Alpha female: How not to lose your job in 2008

By Anneke de Boer

Work hard, network hard, and don’t complain about your bonus.

Happy New Year! It’s 2008 and hopefully we can put all of the turmoil of 2007 behind us. Or can we? Although many have made it through the redundancy rounds unscathed, the business environment and recruiting situation in 2008 could also be tricky. So what can you do to make sure that you don’t lose your job in 2008?

Work hard and do a good job. If you are in a revenue generating area, generate revenue. This should go without saying, but sometimes people feel that they have made it through the bad period and can now relax. Don’t relax. The 2008 business environment is far from certain and if you aren’t performing well you are giving the firm an easy excuse to get rid of you.

Be seen to be doing a good job. It isn’t enough just to sit at your desk and do a good job – you need to make management aware of what you are doing. This may mean that you end up working harder since you have to do your normal job and you have to publicise your success. You’ll have to figure out how best to do this in your working environment without alienating those that you work with or annoying your boss.

Be a team player. If you are a 'star' performer with the revenue to back up your position, but are difficult to work with, you are still probably safe. But, if you are in the majority and are a 'normal' performer, you may need all the friends you can get when times get tough. Being a good corporate citizen should mean that you are favoured if it comes to that close decision. And it makes for a nicer working environment.

Don’t complain about your 2007 bonus. Senior management has had a horrible time during the autumn of 2007 – first they had to figure out whom to fire and then they had to figure out how much (or how little) to pay the remaining staff. At many firms (ex GS) the bonus pools probably shrank during the decision process, so they had to figure out whose bonus to cut even further. The last thing that they want to hear from you is that you are unhappy. From their perspective, you have a job, you might have gotten somewhat of a bonus, and you should be grateful. Keep in mind your boss probably didn’t get that much of a bonus either.

Network, both internally and externally. Building a network of people around you who know who you are and what you do should be part of your job. It is surprising what you can learn and how much business can get done through informal channels. It isn’t a waste of time to network, but again may mean that you have to work harder since it is an 'extra' thing to do. Think of it not only as benefiting your current job but also as an insurance policy – if you do get let go, you’ll already have a network in place to start looking for your next job.

Anneke de Boer is a former managing director of Morgan Stanley’s fixed income business in London. She retired in 2006.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

US Quake Test Goes “Horribly Wrong”, Leaves 500,000 Dead In Haiti

By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers A grim report prepared by the Russian Northern Fleet for Prime Minister Putin is stating today that the catastrophic earthquake that has devastated the Island of Haiti was the ‘clear result’ of a United States Navy test of one of its ‘earthquake weapons’ planned to be used by the Americans upon the Persian Nation of Iran but had gone ‘horribly wrong’. The Northern Fleet has been monitoring US Naval movements and activities in the Caribbean since 2008 when the Americans announced their intention to re-establish their Forth Fleet that had been disbanded in 1950, and which was responded to by the Motherland when later that year a Russian flotilla led by nuclear powered cruiser Peter the Great began their first exercises in this region since the ending of the Cold War. Though virtually unknown to the American people, the use, and perfection, of earthquake weapon technology has a decade’s long history that began with the former Sov
Read more

I'm an accountant, I hate my job, but seriously, I wouldn’t know what else to do

I was born to be a lot of things, but being an accountant isn't one of them. In my heart of hearts I have always known this, but for some stupid subconscious reason, I have always ignored it. Why? Well...um...err...I didn’t know what else to do. How many people faced with the same predicament of deciding on a profession upon graduating used “not really knowing what to do” as their guiding compass? Blink. Ten years have passed and you’re left wondering, how did I get here? In this cubicle? Doing something I cannot stand (and I’m not even honestly good at), with people I quite frankly don’t really care about? For me that was accounting, a profession that conjures numerous clichés, such as boring, bean counting, personality not needed, number crunching etc etc. These have now evolved and have been replaced by repetition, reconciliations, long hours, fudging figures, high turnover, Enron and even more reconciliations. R-E-S-P-E-C-T But please don’t get me wrong, I have the utmost respe
Read more

Have We Reached a Top?

By James Kostohryz It's never been my position that the flow of fundamental news would turn from positive to negative overnight and in a total fashion. The world simply doesn't work that way. When I terminated my core long position a couple of weeks ago for reasons explained in�Ten Reasons the Countertrend Rally May Be Over,�I outlined a series of factors I believe may manifest in the later half of 2009 and the first half of 2010. Indeed, most of these factors will be more back-end loaded, as negative factors tend to build on one another and gain momentum in time through the medium of psychology and social mood. It's my view that the flow of economically relevant events�-- and perceptions of these events --are in the early stages of a transition. In this case, a transition means the flow of relatively good news will tend to wane somewhat while there's an uptick in relatively bad news. This is what one would expect at a top. However, it's to be expected that during t
Read more