But emergencies do happen, and there may be a time when you need to act very fast. Perhaps you have heard through the grapevine or have been unequivocally told that your department's budget and staff size are to be halved in the near future. Perhaps the news about the entire company is bad; it is common knowledge that operations are soon to be curtailed and hundreds of employees are to be laid off. Or perhaps the bad news is more personal. Your boss has told you your performance is unsatisfactory. You have three months to show improvement. If you don't turn yourself around in that probationary period, out you go.
In a situation like any of these, you urgently need a crash program. Your hold on your job has suddenly become very, very insecure. Looking back, you can probably identify a number of mistakes that have contributed to your insecurity--mistakes you would not have made perhaps. You can rectify all those mistakes in the future, but that may take time. Your immediate concern is to get through the emergency that is facing you now. What are the measures that will bring fast results?
Special Projects
The first thing you should do is to devise a plan for solving some problems you are facing. Even if you are in an entry-level job and have no leadership function at all, you can still respond to your own emergency
working with the facts of your own job situation.
Ask yourself; what does this company or this department need that I can provide? What does my boss need?
If you have been working in this job for a year or so, it is likely some ideas of this kind have crossed your mind before now. You've noticed operations in which money is being wasted, perhaps. You've wondered why a certain function always seems to take more time than it should. You've been annoyed by inadequate information on customers or suppliers. In idle moments you may even have toyed with possible improvements. You've asked yourself: "Why don't we do it this way instead of that way?" But you have not followed up on these thoughts. You have simply allowed potentially good ideas to lie sleeping in your mind.
Now is the time to seize one of those ideas and do something about it. Don't merely hand it to your boss in its untried form; research it, test it, marshal the facts to demonstrate its feasibility. Seize the initiative. Put in whatever extra work is required. Never mind catching your usual bus home. Never mind your lunch hour. You are fighting for survival.
Remember that if you aren't willing to give up some free time now, in a few months you may have a lot more free time than you want.
The project you choose should of course be one that lies within the scope of your job responsibilities. Beware of hazards of encroaching into what other people regard as their territory, and of playing with ideas that are too grandiose for your current position: "Mr. Smith, I've worked out a way to double the company's earnings!"
The project can be something quite lowly and simple. The only requirement is that it be genuinely useful. One woman, threatened with an imminent layoff during a corporate crisis, undertook to solve a problem that many people had found irritating. She worked in a department that made heavy use of certain business reference books.
Department staff members had to go to the central company library to consult these books. Since other departments also had need of the books, they were often in use. Waiting periods of hours or even days were common; work was delayed; time was wasted. The woman I'm talking about had often wondered idly: "Why don't we have our own department library?" Now she began to ask the question less idly.
Cost was the main problem. But when she researched the situation, she discovered that her department's main needs could be satisfied by only a dozen books. She estimated that three fourths of her own and her colleagues' library time was spent consulting just those few books--or waiting for them. Hence the department didn't need a full-fledged library; all it needed was one short shelf of books.
She went further with her research. She ascertained the cost of the dozen books. By conducting an informal survey of department staff members and keeping a record of her own hours, she arrived at a rough but plausible estimate of the amount of staff time wasted in waiting at the central library. She was able to show that, in comparison with that cost, the price of the needed books was negligible.
Her boss found her argument compelling. The department's efficiency increased markedly when the new bookshelf was installed--which made her boss look good, and also made it easier for him to cut the staff when orders to that effect finally came down from above. The heroine of the story kept her job, of course.
Accelerations
While working on that special project, you should also pay close attention to certain precepts for nonemergency purposes. The particular ones that should concern you now are those that can be accelerated.
If you haven't been seeking education as aggressively as you should, it is unlikely that any panicky action on this front now will do much to save you from a firing in two months. You ought to think about education seriously when this emergency is over, but right now it probably cannot do much to rescue you. Similarly, if you have failed to cultivate a good relationship with your boss until now, you probably won't accomplish much with this problem in three months--especially in a crisis atmosphere. Instant, dramatic turnarounds in human relationships do happen, but not often enough to count on. There are, however, some principles that can be accelerated with useful results. During this emergency period, pay special attention to:
GROOMING: This is one front on which you can achieve instant improvement, if you feel you need it. People often change grooming habits slowly, because it feels more comfortable that way and is less startling to others. But you lack the time to approach the change in so leisurely a fashion. Do it now. Show up at your office tomorrow morning looking crisp, immaculate, and ready for business. Stand erect. Speak briskly and confidently. You are under a cloud, but you must not let yourself show it.
CONTACT WITH A MENTOR: If you haven't found a mentor yet, your chances of finding one hurriedly in an emergency are not very good. But if you have at least the beginnings of a mentor-protégé relationship, now is the time to accelerate its development.
TEAM PERFORMANCE: If you lead a task group, do what you can to gain a quick improvement in its performance. Intensify your efforts to reward jobs well done, by praise or other means. If you have been putting off a confrontation with a poor performer, this is the time to get it over with.
USING TIME WELL: This is another change you can make instantly, though admittedly it won't be easy. Start immediately to return phone calls and answer mail on the same day received. If your boss asks you to do something--even if he or she asks in a seemingly offhand way--do it right away. Forbid yourself to go home until everything you were supposed to do that day has been done.
POSITIVE ATTITUDE: During this emergency period, be doubly careful about joining gripe groups or letting disparaging remarks slip out. The fact that you are in danger may make you more than normally sensitive or irritable; perhaps you are angry with your boss or the entire management team. But this is the very time when you most need to protect your reputation as a positive, cooperative, interested staff member. Don't slouch around, complaining. Don't mope by yourself, either. Go to meetings. Increase your participation.
OFF-THE-.IOB ACTIVITIEs: Perhaps you have been involved in political, social, or personal activities that you've considered just a bit risky. You've continued with them because you have not noticed any tangible effects on your job or your career standing, but you have been aware of an element of risk. This assessment of risk should be doubled in your emergency period. If you are involved in any activity that worries you the slightest quit.
OUTSIDE CONTACTS: Very quietly and carefully increase your contacts with recruiters or others who may lead you to a job in another company--just in case you need one. If you have not yet established a friendly relationship with a recruiter or other outside sources, then this is a bad time to start sending out unsolicited resumes. Lacking such a pre-established contact, however, you can at least accelerate your studies of the job market as it applies to you. Get in touch with friends and others who may be able to advise or assist you. Think about what you will do if the emergency ends badly.
