Job Security: I Am Safe… Right?

I am writing this with the hope that I do not jinx myself. I work in financial services. This industry is very bad right now. I have tons of friends who work at similar companies where they are experiencing large amounts of layoffs. This type of uncertainty must be extremely difficult to deal with, especially for those of the younger generation. When you are young, everyone tells you to go to college so you can get a good job and make money. However, they never did mention the notion that our economy is going to plummet when you start working and your early working years will be right in the middle of the first recession in a long long time.

But that is life right? You live and you learn. Challenges of this nature help build strong-minded individuals and character. In such turbulent times, you have to look for positives because if you entire day consists of concentrating on the negative aspects, the terms “miserable” and “depressed” may soon enter you mindset.

I have a few friends that experienced lay offs from very good companies. I have a few other friends who currently hold jobs at some of the big name companies making news for layoffs. I can not even imagine the feeling of waking up in the morning and either a) not having a job to go to or b) uncertain whether it will be your last day or not.

My company brags that it has never had a single lay off in its long history. That statement provides me with a sense of security that keeps me grounded each and every day. Until a few days ago, when I heard that Blackrock is cutting 10% of its workforce. My friend who works there informed me that they never had lay offs prior to this week. They were in the same boat as my company. As you can imagine, this news definitely put me on tilt because it makes you realize that even the calmest of oceans can one day experience storms.

If you are going to take anything from this, realize that you can only control what you bring to the table and what you do on a daily basis at your job. You went to college and earned your degree and accepted the position that you are working at today. The same place where you might be reading this blog post as we speak. Do your job everyday as best as you can, work harder than the person next to you, because you never want to give them the chance to get rid of you because you did not work hard or succeed in you position.

Everything happens for a reason right? Just don’t give them a reason to pick do it to you!