Economies in Transition or Lessons my parents tried to teach me.
Over the last several years we have had numerous politicians tell us that we are in an economy that is in transition. What does this really mean? Partly, it means be ready to look for a job.
First let me give you a little bit of background. I’m one of the fortunate folk’s. Over the last twenty years I’ve worked for five companies. Of those five companies - two are completely gone, one has gone through numerous buyouts and name changes, one is trying to get out of the current market and one is my current employer.
Two are closed, out of business, not open anymore. It’s interesting to fill out an employment application and to put down an address for an employer that doesn’t exist. I’ve kept in touch with managers from these companies, but it is disheartening to say the least. They were both good companies. Both were taken over and the assets dispersed. One was a good employer here in the area; several folks lost their jobs from it.
Well, I think I might be starting to learn. What is funny about this learning process is that I’m learning lessons that my parents tried to teach me when I was a kid. You know the things like don’t put all of your eggs in one basket, or just because Johnny jumps off the bridge doesn’t mean you have to. What about ’If you can’t say anything good about someone don’t say anything at all.’ And always try to save something for a rainy day. It is true; my parents get smarter and smarter as I get older and older. I’m finding out that my kids are getting smarter and smarter as I get older and older as well. Am I the only one in this boat?
So let’s see, how do these old lessons apply to what we have going on in today’s economy.
Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. Don’t rely on one source of income or one way to make a living. I’m one of the lucky ones; I have been making my income in the ‘Computer Consulting Business’ for awhile now and have always tried to have more than one client. Not because of this lesson per se, but because I like the work that I do and I am learning all the time. So I tend to overextend myself because there are no non-interesting projects. This adage is working for me currently because one of my clients decided my services were no longer needed rather abruptly.
Now if your hauling gravel, building houses or teaching school you run the same risks and actually have some of the same type of opportunities, I’m using these three because I’ve performed them myself over time. For example, if your hauling gravel as an independent, I know you folks are very creative, because you have to keep your truck busy and so have several different companies etc that you haul for. You folks that perform construction also have picked up on this lesson as you almost always hear of a construction person doing short-term projects for one person or another. Teaching, you are maybe the most creative because your driven to it in your jobs and you almost always find ways to generate income during the summer. By the way we thank each of these groups of folks for all that they do.
So do you jump off the bridge just because Johnny does? How does this apply? Well a couple of years ago, in the IT industry a large number of folks were job shopping a lot. A friend of mine stated ’Mark, this is not the time to do the right thing, it’s time to make some money.’ Well my friend was correct about the money, but I think wrong about the right thing. In the time after he jumped, he was released multiple times while I was able to maintain my position. So he made more money short term, but paid a price over time. There really is still room for loyalty, but it does have to be tempered with an understanding that a business has to make money. I hate that, but if a business doesn’t make money they close. We need to make money also so we go back to the previous lesson and look for ways to make additional money in a different business without hurting our current employer.
My parents worked at the same company for thirty years and in that time they were very brand loyal. That company is closed now as well. I suspect that this lesson applies to companies as well. Be loyal to your employees and they will help you thrive.
Okay, so your employer just laid you off terminated your contract, booted you out the door. You are mad, angry, hurt and upset. The first thing you want to do is call that employer everything in the book. Most of these things are not nice things but bad things. Especially if you received no severance package, ouch. (Employers please look back at the previous lesson and remember that employees have families too.) So you hit the streets looking for the next job, position career etc. If you go into an interview and still have all of these bad things about your employer spewing out, guess what, you are done. The person you are talking with isn’t going to care. So look for logical reasons about why the employer let you go, try to understand and then try to put it all in a good light. This can sometimes be very tough.
Saving something for a rainy day. Well, unexpected termination without severance points to this pretty well. When you are scrimping by day to day, this is almost impossible to do. Especially, when you have children. Children want to have things just like their friends. Nintendo, Play station all of that stuff. Unfortunately, we as the adults have to understand that we can not always have what we want. This is hard because we want our kids and families to have things too. Having a house, food and clothes have to be our first priorities and with the ‘Economy in transition.’ We have to try and be prepared.
Have I done all of the above things correctly myself? Heavens NO. That’s why I’m still learning. Will we survive as we continue through this economy? I believe so and Thank God everyday for all of the Blessings that have been given to us.
You take care and hang in there. Pretty soon things will smooth out.
Back to looking for that next opportunity and working on that next ramble.
Mark E. Johnson
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