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.

Noctors and Opportunities

Heard of a Noctor?

A Noctor is a senior nurse practitioner.  They are almost a doctor. This is not a position that was around 10 years ago or even 5 years ago. It creates a whole new set of opportunities in the health profession.

The nature of work is not static.   Opportunities come and go.

Use the following questions to identify opportunities in your profesesion: 

• How is your profession changing? 
• How are the needs and wants of customers in your profession changing? 
  
• How are organisations changing to respond to these demands?

Once you've reflected on these, think about how can you position yourself to take advantage of these opportunities. Write down one action you will do in the next 90 days. Then do it.

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....

Will 'Free Agent Nation' stand the test of time?

I recently responded to a question on linkedin.com about the future of Daniel Pink's book "Free Agent Nation" written in 2002. Here are my thoughts:

Daniel Pink has certainly popularised the notion of working for oneself and if all of his ideas are taken at face value then I wouldn't want to be head of a large organisation! I do, however, feel that Pink is somewhat extreme in his predictions. Having been in the career field for almost a decade and seeing thousands of people experience career challenges I don't think that Free Agent Nation will live up to the hype.

Rather, I see a bifurcation appearing in the labour market between:
(1) those who prefer working in a large corporate, whether it be for perceived stability, access to resources, esteem needs etc; and
(2) those who pursue a more portfolio career (including Free Agent notion).

The internet is an enabling factor in pursuing a portfolio career. Sites such as elance.com and mturk.com are allowing people who otherwise would not have had the social drive to setup themselves up as a Free Agent can do so from the safe anonymity of their computer.

Go Green with your Career

I'm sure that 'carbon' has to be in the running for the word of the year for 2007. It really came from nowhere to be one of the biggest buzz words of the year with most TV ad breaks having at least one ad that mentions 'carbon neutral' or 'environment' or 'green'.

This environmental movement has some key principles which are quite thought provoking when applied to your career:

1. Sustainability
No point being highly efficient in your career if you burn out. The rates of stress leave and illness in our society are testament to the difficulty that people have in operating at a sustainable pace in their career.

2. Leave the world a better place
The emotional cry of environmentalists is that we are only custodians of the planet for our children's generation. In other words, leave the world a better place then when you arrived. What a great goal to have. What difference will you be remembered for?

3. Renew, Reuse, Recycle
The three R's. We have to renew ourselves several times throughout our career. I was only talking with someone yesterday who had built up her business over the last 8 years and was excited about the prospect of selling so that she could do something else. She felt a career renewal was in the air.

Our career also involves reusing the skills and knowledge that we have to propel us on to other things. Our skill set is our foundation but it needs to be looked after so that it remains current and can be enhanced.

Experience is the best teacher so learn from your past and recycle what worked well. Build on your strengths. Recycle out what didn't work so well.

4. Innovate
I believe that the power of big hairy audacious goals such as the Kyoto Protocol is that it forces us to innovate to achieve the goal.

Take time to create a picture in your mind of your ideal future. Be bold with this picture. Once you have it in focus your subconscious will slowly move you toward this place. It will require some innovative thought and action. It will be exciting and confronting. You'll be scared and exhilarated.

It's called life.

Enjoy the ride.

Redefining retirement: the best is yet to be

As we begin the new year, some of we baby boomers may be turning our minds to the “R” word (retirement) when we can have a rather more permanent break from the routine of work.

This more traditional notion of retirement may conjure up images of rest and leisure activities, more time with family, travel, adventure, getting around to that list of home tasks that have been under the fridge magnet for many years, and access to that pot of gold called Superannuation.

This perspective on retirement as a destination does, however, strike fear into the hearts of many – the thought of leaving behind a lifetime of what defines us can be daunting and this fear can often result in workers staying in roles they don’t enjoy as a way of preserving their identity, at the expense of their own fulfillment.

The prospect of a leisure based retirement can also be challenging for some life partners who have been known to belatedly modify their nuptial vows to:

….. for better or worse - but not for lunch!

The good news is that the changing world of work over the past 10-15 years and the abolition of a mandatory retirement age have created limitless possibilities for the modern retirement experience, including:

• 3rd age careers
• Seachange/treechange
• New business
• Part-time and/or portfolio careers
• Tailor-made leisure and holiday opportunities, e.g. s.k.i. holidays
• Lifelong learning, work, leisure and volunteer activities
  

In fact, the word retirement as a concept is also up for grabs – we can create our own definition. The experience will be as unique as each of our circumstances.

Henry Thoreau invites us to “live the life we imagined”.

How we achieve that may be food for thought as we start the new year with fresh reflections our Christmas break when we can reflect on our achievements and our preferred way ahead.


“Do not go gentle into that good night
Old age should burn and rage at the close
of day
Rage, rage against the dying of the light”
Dylan Thomas