Job Security in a Right-To-Work State

While having breakfast in a restaurant, I eavesdropped as a loyal employee lost his job. I won’t mention the town, as that scene happens in any town, too often nowadays.  Probably not over a rooty-tooty pancake ‘n’ ham, as it happened this morning, but the instant it became clear what was happening, I understood why this was being done over breakfast: A scene in the office avoided, questions averted, no work disrupted, and breakfast is the cheapest meal of the day. It wouldn’t even cost the company a lot to get rid of the employee.

This is a right-to-work state, there are 27 of those in the U.S. The name comes from the fact that if you work at ABC company and the company forms a union, you cannot be fired. That’s what right-to-work means. It also means you are an employee at will. You can be fired for any reason or no reason. And that was exactly what was happening in the next booth.

While I was eavesdropping on this life-shattering conversation, it became obvious that the boss had done this more than once. He kept repeating the same phrases.

“You’ll get over this, it’s not the end of your life.”
“You’ll find another job quickly.”
“You’ll look back on this and laugh.”
No one was laughing at the time, and the employee was in shock. He kept citing statistics of the fine work he had done, the deadlines he had met, the extra work he had taken on and completed successfully.

It didn’t matter. Nothing he could say made a difference. The decision to have him gone was made before he arrived to meet his boss for breakfast. I wondered where he would go for the rest of the day, how he would tell his family.

Listening in, I remembered one of my clients telling me that she was indispensable. I smiled as I listened to the certainty, and two months later, I nodded my head as she cried, “They can’t do this to me. I’m the only ones who know how to run the program.” And yet, the program ran, and she was out on her ear, out of a job.

It can happen to you. Somewhere, someone reading this and smiling. Secure. You work hard. You are really indispensable. You have traded family life and balance for the job security. You gave up nights with your kids to cement security with your company. You are fooling yourself.

That’s what the guy at breakfast thought. That’s what I thought right before I was laid off at my last corporate job.

Everyone is replaceable. The company that demands your time and your life and your loyalty does not return that loyalty. They pay you and that, in their minds, is all they owe you. America is all about money and dedication and being “passionate” about your career, but less so about the other side of the coin.

I wish our corporate culture were a bit more passionate about loyalty, and caring and being reasonable. So, while you are reading this, what would you do if your job disappeared today?

If you are a perfectionist, this is particularly for you. . .perfectionism is about control, and you are far less in control that you think.

If you don’t have a plan about what to do if you are dumped, now might be a good time to think about it. How much of a financial cushion do you have? How much would you need if it took you six months to find a job? What jobs other than the one you are doing now are you qualified for? What wold it take to make you competitive in your field? When was the last time you updated your resume?

Take a look at your co-workers today. One of them will be gone in three months.

–Quinn McDonald is a life- and creativity coach. She won’t be dumped from her job because she owns the company. But she keeps changing her goals. See what she does at QuinnCreative.com

Freelancing: It’s Not for Everybody

If you just got laid off, don’t think of yourself as a freelancer by force. In fact, if you don’t want to be a freelancer, immediately begin a job search.Call all your friends, contacts and acquaintances, use LinkedIn and Twitter, post your resume, and do something every day to look for a job. Just don’t call yourself a freelancer.

(c) Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

Calling yourself a freelancer or consultant because you got laid off helps no one. You will not do good work, you won’t have your heart in it, and you will damage the reputation of those of us who freelance or consult full time.

Freelancing is not the place to be for 3 months till you find something better. Printing business cards identifying yourself as a consultant when you don’t know exactly what you are consulting on is not fair to your career or your potential client’s business.

Freelancing is a full-time job of searching for, and working for, a number of clients. Freelancing springs you from the job of commuting, the pressure of pleasing a boss, the worry of promotions or office politics. Freelancing also lets you worry about steady work, increases your stress as you take on multiple clients, all with different priorities, and lets you figure out how to find and keep health insurance. Freelance writing is not for the confused, the weak or the unsure.

For those of us who own our business, who write every day, who make meaning when we write, even if it is for someone else, can’t imagine doing anything else for a living. The risks are not as important as the amazing rewards of tackling new work, completing it and growing with each writing assignment.

There are organizations every freelancer should know about. They can help you find jobs, untangle contracts and provide some help getting the right kind of jobs, jobs that pay well in an age of “everything on the Web should be free.”

The  National Writer’s Union is available for freelancers who make money writing. The fee is a sliding scale, from $120 to $420, depending on your income. Benefits include a job hotline, members’ discussion groups, a press pass, and access to their resources.

The Author’s Guild offers its members free book contract reviews from experienced legal staff, discounted health insurance rates in some states, low-cost website services including website-building, e-mail, and domain name registration, plus some other benefits. First year dues are $90. If you live in New York, Florida or Massachusettes, you can subscribe to health insurance.

You might also want to check out other resources for freelancers.

–Quinn McDonald is a writer, life- and certified creativity coach. She runs workshops and seminars training others in business communications.

Resume Ignored by Online Application Sites? Here’s Why.

You’ve filled out hundreds of online job applications, and have never heard from an employer. You are beginning to feel rejected, unloved and unappreciated. Why doesn’t anyone call back? The reason may be in your resume and you haven’t noticed it.

This cartoon appears 1websurfer.wordpress.com's site for Aug. 18, 2008.

I’m going to start with the assumption that your resume is neat, truthful, printed in a simple font, no smaller than 11 points, no more than two pages covering the last 10 years, and that it is spell-checked and proofread. No “manger” for “manager,” no “it’s” when it should be “its.”

There are two areas that will get your resume ignored–fast. One of them is the “Objective” statement. Anything vague  gets you rejected. “I’m looking for an exciting job to advance my career,” is an example of a sinker. So is “Powerful executive with 20 years of increasing responsibility available for lateral applications of bricks-and-clicks viral e-marketing,” or anything else that looks like it comes from a jargon generator.

The objective is not a PR statement–the purpose is to get your hired. You will need a new one for every job you apply to. Hate the idea? Then get used to longer unemployment.

Your resume is being scanned for key words every time you submit it. If you don’t have the right key words, your resume will be shot into the shredder. What are the magic key words? Read the ad. The job description contains the key words. That’s why you need to change your objective for each job. Because the key words change. Look for nouns (titles, duties, responsibilities), not verbs (action words). You’ve probably been taught to create a “results oriented” resume. They don’t work anymore. Everyone “generated top results,” “managed profitability” and “won industry-wide awards,” and the scanner is not interested.

The new resume flies in the face of reasonable writing, but right now, just for resume, nouns are winning the eye of the scanner. And they are the nouns in the job description the scanner is looking for. A match gets your resume in front of a real person. Until that happens, you won’t find a job.

The second mine-field is the words you use to describe your job responsibilities–especially if you are changing fields or job levels. Your resume is about your past. If you use words that link you to your past job, you won’t find the new one.

For example, if you were a financial writer and want to be a trainer, don’t describe yourself using financial language. “Wrote extensively on retirement plans, 401(k) investment options and high-yield portfolio management” are words that classify you as a financial writer. Instead, read the ads for a trainer and use those keywords to describe your old job. No, don’t make it up. I’m talking about using a different vocabulary to describe the work you did.

If the training ad is looking for someone who “develops training programs and is familiar with adult learning practices,” you might want to say you “developed stories to train adults to prepare for retirement,” or “Wrote material to familiarize adults with practices that provide a secure future.” Those aren’t wonderful sentences, yours will be better because you have more job description to choose from. The point is to use the key words for your future job to describe the past. So you can move out of the past and into a future–or at least get a job interview with a real person.

–Quinn McDonald is a writer, life- and creativity coach. She is a trainer in business communications. © 2009 All rights reserved.