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Layoff Blues - How I survived 15 years of layoffs
November 17, 2004
By: A.Retlick

Disclaimer: The author is not responsible for any negative feelings derived from reading this document. The contents herein may not be used in any form without written permission from the author.

For some reason I wasn’t nervous when they called us all down to the cafeteria at 3:00 PM on March 31st, 2004. I had been through this drill many times before. Somehow, even after hearing the news, it wasn’t much of a surprise, when our General Manager announced that the corporate office had decided to close our manufacturing site. Our facility had never lost money. But a new CEO, with an aggressive consolidation plan, had decided to take this action. Shareholders had seen the value of our stock drop over eighty percent in the last three years and now they wanted to see some serious changes.

This article is about how I managed to last 15 years without being laid off, and not to lament about why they closed our site. For workers like myself, in non-management positions, there are plenty of opportunities to make yourself indispensable. The challenge is to continuously provide innovative solutions that lead to process improvements. These days you not only have to get the job done, but you have to do it faster and better than anyone else around you. Here are some tips for staying one step ahead of the competition:

1. Keep learning – Every year take in some kind of training session that is related to your job. Even if your company won’t pay for it, find some way to keep up with your training. Often you may have other interests that don’t seem related to your current job. As long as you are continuously learning something new, it will help you keep your job and prepare you for the next employment opportunity.

2. Use your time wisely – When work is slow, find something to do that will lead to process improvements. Even if it’s rearranging your work area or cleaning you computer screen, at least you are not sitting idle. Managers notice people who look for ways to make improvements without being told.

3. Don’t spread rumors – The workplace is full of gossip. Don’t be one of those people who spread it around as soon as it reaches you. Everyone like to hear a good rumor, but don’t be the source. Managers notice people who stand around talking or who regularly visit their co-workers with juicy stories.

4. Do your job well – Find some way to measure your work performance. When review time comes around, managers sometimes need proof that you are doing a good job. If you collect the statistics on your performance as part of your daily routine, you can prove to your boss that you deserve that raise or promotion.

5. Be approachable – Not everyone has a great personality, but you don’t want co-workers to be afraid of you. You want to get a reputation for helping people solve problems. Be friendly when someone asks you to do something for him or her, even if you are very busy. Set a deadline for when the project needs to be done. Keep everyone informed on your progress, as if you were running your own small business.

6. Make good decisions – This is probably one of the most difficult things to do. Even in a non-management position you must make decisions everyday that could affect your performance record and employment status. As a top performer in your company, you will be given opportunities to consider, which could change your role within the company. Never move into a new job without an understanding of how safe the opportunity is relative to employment security.

There are many reasons why good employees get laid-off. A factory shutdown is one of them that you have no control over. Outsourcing is another reason that’s out of our control and hard to accept. Big companies have a lot of pressure to follow the trends set by their competition. If company A is sending all of their IT jobs to Asia, you can be sure that company B is considering the cost benefits of doing the same, especially if there are no government restrictions on this activity. This is nothing new. Unfortunately, many companies have gotten quite good at the whole layoff process.

Having worked in the electronics industry for the past 15 years, I have survived employee reduction activities by three different corporations. Some reductions were well executed, and others were not. Typically, a successful company that is going through its first downsizing, due to economic conditions, does not do it well. After they have done it a few times, the process becomes more ‘humane’.

In 1988, Congress passed the WARN Act to provide workers with sufficient time to seek alternate employment or retrain before losing their jobs. The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires that companies who decide to close a facility, which has fifty or more fulltime workers, must announce their decision sixty days in advance. If you are interested in your legal rights as an American worker, I suggest visiting: www.doleta.gov/layoff/warn.cfm

Downsizing, outsourcing, and layoffs have become commonplace as the United States struggles to deal with a shifting economy. Very few professions are immune to this trend. Financial planners will tell you that it’s a good idea to have six months salary in savings, incase you loose your job. I recommend at least twelve months salary. The more you can afford to set aside, the less you will panic when a layoff comes.

At age forty-two, coming from a generation that had a strong work ethic, I hope that the principals that I have mentioned here, can still give us an advantage in today’s work place. Now that I have joined the ranks of the unemployed, I realize that I probably stayed too long at a company that was struggling to survive. It’s always hard to walk away from a comfortable salary and a job that is mentally challenging. But sometimes, being forced out of your current job, is the only way you are going to make yourself go out and find a better one.

-AR-