How can I prevent being the victim of another layoff?

A client asked me this question.

I am empathetic to her situation. She was above average in work performance, chalking accolades within the organization. It just doesn't seem right to her.

Being a mature individual, she stoically took the news and decided to move on with as little emo baggage as she could.

Yet she also wondered how her ex-company can get someone to do what she has built up, especially maintaining the key accounts that rely on her incredible relationship with them. There was no sound no picture prior to the layoff.

This was the first time I had someone ask me directly how they can avoid layoff. I get more questions of how to get the next job.

I don't have a fool proof answer.

Businesses do what they do, and if the decision is from some far-away HQ, there is little you can do. The decision was made.

However, there is always something we can do for ourselves.

The cliche way of saying it is "your work doesn't speak for you, so you got to champion yourself left and right."

Each time you achieve a milestone, you highlight it to your boss and to the top management strategically. Akin to annual appraisals, people feel disappointed because they felt they did more than what they are rewarded for.

The problem is they "felt", they didn't know exactly. More and more, performance is a function of organized data meaningfully displayed to your boss. A feeling is feeble, it's shaky because it is not substantiated by hard facts.

Are you guilty of this because you focus only on working?

This leads to the other core question. What are milestones?

I live in Asia where people are relatively more humble and they are not comfortable to "brag". They don't think achieving certain results equates to milestones. Humility is a nice word. There is another word and it stings. I call it lazy.

Yes, we are lazy with ourselves because your company ERP or whatever AI app will not be interested in tracking your performance the way you should be tracking it. It doesn't tell your story but we assume it will.

When you don't track it and creatively figure out why and how your work equates to milestone achievements, you miss out on 2 things because of the lack of effort in this area:

1. Your performance appraisal is lower than you expect

2. Your own professional and personal growth

With much confidence, I say layoffs are a function of cost versus value.

We keep the people who are giving us a disproportionate value for the price we pay them, the same way we value the products we buy.

Take stock of your disproportionate value (unique value proposition) and communicate them at all cost to your boss and other stakeholders.

Despite the above, they may just still fire you but at least you know the ROI on yourself is not lost through that process. That professional upgrade is the capital for your next chapter.

Last but not least, to work on yourself requires immense focus and effort. Many people procrastinate on this. You got to decide.

#CareerAdvice #Layoff

Follow TalentOmni for my thoughts on career and entrepreneurship. Both are 9to9 jobs, frankly.