How to navigate job insecurity and career uncertainty

There’s a lot of news out there about redundancies and job losses and whether it’s directly impacting you/your organisation or not, it can naturally have a knock on effect on how you may be feeling about your own job and career.?

Also, if you are a manager and leader it’s important to be aware of the impact the current employment context has on your employees.? They will be looking to you to support them during this period of change and uncertainty.

Here’s some Working Wisdom for you:

Job insecurity is a state of uncertainty about continued employment. Individuals may experience acute job insecurity—such as when mass redundancy is announced or job losses loom —or chronic job insecurity, which is a more generalised fear about not being able to hold onto their jobs.

Job insecurity can be more common if you work in a role or industry that’s in decline or making financial losses. Job insecurity could also disproportionately affect disadvantaged demographic groups and the segments of typically self-employed or part-time workers where job insecurity is inevitable, such as freelancers, contractors and entrepreneurs.

If this resonates with how you are personally feeling right now, it's good to try and talk to someone about it who can support you. If it’s too sensitive to discuss it with your manager or HR, it can be helpful to speak to a trusted professional contact, a mentor and/or a career coach.

If you are a manager and leader working within a company that has or is about to announce job losses, do spend time considering how you communicate the news in a sensitive and professional way. Additionally, always be conscious that as well as it impacting those directly impacted, it can also have a negative unsettling impact on those unaffected as well.

A feeling of ‘career uncertainty’ is slightly different to job insecurity as this could impact an individual at any time, unrelated to their current role in an organisation. Career uncertainty is often related to ambiguity about their career future and what’s next in their career journey.?

Often people can experience this when they are either at a career crossroads and maybe contemplating a complete career change, something dramatic changes in their personal life, or it can naturally increase when the external environment changes such as the impact we saw during the Pandemic and now in the current socio-economic environment.

Here is some Working Wisdom to how you can manage career uncertainty:

1. Don’t fear the unknown and instead see it as opening you to new possibilities
2. Take risks and try to be flexible with your future career decisions
3. Have a fully documented and prepared ‘story’ about your career progress so far (make sure your CV and LinkedIn profile is up to date!)
4. Allow ambiguity to make you more adaptable
5. Try to identify and define your own purpose and see how that can influence your career path

How Working Wonder can help you navigate job insecurity and career uncertainty

1. Talk to us - We offer 1:1 confidential career coaching and are empathetic and would love to support you
2. Network and learn with us - We are running a ‘Transition to something great’ virtual workshop for those impacted by redundancy and job loss on Thursday 8th December. To book, click this EventBrite link.
3. Tell us what’s going on in your organisation - We provide sensitive consultancy to managers, leaders and companies managing through organisational change. We can also co-create training workshops and coaching programmes for your team to support, motivate, and engage them

Check out our new website and contact us here

Useful reading and tips:

For individuals

When changing jobs changes your identity

6 qualities that will get you hired

LinkedIn’s new career break feature

How can companies support and retain their employees??

Mind the purpose gap

The Little Things That Make Employees Feel Appreciated

3 skills leaders need to navigate uncertainty

How to communicate organisational announcements in a sensitive way

Harvard Business Review

Zeinab Chaudhary 德勤

World Economic Forum