How to Keep Your Job

US News suggests you can hold on to your job by displaying the following qualities:

• Composure. When others freak out, you do not join them.

• Thoroughness. You carry tasks all the way through to their logical conclusions.

• Graciousness. You treat everyone equally well.

• Diligence. You take the time to be careful; you make the effort to be accurate.

• Astuteness. You anticipate things that will go wrong and always have a contingency plan.

• Mastery. You consistently produce high-quality work in a timely fashion.

While this is a good list, I'd boil my suggestions for holding on to your job to one: deliver stellar results. Do this, and you'll be set in all but the very worst (or unusual) cases.

What does this mean? It means that whatever performance is expected of you relative to others in your area, you go well above and beyond it. For example, if you're expected to generate $100,000 in sales this month, generate $150,000. If you're supposed to cut $30,000 out of a project, deliver the project for $45,000 below budget. If you're expected to launch two new items this year, launch three new ones. In other words, deliver stellar results! ;-)

This line of thinking is similar to what I stated in how to demonstrate that you deserve a raise, so check out that post if you want a bit more detail.

Comments

[kitty]

Good advice. I'd add having critical skills that are hard to find. Also, to be always involved with important projects, changing groups if necessary.

Nevertheless, if you work for a large corporation where the decisions are often made by some executive 4 levels above your immediate manager - like during layoffs that happened in a couple of very well known large IT companies just this year - nothing will help.

[Robin]

I had a friend who did just that, deliver stellar results. Do you think his manager valued him more? No, he had presented his ideas once, the manager rejected them because she wanted to try hers.

So he obediently did as she said. They really made some big mistakes and started losing money. Out of desperation, she said to my friend, "Well, let's try your ideas." Miraculously (or not really if you're competent), sales increased threefold.

What then happened? My friend got canned. He was viewed as a threat.

Deliver stellar results? Yes, and do so because you're a professional who wants to live up to your own standards. Getting employers' approval afterwards is secondary.

[TStrump]

I always give my boss more than he asks for and follow it up a week later to see if anything else is needed.
Always act polite and professional in the office - some *ssholes do get ahead but I don't think it's worth it being like that.