Coping with the Stress of Job Insecurity

We all now work in an insecure working environment. The old ‘cradle to grave’ mentality of a secure job for life has been replaced by the reality of the 4 R’s.

•Redundancy

•Redeployment

•Retraining

•Retrenchment

Here are some things you can do to reduce the stress of job 

insecurity:

•  Meet regularly with your boss: make sure your boss has regular progress reports of what you’re doing well; ask for feedback regularly … and accept it non-defensively;
• Network throughout your industry; join professional groups where you can contribute your expertise;
•  Increase your visibility across business units: write for your newsletter; make a presentation; chair a staff meeting; involve yourself in groups outside your own ’silo’ (eg social club; Equal Opportunity; discussion groups)
• Communicate with others at work; do your colleagues know what you’re doing ….and what you do well?
• Notice when someone looks snowed under and offer support. Team involvement is a highly-prized behaviour in most organisations;
• Do an audit of your skills, interests, values and motivations so that you have a clear idea of the best fit job for you;
• Have a career goal and a plan to get there. Remember: if you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you’ve got there

This Stress Tip is guest authored by Glenda May, an organisational psychologist.

 If you keep practicing the hardy attitudes and strategies, you will not only feel better about employment insecurity or loss, but also grow and develop so as to increase your likelihood of keeping your job or getting another one.  There is more than 35 years of research done all around the world that validates how hardy people in many different work situations not only survive, but also thrive under all sorts of stresses.  If they are hardy, they show enhanced performance, stamina, health, and conduct.  It is certainly true that, if you have not functioned in a hardy way all along, it is difficult to persist with the hardy attitudes and strategies.  We encourage you to just keep trying, and you will see that the feedback you get makes what you have to do easier and easier.