Q: My industry is going through changes and I’m worried about how this will affect my job. I don’t know what I’d do if the need for my skill set went away. How do you suggest your clients cope with the changes they cannot control that could put them in the unemployment line?
A: I recommend all clients (and readers) develop a Plan B, and preferably C, D and E while they are at it. Being a one-trick pony in our business environment is a recipe for anxiety and unexpected unemployment.
Even if you lobby hard to prevent your industry from deleting your job skills, you have limited power to prevent changes that make your job obsolete. You have total power over learning new skills so you have more options.
Some of my clients have returned to get skills in a trade like being an electrician or plumber, which is always in demand. Some of my clients sign up for graduate school so they expand their current and future options. Some of my clients start side businesses along with their current employment to provide extra income and a Plan B if their job goes away.
The idea here is never to put all your eggs in one basket. Most of my clients and readers have multiple interests they could turn into paid work. Don’t wait until you are unemployed to build up these skills. You can hold on to your current job and simultaneously dabble in using other interests and skills to make money.
Our global economy has so many moving parts that today’s hot well-paid job can become tomorrow’s job graveyard surprisingly fast. Putting all your eggs in one job basket is poor career planning.
Always go into a job looking at all the variations of jobs within that theme. Can you teach classes in what you do, can you consult on what you do, or do you need additional training to expand the number of jobs you could land within your industry?
The process of developing a Plan B can be quite fun. You’ll learn lots, meet a whole new network of interesting colleagues, and start to feel in control of your ability to make a living. You’ll do more research if you approach this process curious about what you’ll discover rather than fearful you will become homeless soon.
In our current business environment, we are each ultimately responsible for identifying ways to make a living and enjoy our work. Business organizations exist to make a profit, not to guarantee that you will make a living. If you fail to take responsibility for having a Plan B, you’ll have to live with the anxiety of only having a Plan A.
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The last word(s)
Q: I’m being offered a chance at a free educational program through my workplace, but there are conditions that make me suspicious about the real costs. Should I look a gift horse in the mouth?
A: Yes, don’t sign up until you have all the details. Sometimes it is the things offered for free that end up being the most expensive.
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(Daneen Skube, Ph.D., executive coach, trainer, therapist and speaker, also appears as the FOX Channel’s “Workplace Guru” each Monday morning. She’s the author of “Interpersonal Edge: Breakthrough Tools for Talking to Anyone, Anywhere, About Anything” (Hay House, 2006). You can contact Dr. Skube at www.interpersonaledge.com or 1420 NW Gilman Blvd., #2845, Issaquah, WA 98027. Sorry, no personal replies.)
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