Worried That You're Next In Line For A Lay-off?

Here's the country's situation as it stands now: unemployment rates are the highest they've been in 14 years, and they're rising. In fact, 1.5 million jobs have been lost in the last year alone. Consumers are spending less, companies are cutting corners, and people are losing their jobs.

Some of us are lucky enough to work for recession-resistant companies or in growing industries. Others, however, see the axe falling around them and wonder when it will make its way to their job. Sound familiar? If so, you know that sometimes there is nothing you can do to save your job. But other times, there are steps you can take to help you avoid getting the axe... or at least make it past the first round or two of layoffs.

Avoiding the Axe

Keep up with office gossip. No, I'm not talking about knowing when the receptionist's date with the amateur bull rider she met on an internet dating site went horribly wrong. I'm talking about being informed about what's going on in the company. Office politics can have a lot to do with who stays and who goes, and the employee with his or her ears to the ground is much more likely to make informed decisions about their position within the company.

Be visible. When the company is struggling, your instinct may be to hide your head, get on with your work, and try to ride it out. Don't. Instead, make yourself as visible to your superiors as possible. Give them a chance to see you as a person. When deciding between cutting one person's job and another's, a name without a face will generally be the first one to go. After all, layoffs are personal to everyone, even if they don't seem that way.

Be nice. Many managers use layoff time as an opportunity to clean house. If you're a troublemaker, there's a good chance that you'll be high on the list of dispensable employees. The type of person who's never high on that list? The friendly and amiable worker that everyone in the office gets along with. Again, office politics at work.

Get into a safer spot. While how you seem to the people you work with is important, what you're doing at your job is much more so. If, for instance, you're just finishing up a large project and are only tying up the loose ends, you'll seem much more expendable when management starts going over personnel lists for layoffs. If, on the other hand, you can switch to a new project that brings in plenty of income for the company, your job will be a heck of a lot safer.

Basically, look at the amount of work that needs to be done. If your department is large and well-staffed, you may want to start thinking of a transfer to a smaller department with more work to be done.

Work harder than usual. Nobody can be at "all engines go" 100% of their day. But if you usually spend a couple hours a day here at Datepad reading through internet dating profiles and taking relationship quizzes, it's time to put that aside and get to work. When lay-off time comes, you want to seem indispensable to your boss. All done with your projects? Ask for more work, and keep productivity high at all times. If your boss says of you "she does the work of three people," instead of "I'm not sure what her job is," you're definitely in a good position.

Prepare for the Worst

You can't always save your job even if you take all the steps above and more-- sometimes things go wrong no matter what you do. If you feel that layoffs are imminent at your company, you may want to prepare for the possibility of losing your job.

Update your resume. The first thing to do is get your resume ready for a job search. If you've been in the same company or position for years, there's a chance that your resume may need a whole overhaul. Don't spend precious unemployed time working on your resume. Have it ready just in case.

Move to another company. If the problem is more with your specific company than with your industry, you may want to consider moving before the axe ever falls. Send your resume off for similar positions within other companies that can offer more security. Have connections at other companies within your field? Now's the time to contact them.

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