Back up Plans for retrenchment - continue...

Building up your own value when job security diminishes, personal security has to take top priority. If you want to build your career in an organization, then you need to take a quarterly litmus test on the value of your assets.

What difference has your presence at work made? How are your clients' needs better met as a result of your input? How are your clients' needs better met as a result of your input. What have you learnt? Your CV is no longer something you update in order to sell yourself to a new employer. It's something you must constantly ad to in order to sell yourself internally.

Keep learning. Accept this as a necessary condition of employment. And it just does not mean course. it can also mean looking at job offers in terms of what you will learn.

Back up PLANS for retrenchment - Part 1

This year, many of us know of people, be they friends or family members, who have been laid off their jobs. Scary as it may seem, retrenchment is a reality. It can happen anytime to any one of us. Instead of sitting around and wondering what will happen to you in case you're handed a voluntary separation scheme offer or worse still a retrenchment letter, equip yourself with certain work strategies that will give your career resilience.

Increase your employability by ensuring that you develop in ways that make you employable to others. Join professional associations, read business magazines and net work smartly to stop yourself becoming dangerously dependent on just one organization.

Job information is critical in staying well-position. Because downsizing is the word of the moment. It's easy to forget that there are other jobs constantly being created. A survey done recently estimated that 50% of jobs now advertised are completely new positions. Good bets in the next 10 years or so included education, health, leisure, sales and marketing. if your company transfers you to another division, don't dismiss the job just because you don't have the skill. Learn on the job and that will help expand your expertise.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Respect versus popularity, this is a dilemma we all have to face at work sooner or later. It's the old conflict between being professional and being personal. We want to do a good job, but we want to be friends with everyone, to. The truth is, though, you can't always be liked if you do your job properly. And the desire to keep everyone happy can become a weakness, even an Achilles heel.

Worry about what others think makes us reactive when we need to be proactive. At worst, we're so busy playing Pollyanna we lose sight of the demands of the job and our own needs. This is a particular problem area for female professionals. It's a hangover from childhood. We all long to be the most popular girl in the school. Also girls are brought up to try to please and to keep everyone happy, especially men. Later on, this need to be liked gets in the way of career progress. Men at work don't give a thought to what others think so long as they get their own way.