There may be trouble ahead: Turmoil in the markets
How do you stay safe when the markets are a mess? Big hiring strategies and massive expansions have vanished. Where does that leave you and your job?
Truth is, you can’t ever bomb-proof your position. What you can do, is to buy yourself valuable time when things turn sour, in the hope that you’ll ride out the bad moments and still be in situ when the upswing happens.
It’s even more true that hiring in financial services is a sheep-like affair: Let one bulge-bracket name announce that they’re building up their WhateverItIsDepartment, sure as eggs, there’ll be a clutch of similar announcements over the ensuing weeks that Banks XY and Z are doing the same.
Why? Because good ideas are thin on the ground, and in the money-making business, they’re worth a darned sight more than gold dust. And you don’t want to be the manager seen to be caught napping when everyone else has hitched a ride on the latest money-making express train.
But when things start to slide, and expressions like ’sub-prime’ and ‘catastrophe’ start appearing in the same headlines, the same logic applies: Get out while you can, and Devil take the hindmost.
This can lead to employers behaving spectacularly badly (I have a story or two about that) so you need to keep yourself as safe as possible. How?
- If you haven’t made friends in high places who will strive to protect you, it might be too late now – but try anyway;
- Make sure that all your spectacular ideas come across to management with your name all over them like a rash. Teamwork’s lovely – but it won’t save your job in the tough times. If you initiated something profitable or ground-breaking, make sure that this is known, and only then let the rest of your team take the spoils;
- Make a friend of your manager. Even if it goes against your personality, sing your own praises, let her or him know just how much you contribute;
- Get colleagues to do the same – and return the compliment for them;
- Suss out your options in the market just in case. Not easy when things go bearish, and you should have been keeping an eye on this anyway, so schmooze your tame headhunters on a regular basis;
- Find a good employment lawyer; get him/her/it to check out your employment contract and know every nook and cranny. Just in case.
If the worst comes to the worst and you’re given your marching orders, try for dignity. Not always easy if you don’t have decency in your managers or HR, but it really is best not to burn boats, so try to depart the building with as much professionalism as you can muster. What happens after that is up to you.
If you’re one of the lucky ones who get to stay, be kind to the departing. It could be you next -and they could be the ones to give you that glowing personal reference.
Don’t ever think that just because someone’s been axed, they won’t crop up again in your working life.
And if you’re a manager, you need to have this branded on your heart.
