Job Security?

[Vigilante]

What is job security.

Today, at a large retail company in Minneapolis, hundreds of people who worked for someone else are being laid off.

An employee with a 23 year history with the company. Laid off.

A 43 year old Mom with a baby that has (terminal) Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Laid off.

A mid life guy with 5 little kids. Laid off.

A veteran with a specialization internally that isn't understood outside the walls of that business. Laid off.

Laid off. Take this folder down to the lobby, where we have an outplacement counselor you can meet with.

You got up this morning and showered, and headed off to the office like it was any other day.

You have to call you wife, your husband, your daycare provider... and let them know you no longer have a job.

Or insurance. Or income.

Job security? Your spouse thinks you should give up your pursuit of freedom and just get a job?

Ask the spouses of the hundreds of people let go in Minneapolis this morning how secure they feel.

There's no such thing as job security. Period.

Your house. Your car. Your health insurance. Your private school tuition. Your groceries next month. All on the line.

You were just a line item on someone's spreadsheet.

Remember that Saturday you skipped your little girl's ballet concert because you had work to do?

There's no job security.

If you think there is, you believe a lie.

Blaze your own path.

 

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[Graham Chong]

People will tell you it's safer to work for the government.

In my case, my parents.

Ironically, my father was "made redundant" (the Brit way of saying it) by no other employer but the government itself.

And he is giving me advice about how secure it is to work for the government...

 

[AllenCrawley]

Stories like this are sad. I've seen people all around me my entire life get laid off, fired or downsized from "secure" jobs. It's an illusion. There is no such thing. I hope the people in Minneapolis can find a quick replacement or use it as a platform to break into bigger and better things.

JackEdwards recently posted a new thread that is relevant:
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/fastlane/45141-my-1000th-post-lose-job-now.html#post267086

 

[The-J]

People will tell you it's safer to work for the government.

In my case, my parents.

Ironically, my father was "made redundant" (the Brit way of saying it) by no other employer but the government itself.

And he is giving me advice about how secure it is to work for the government...

Ain't that the truth. No path is secure.

My dad's side of the family lived in their home country as very educated, upper-middle class workers. Doctors, engineers, civil servants, shit like that. Made tons of money while the 99% lived in poverty.

A dictator took power and essentially made it hell for them, for two reasons: 1) Because they did well in the face of widespread poverty, and the dictator said it was 'unfair' and 2) They were not of the ethnic majority. He did purges of the government ranks, killed businesses, and restructured society to put the 'common man' back on top, at the expense of those who were already there.

They left the country for the Bronx because it had nothing for them. They took their college degrees and their experience with them. But they did not speak English well.

Those educated men died working menial positions. My great-grandfather and my great uncle, who were way past their prime by the time they moved, died as dishwashers in some restaurant in the Bronx.

Follow your F*cking dreams, never get too comfortable, because you never know when shit may hit the fan.

Speed+ Dave... again

 

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[Ivan]

A dictator took power and essentially made it hell for them, for two reasons: 1) Because they did well in the face of widespread poverty, and the dictator said it was 'unfair' and 2) They were not of the ethnic majority. He did purges of the government ranks, killed businesses, and restructured society to put the 'common man' back on top, at the expense of those who were already there.

Dude... Same story here. What country were they from?
My great grandma was the owner of several factories before good ol' communism decided to confiscate everything. The worst part was, you usually had to go work for free in your own factory or risk getting shipped to Siberia.

 

[CEBenz]

I think job security went the way of the Dodo in the 1970s. Or maybe I just think that because that's when Boeing crippled our area with their layoffs. Obviously it hasn't always been smooth sailing but employment duration is, I'd say, shorter now than at any time in our country's history.

Employee Tenure Summary

 

[nitrousflame]

I was laid off from a fortune 500 company in 2011. I was a little surprised when I first got the news, but I was ready for it. In fact, I considered putting my name in for voluntary layoff but decided to "play it safe" and wait it out instead. I knew that there were better opportunities out there for me, but I was too comfortable to leave. Looking back now, it was one of the best things that could have happened to me. It's one of the many reasons that I am here on this forum today.

For most of the several hundred that got laid off today though, I know that they are not looking at their situation in the same light. I only hope some of them will come to the same realization that I did a little over a year ago and make an attempt to take control of their future.

 

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[The-J]

Dude... Same story here. What country were they from?

Dominican Republic.

Trujillo was a Grade A a**hole, but nobody wanted to recognize it. He did bring a higher level of economic power to the country but at a high price.

He wasn't a communist (he hated Castro), just an a**hole. He hated non-white educated men the most and since that side of the family were immigrants from Asia, well, they didn't fare too well under the government. He wanted nothing more than money and power and his government was one of the most corrupt at the time.

Pretty f*cked up things happen, man. Do you still live in Russia?

 

[OzGrinder]

I agree completely Vig, job security doesn't exist.

I do however believe 'Career' security exists. That is, for highly skilled professionals with plenty of experience in a field that is easily transferable from business to business. We don't really care who the employer is, we are our own business our time is the product and we have 1 client, our employer.

If we get laid off tomorrow, we'll have another lined up within the month, we get other offers on a weekly/monthly basis. Granted if the entire industry experiences a downturn we all suffer, but that's no different to any business.

So I agree job security doesn't exist, but I believe career security does. So for those who elect to go slowlane, make sure it's in the right field!

 

[Ivan]

Do you still live in Russia?

Negative. We moved to the US when I was really young. I went back once, but I didn't like it. If you're rich there, you need bodyguards. Here, at least for now, we don't.

 

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[JAJT]

Here is a brief snapshot of my job history:

Company A: 4 year vet, was one of the first hires in the sales team, mid-to-top level performer consistently, #1 salesguy on my team the day I was let go. I just had buddies over yesterday who were my supervisors there - they specifically left my name on the sales numbers chart for two weeks after I was let go and there were people on the team who STILL had not surpassed me after 2 weeks. They were told to take my name off because it "might make some people unhappy". Yeah, me.

Company B: Replaced a F*ck-up employee as one of the two inside sales people working at this company. Just two of us for the whole company (owned by a rockstar investment company on the S&P 500, what's stabler than that?!?). After 5 months I was let go despite solid performance. In fact, I was pro-actively helping the company identify weakenesses in the sales and marketing portion of the business - I was ADDING value constantly. Why did I get let go? My co-worker wanted a raise, used my numbers to convince the company they only needed 1 sales guy and because this lazy prick was a 2 year vet (actively looking for another job, I might add) they canned me, gave me a nice severance and an apology and kicked my a$$ to the street. The guy who got the raise quit for better money 2 months later.

Company C: Just getting started in my sales career many moons ago. Fired after 3 months due to financial difficulties - we were venture capital funded with a killer product and HUGE names interested in our product. No dice, wanted to cut costs. Half the company let go.

Did I mention MY OWN BOSSES were fired from 3 of the companies I've worked for in the past? If my bosses don't have job stability, I sure as shit don't.

Almost everyone on my linkedin profile has changed jobs within the last year or so. This isn't going to change. The trend in the market has clearly gone steadily upwards for "number of jobs worked over lifetime". It USED to be 1 or 2 for our grandparents. Last I heard it was something like 20 these days.

I make no illusions for job security. All I know is I'm guaranteed income until it is taken away from me. That's the best the job market has to offer. Do your best until you become obsolete for reasons A - Z.

 

[Destined]

There is no such a thing as job security. Everyone is on someone else's time clock. No matter how great one is to a company, they can and will get rid of them. Some people work, so hard for a company and get cut like its nothing. Having a job can possibly guarantee a paycheck, but it also guarantees slavery for the business one works for. Being an entrepreneur guarantees nothing but freedom and having the choice to do as one desires.

The paycheck may not always be guarantee, but once it is..it will be more gratifying and it can be on a much higher end of a pay day too. I started my path of entrepreneurship at age 16 and be at it ever since and i will never work for anyone...poor or rich..never!

 

[Bigguns50]

It fascinatesme how we Americans have fallen for this false sense of security. Fact is, our jobs,safety,health,relationships, and more, are NOT secure. Why and how did we ever think they were ? And i for one, am ok with that.

 

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[PopEmersen]

People will tell you it's safer to work for the government.

In my case, my parents.

Ironically, my father was "made redundant" (the Brit way of saying it) by no other employer but the government itself.

And he is giving me advice about how secure it is to work for the government...

A friend of mine just got sequestered, so you are absolutely correct.

 

[InMotion]

I do however believe 'Career' security exists. That is, for highly skilled professionals with plenty of experience in a field that is easily transferable from business to business.

That's part of the problem for many people. I have friends in fortune companies and I sometimes wonder after talking to them what job they could get if they got laid off. Many people get so pigeonholed into a specialized area; what they are doing sometimes doesn't transfer well to another company in the same industry even.

I was pro-actively helping the company identify weaknesses in the sales and marketing portion of the business - I was ADDING value constantly

I understand where your coming from here. I did that at the last large company I worked for; turned out I was just throwing improvements and energy into a dark pit, but I did learn a little about the corporate arena there.

Office Space was actually a documentary I believe. Make sure you put the cover sheet on the TPS reports

 

[maverick]

I'll take it one step further..

Ask yourself the same question on life itself..

You have no security that tomorrow you'll be living the same life as today. Everything might change in an instance. You might become critically ill. Somebody close to you might pass away. A massive change could throw your entire reality upside down..

You'll wake up tomorrow and think: "Why didn't I do the things I wanted to do whilst I was healthy? Why didn't I blaze my own path?"

Job security = accepting mediocrity; unconsciously knowing that you will never do any better. One of my favourite songs of all times has the following line in it which fits perfectly: "I'm not living, I'm just killing time."

I'm going to give it my all to fight the feeling of settling for mediocrity.. are you?

 

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[Nomad]

So true maverick - I've sometimes thought to myself that "if x happens, then I'll do y", but why wait for x to happen? We should just go out and do the things we want to do or accomplish while we still can.

As for the original statement I agree with Vigilante - I've seen employees with long service histories get laid off from places I've worked too. Just makes you realise that you need to control your own destiny or become a victim of somebody else's.

 

[EastWind]

There is "Job Security" but it's limited. Anyone that expects a job to last for life tho gotta be kidding, but on average, the idea behind that term is that every 2 weeks the probability of you getting a pay check is high. When people start a business, that check might not be coming for a while. This is why I believe in my opinion, the best time to start a business is when you have "job security" you don't get comfortable with it, but you save, and use your free time and try to bootstrap your business until it's profitable to sustain you. Just my opinion. I have a job and I have some level of security and it has given me better security than I had when I didn't have a job or was broke trying to start a business with very little.

 

[infinitus]

Now more than ever I think people are slowly coming to realize job security doesn't exist, but its still pretty shocking how the majority of the slow-laners out there desperately want to cling to that false security. It annoys me to see so many 'in the matrix' who want to conform, I think its a big problem here in Australia, and its hard for me to fathom as I've always liked being a rebel and going against the norm/status quo. I believe society and the world is coming towards very big and dramatic changes, like a huge bush-fire destroying everything in its path, and so many of the slow laners who think its better to stick their head in the sand will get their bodies burnt to a crisp

 

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