Life Is a Chess Game
Many people faced with the loss of a job lament, "I had planned to work here until I retired!" They are caught by surprise when the employer decides to shut down a factory or move it to another area.
These days, workers cannot look at their employers as their guaranteed protectors. It is better if workers look at their careers as a chess game. Workers must always be planning what their next moves will be when changes in their current jobs come.
Winning the Job Game
Keeping yourself flexible and aware of the business climate allows you to make moves before you are laid off.
Looking at career moves as a game requires you to do the following.
- Learn Everything Possible to Make Yourself Able to Move on.
If your company is offering training, take it. If someone on staff can teach you something, learn it. Learn how to operate all of the computer programs that your company uses. It is very important that you keep yourself as flexible as possible in order to keep your options open.
- Be Willing to Change Where You Live.
It really is not so bad to move, but some people are unwilling. Currently, there is a significant downturn in northern manufacturing jobs, but the railroads say that they need people. The only hitch is that people need to relocate. It doesn't make sense to stay in one place and complain that you don't have a job, while a job is available with a move.
- Keep Aware of Changes that Are Coming.
We asked an engineer friend why he had just made a job move, when it appeared to us that he had liked his job of 10-plus years. He explained that he was asked to sit on a committee whose mission was to determine who would be laid off. Based on his committee work, he decided that it would only be a matter of time before his own position was eliminated. So, it was time for him to look for a new job.
Most people who stay in the same job for their entire career report real boredom with the job in the last 5 to 10 years.
However, many people who are either laid off, or jumped before they were, later report that they are pleased that it happened, because their new job was better and paid more.
Accepting your fate allows you to stop worrying and begin finding solutions.
About the Author
Ruth Haag helps managers and employees understand the dynamics of the work environment, and how to function smoothly within it. She is the President/CEO of Haag Environmental Company. She has written a four-book business series: Taming Your Inner Supervisor, Day-to-Day Supervising, Hiring and Firing, and Why Projects Fail. Her enjoyable, easy-to-read books provide a look at life the way it is, rather than the way that you might think it should be. Visit her online at www.RuthHaag.com.
