Do You Have A Lifetime Employment Contract? - Part 3 (The Finale)

The modern world is all about backup, contingency plans, and loss prevention. Without a backup (or parallel) income source you're basically at the mercy of your employer's unpredictable personnel decisions. It's one thing to be in the rat race, but entirely different to be a rat hanging on by a thread!

Yet you seem to believe that you can take on all the transactions of life with only one source of income. I guess your motto is, "one job, one employer". And that motto would be fine if you had a contract to support it. But since you probably don't, I believe you need to start planning for ways to minimize your risks of unexpected unemployment. In most of the developed world, the average employee lives beyond his means by debt-financing the lifestyle s/he desires to have. When there are shocks to the financial system followed by the inevitable disruptions in household incomes, the average employee who only has a single source of income will be the one to suffer the most. I continue to be amazed at how the average employee wades through life without any type of strategic safety net for their professional livelihood. Maybe being a trapeze artist isn't so risky after all.

Unless your strategy for sudden job loss is to have a fire-sale of all your household goods (and home if you're a buyer) and move back in with your parents, relatives, or friends; then I suggest you develop a sound contingency plan. If you want to escape the eventual fate of the masses without employment contracts, then you have three options:

1. Play the corporate game and get to the executive levels as quickly as possible.
2. Stay at your same employee level and get a side job.
3. Become a freelancer or consultant and get paid by the hour or by deliverable.
   

You will choose the option that best fits you depending on your personality, values, and abilities. However, there are other things to take into consideration like your civil status - legally recognized or not. Whether you are single, married, or in a domestic partnership (roommates or more); there are four strategies you can use to ensure a minimal disruption to your lifestyle in the event of a disruption to your single source of income.  

1. One Single-Source Income Earner needs to find a second source of income. Say goodbye to your couch potato lifestyle and get a second job or create income from your hobbies. Whatever you decide to do, you'd better do it quickly. Be sure not to give in to the temptation of spending your extra money instead of saving it.
2. Two Single-Source Income Earners need to become domestic partners or married. Two incomes are better than one and provide an in-house backup to one person's temporary income disruption. If one of you becomes unemployed, just be careful not to take too long in landing a new job because you were probably both living beyond your means. Nobody wants to pay your bills forever!
3. Two Married (or Domestic Partners) Single-Source Income Earners need to have one spouse with a second source of income. Somebody has to have a normal day, so whoever draws the short stick can plan on working an extra 15-20 hours a week at the side gig. This scenario provides you the ability to save the vaunted "rainy day fund". The downside is that if your side gig is crap, you'll be more stressed out than the extra security is worth. So earn money from something you really enjoy!
4. Two Married Single-Source Income Earners need to have both spouses with a second source of income. This is the maximum protection you can provide for yourself - though it comes at a high price due to the time you and your spouse have to spend working. Mitigate this by ensuring that both you and your partner take alternating breaks from your side gigs. Even though you'll have extra work on top of your primary job, it's far better to be a little stressed than unemployed without a backup. The peace of mind you'll have will more than compensate for missing your television shows now and then.

If all of this is just too much for you to stomach, then consider the risks of inaction. At the very least you should pay for short-term and long-term disability insurance through your employer's benefits package (assuming your employer offers that!). While it's convenient to only think of losing your source of income, it is more important to protect your ability to earn any income at all. It won't matter if you have a second source of income if your ability to work becomes impaired due to a debilitating illness or accident.

Doing nothing is NOT a solution. Ignoring the problem is NOT a solution. Hoping to keep your single source of income is NOT a solution. Companies diversify their product and service offerings for a reason - to mitigate risks and maximize opportunities. How many grocery stores have you seen that only sale one item? Don't pay the high cost for being a well-trained, obedient employee who blindly relies on the patronage of his employer. I highly doubt that your employer was founded with the sole purpose of providing you with long-term employment.

Do You Have A Lifetime Employment Contract?

The mindset of the average employee is truly a case study in blind faith. In fact, if I google the words "blind faith" I fully expect to see YOUR picture at the top of the search page! Maybe you really do believe in the "Job Fairy" and the "Make A Wish Foundation". Maybe you do believe that lifetime employment with one company is a badge of honor. Or maybe you believe that it is your duty to stay with a company long after the relationship is over. Whatever the case, there is a name for you and your ilk - Professional Gamblers.

 

Forget having a lifetime employment contract - do you even have any type of signed contract stating the length of your employment and the conditions upon which you can be terminated? Does that contract have a buyout clause should you be terminated prematurely? If not, then I'm really concerned about you and would like to refer you to the nearest psychiatric ward! Because clearly you are living in a make-believe world of stable employment, trustworthy companies, and little green men flying around in spaceships.

But hey, what do I know. I'm just another blogger in cyberspace spreading the career management gospel. Who am I to try to unplug your mind from the Matrix feeding pod? Perhaps your mind is not ready for the real world. Perhaps you are fine with having a single source of income. Perhaps you are fine with having blind faith in your employer. Perhaps you were raised during a time when companies served as surrogate parents and were always there for you on your birthday and Christmas. You have every right to be a loyal subject unto your King Employer. And maybe, just maybe, the Employer will fulfill its unspoken (and unwritten!) promise to grant you lifetime employment. Imagine, such a gracious employer to allow you to stay among their ranks until YOU decide to call it a career. I tell you, they just don't make them like that anymore. Seriously, they don't!

Don't you find it odd that you mitigate risks in all other parts of your life except your employment? I mean, you have car insurance. You have medical insurance. You have home insurance. You have memory sticks to back up your work files. You have servers to back up your desktop files. You even carry two credit cards in  your wallet! Would you put your money in a bank that had no deposit insurance? Probably not. How secure would you feel on an airplane with only one pilot? The higher the stakes, the greater the precautions people take to mitigate risks. For some reason, that line of reasoning doesn't translate to the average employee. But I guess you, with your ONE employer and lifetime employment contract, know something the rest of the world doesn't. Maybe we should all just ride around on unicycles.

 

Introducing...The Mobile Job Seeker!

It’s been a long time since I’ve written a blog entry about career management. I’m currently on sabbatical and replenishing my energies through the pursuit of my personal hobbies and passions. I will continue to update this blog but I also invite you to follow me on twitter and read my new comic strip, “The Mobile Job Seeker”. In this strip, I give a humorous take on the challenges faced by job seekers, recruiters, and employees. I tweet new episodes 2-3 times a month so stay tuned and “retweet” the stories you like!

Twitter account: www.twitter.com/lewisrod

This Week’s episode of The Mobile Job Seeker: http://Pixton.com/ic:1mcb1zql

Below you will find an excerpt from the book I am currently writing on the corporate recruitment process. This book represents my 1­5+ years experience as a job seeker, employee, career consultant, and recruiter. It will be a few months before it is completed but I promise it will be worth the wait!

Only Dummies Apply Online: The Rants, Raves, and Ramblings of Job Searching (book excerpt)

"I think it’s safe to say that blindly sending résumés to online job postings is an exercise in futility – or foolishness. And though you see all the advertisements from online job sites like Career Builder and Monster begging  you to find your “dream job” on their sites, the actual number of people who get jobs using those sites is quite small in comparison to the number of people who apply. If you’re one of the lucky few to actually make it past the Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that companies have ubiquitously deployed for the express purpose of “bagging and tagging” your résumé, then it probably means any one of the following:

1. The Job Seeker applied to a high turnover position.
2. The Job Seeker submitted the perfect résumé and application.
3. The Job Seeker applied to a job for which there were few applicants.

If you don’t want to play the "shell game" of job searching then I suggest you stop the mindless customization of your résumé and cover letter (assuming you were even doing that!) and the filling out of “standard template” application fields. Free your mind from the ATS-induced stupor it is under and use the internet for “people searches” instead of “job searches”. Remember, people hire people – software does not. Let's be clear on one thing – you should NEVER blindly apply to jobs online! If the intent of a job application is to secure an interview, then why would you let a software program affect your chances? You don’t see army-trained snipers using machine guns, do you? They are trained to research, analyze, and study specific targets before they take the kill shot with a high-powered rifle. Be a Sniper! Aim your résumé at the head of the department in which you want to work! Anything less is uncivilized."