businesses are created. But it can’t or shouldn’t sit well with workers who felt that they had job security.
White collar jobs on the chopping block?
A white collar worker receives a rude notice regarding layoffs | iStock.com
Let’s not lose perspective; we’re only talking about 7,000 jobs. In the grand scheme of things, that’s not an awful lot. But we’re not used to hearing about accountants or office workers getting the boot because they’ve been replaced by computers or technology — that’s something usually associated with fast food workers, or taxi drivers. Should white collar workers be worried?
Kind of. Sooner or later just about everything you can imagine will be automated to some degree. There are numerous jobs and industries that will soon be handed over to technologies, like long-haul trucking, for example. It’ll be a painful process, but people will find other jobs and other things to do. But the big difference here is that specialized skills — like those done by many white collar workers — are also being made redundant by technology.
It’s making the future seem a lot scarier, rather than awesome, for people who aren’t holding patents or intellectual property rights. How is one supposed to make a living in a future where human labor is widely unneeded? That, of course, is a bit hyperbolic, but it’s a conversation that needs to start somewhere.
The key is to stay ahead of the game and know what skills are going to be in demand in the future. You’ve heard it before, but here it is again: Learn a skill — a skill that commands value. As anyone can tell you these days, even a college degree isn’t going to get you much unless you can do something with it.
Your job — whether you’re a blue collar worker or from the professional class — will always be in jeopardy. Sometimes, like in the case of the recent Walmart announcements, those threats can come as a surprise.
https://www.firstsun.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Layoff-Working-Hugging-Co-Worker.jpg548800First Sun Teamhttps://www.firstsun.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/logo-min-300x123.jpgFirst Sun Team2016-09-11 15:25:262020-09-30 20:50:47Your #Career : Walmart Layoffs; Troubling Signs For White Collar Workers…Your Job — Whether you’re a Blue Collar Worker or from the Professional Class — Will always Be in Jeopardy. Sometimes, Like in the Case of the Recent Walmart Announcements, those Threats can Come as a Surprise.
In my career as a journalist, I’ve lived through two rounds of mass layoffs. While I didn’t see either of them coming, hindsight is always 20/20, and I now have a much better sense for when the tides are changing.
To get a better understanding of the signs that layoffs are coming, I polled others who’ve been through them, scoured the news about high-profile mass layoffs, and crawled the depths of the internet.
If you notice a combination of these signs in your own company, it may be time to start looking for a new job.
The most obvious sign: Executives confirm layoffs are coming
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Executives hint at layoffs using other terms, like ‘restructuring’
Reuters
HP, which has been going through layoffs since 2008, proves there are many indirect ways of saying “layoffs.”
CEO Meg Whitman and other HP executives have used terms like “downsizing,” “restructuring,” “reorganizing,” “incremental synergies,” “offshoring,” and “streamlining.”
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich used the term “headcount reductions” in an email he sent to employees about rumored layoffs.
If you don’t take the non-negotiable job offer, you will get laid off.
Last year, HP gave a group of several hundred employees in its struggling enterprise-services unit an unusual ultimatum: Either take the new job we’ve lined up for you — or get laid off without severance.
A WARN notice has been issued
New York Department of Labor WARN notice
If more than 250 full-time employees are being laid off, or if 25 or more full-time employees are being laid off and this constitutes 33% of all workers at the site, a company must file a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) with the state’s Department of Labor 90 days prior to the layoffs.
This is public information that can be found on a state’s DOL website. As an example, here’s the New York site.
For a while, Groupon was the world’s fastest-growing company.
When the company opened its offices in Korea just two and a half years after launching, it hired 300 people in a week by pulling them in off the street, The Telegraph reports. At the time the company had already expanded to more than 40 countries.
Last year, however, the company announced it would lay off 1,100 people and would close operations in seven countries.
When a company grows rapidly, it risks overshooting its needs, and may eventually be forced to make tough decisions. However, there are many successful companies that grow rapidly, hire aggressively, and then settle down.
Your company gets acquired or merges with another
Thomson Reuters
After Kraft and Heinz merged last year, it announced that the combined company would cut 2,500 jobs, Fortune reports.
Mergers frequently lead to layoffs. As Business Insider has written, “synergy” is the one word that should terrify employees: “Synergy is what you get when you eliminate redundancies in your efforts to cut costs.”
There’s already been a round of layoffs
REUTERS/Joshua Lott
The first round of layoffs is rarely the last.
Your access to work accounts is denied
You’re invited to a group meeting with the department head, and her personal assistant confirms with you that you’ll be there
REUTERS/Kevin Coombs
Based on my personal experience, if the only time you hear from an executive’s personal assistant is regarding a mysterious meeting scheduled that morning for your whole department, your concern might be warranted.
Internal job postings get taken down
Rachel Gillett/Business Insider
“I was once at a company where I was interviewing for a promotion, only to find out in the middle of it that the position had been eliminated,” one writer told me. “The writing was pretty much on the wall, and when the pink slips started coming, I can’t say I was a bit surprised.”
“It’s always tough, though,” he noted. “If it’s not happening to you, it’s happening to someone you’ve spent years working with, and you know it’s going to hit their family hard in most cases.”
Employees facing layoffs may first be asked to do more with fewer employees and resources in a last ditch effort to turn a profit.
People are told they can’t work from home on a specific day
Getty Images/Mario Tama
Larry Cornett, founder and CEO of Voicekick, says that after working in Silicon Valley for more than 20 years, he’s come to regard certain anomalies as signs layoffs are coming. Losing the ability to work from home is one of them.
“Work-from-home days are fairly common in tech companies,” he writes on Medium. “Employees will be told that everyone needs to come into the office on a specific day and that they cannot work from home that day. Thus, the layoff day is identified.”
The higher-ups take steps to “improve efficiencies”
Scenes like those in “Office Space” really happen.YouTube / Office Space
Introducing time sheets and bringing in consultants are often the first steps higher-ups take to understand teams better and find ways to tighten.
One editor, who didn’t see her previous company’s shutdown coming, said she should have been suspicious when the company brought a new board-appointed CFO to look over the books. “These are often at least a sign of a turnaround coming for the company, if not a total shutdown,” she said.
Or they ask a ton of questions about what you do
VFS Digital Design/Flickr
Superiors asking you to list the daily tasks and responsibilities that you and each of the members of your team perform is a common sign of restructuring to come.
Requests to share passwords, training documents, and other things that may not be written down are sometimes done to smooth impending dismissals.
Higher-ups start quitting
Margin Call screenshot
Senior managers are usually privy to what’s going on at the top. Pay attention if they start heading for the exits.
The discretionary stuff starts to go
Sergio Vassio Photography/flickr
Fewer parties and happy hours, less and cheaper food and drinks in the kitchen, no more expensed lunch for meetings, stingy vacation time — these could all be signs that the end is nigh.
Company bills aren’t getting paid
PROAlan Levine/flickr
“I started receiving emails from clients about bills that had gone unpaid,” said one worker who’d been through layoffs. “I thought the accounts team had just missed paying them, but looking back, that was a sign we were in financial trouble with nothing left in the bank.”
“No matter how secret an upcoming round of layoffs may be, the seal is never 100% rumor-tight. There’s always one old-school veteran who knows something,” writes Evany Thomas, a brand writer and content strategist at Pinterest, who details getting laid off twice in a Medium post.
“And the way you can tell they know is that they start bringing home all their accumulated personal belongings in easy-to-manage nightly shipments. Starting with their plants.”
Conference rooms are booked by HR all day
Thomson Reuters
Whenever conference rooms are booked all day by your company’s human-resources department, it’s a sign that big changes are coming, and they’re probably not good.
Good news like bonuses and raises can be delivered individually in a number of ways. But HR folks prefer to deliver bad news like layoffs behind closed doors.
Some Yahoo employees reportedly knew layoffs were coming last year: “Employees saw it coming when on getting to work two to three conference rooms in every floor were suddenly reserved for HR with all previously scheduled meetings in the room canceled,” one source told Business Insider.
All managers are suddenly pulled into a series of meetings that span a few days
Cornett says this is another sign layoffs are in the works. And if managers find it difficult to directly answer questions about what is going on with all the meetings, this could serve as confirmation.
There are more tissue boxes than usual
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Your office managers could just be stepping up their allergy-season game, but if these tissue boxes are conveniently stacked up in conference rooms — especially ones that are booked by HR — chances are some bad news is on the horizon.
There are a lot of empty boxes around.
rick/flickr
Unless you missed the memo that you’re moving to a nicer office, odds are those boxes aren’t a pleasant surprise.
“When I got let go from Friendster, I was blindsided. I totally failed to see it coming,” Thomas writes.
“When all of us let-goners went out for the traditional post-layoff drinks, everybody teased me for missing the signs. ‘You mean you didn’t notice that upper management had stopped making eye contact weeks ago? Amateur.'”
“It’s usually a sign that you will personally be laid off when senior management postpones a meeting with you that they usually accept or you stop receiving invitations to meetings for long-term planning or where confidential/strategic information will be discussed,” Cornett writes.
https://www.firstsun.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/logo-min-300x123.jpg00First Sun Teamhttps://www.firstsun.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/logo-min-300x123.jpgFirst Sun Team2016-08-09 18:28:482020-09-30 20:51:12Your #Career : 25 Signs your Company is About to Conduct Mass Layoffs…If you Notice a Combination of these Signs in your Own Company, it May be Time to Start Looking for a New Job.
In today’s world, it’s more common than ever for people to make fast career changes. You may not be looking to make any changes today, but at some point, you’re going to want to start a new venture.
Whether you’re thinking about resigning or planning to sell your business, taking the first steps is the hardest part of your exit strategy.
So, before making any rash decisions, you should have a plan in place for transitioning into a new role.
Here are three things you can do before leaving a job:
1. Evaluate the risk and opportunities
There are a variety of reasons for leaving a job or selling a business. You might have other opportunities waiting on the horizon that you’re eager to pursue. Or possibly you’re tired of your current role. Maybe you’re looking for a change of pace.
As you begin to consider your options, make sure to evaluate both the risks and opportunities. Don’t forget that work is work, no matter what role you’re looking to move into. You will have both good days and bad days at your new job.
On the risk side of things, have you been saving up? Do you have a good amount of money stored away for a rainy day? A transition into a new role can be difficult and even costly. And in a world with no guarantees, that job you thought you had lined up may not pan out by the time you’re ready to pursue it. If you’re dependent on your employment income, then make sure you have a comfortable nest egg before putting in your notice.
As for opportunity, what exactly are you planning on doing next? Do you have a clear idea? Do you have a new job lined up, and do you have a backup plan in case it doesn’t work out? Will you be getting an increase in salary at your new position? Will your new job be more enjoyable and fulfilling than your last? Do you have a long-term plan for your career progression? Will you be learning new skills that will help you expand your opportunities?
Don’t get too caught up in the excitement of moving into a new position, as it can blind you to the potential risks and opportunities that exist.
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2. Tie up loose ends
Many people tend to “check out” before they’ve even handed in their two weeks’ notice.
As hard as it may be, try to stay engaged in your work as you are wrapping up your term. Check in with a manager on a daily basis if you need some motivation. Also make a list of everything that needs to get done before you leave.
There is the possibility that your projects and tasks will be taken over by coworkers before you officially leave, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take responsibility for what you’ve already started and agreed to do. If you have the opportunity, delegate smaller tasks so you can focus on your top priorities and see them to completion.
Keep a line of communication open with management and coworkers. There may be those who need to hear directly from you — don’t leave them in the dark about your decision to move on to new opportunities. Get in touch with clients if you need to, and share the news with coworkers or managers who need to be in the loop.
This should help you establish clarity around what you need to do before moving on. Your former employer will appreciate it if you leave your tasks in capable hands, instead of leaving a trail of incomplete assignments and appointments your co-workers need to chase down.
It’s also best to leave on a good note. If you game-plan and communicate who is going to handle your tasks while your manager looks for your replacement, you’re likely to form a lasting, positive relationship with your former employer — and you very well may need that for a good recommendation later on.
3. Clean, purge and organize
Make an effort to leave your office, desk or working space in good shape before making your exit.
Start separating out your personal possessions — family pictures, stationery, electronics — into boxes. Don’t forget about your personal files on your work computer. Back up whatever information you need: documents, music, pictures and so on — and save it on an external hard drive or thumb drive. Don’t touch sensitive company data or save it for personal purposes. Only keep contacts with whom you’ve personally built a relationship.
Get rid of old files or memos that no longer hold any relevance. Archive important documents that belong to the business. Pass on other relevant documents to your co-workers if they need them.
Throw away any trash and wipe away any dust and dirt. Discreetly remove T-shirts, mugs and other swag from your desk and put these items away.
There is the chance that you won’t have much time to clean, purge and organize. Sometimes, when people quit their jobs (particularly sales positions), they are escorted out of the building in fairly short order. If you don’t have much time, just prioritize what matters most to you so you can be on your way.
Even if your boss is away, he or she should be able to trust you to get your desk in order before you leave, so you can make a smooth exit. But “smooth” largely depends on the amount of trust you’ve built up with other people in the company while you were working with them.
There may be other steps you need to take to make a smooth exit from your job. The exact nature of your work is a factor here, as is your relationship with coworkers, management and your boss.
Don’t forget: It’s best not to burn bridges unnecessarily. It is possible to leave a job in an honorable way. You can also give your employer feedback on any issues that may be at the root of your departure. Providing this information at an exit interview is often valuable in improving the company’s operations, so long as it’s constructive and specific. After all, you never know when you might want to go back.
https://www.firstsun.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/fired-layoffs-let-go-box-leaving-work-3.jpg360480First Sun Teamhttps://www.firstsun.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/logo-min-300x123.jpgFirst Sun Team2016-04-23 13:17:042020-09-30 20:53:19Your #Career : 3 Important Things to Do Before you Leave your Job…So, Before Making any Rash Decisions, you Should Have a Plan in Place for Transitioning into a New Role.
