Recent events in Madison, Wisconsin have placed many people in a rare and indefinable place. It feels a lot like a job loss, but you still have a job to wake up and go to work each day. What happens when what you know to be true about your ability to negotiate your future goes away? If you are state employee you could be feeling the same things people feel when they lose their jobs, here is some advice to help you stay motivated and employed.
1. Keep working. Don’t quit your job. Don’t make any major decisions about your job or situation for the next year. Adjust the best you can to your new situation. Observe what is happening around you. With one exception, if you were planning on retiring within the next few years, explore that option this year.
2. Reconnect with the reasons you like your job. Review what you do well and keep doing it. Identify those things you dread doing and minimize their impact on your other work. Talk with your supervisor to discuss how your responsibilities may change should there be is a “trickling down effect.” Ask how you can work smarter and more efficiently in your job.
3. Do recognize that all of us live and work in a tenuous society. Be ready for the future, whatever it is. Brush off that resume. Put together a collection of job descriptions that you like. Essentially, do a dry-run job search. There will be changes around you. Be ready for the next opportunity.
4. Compartmentalize roles and responsibilities. Manage emotions. Anytime there is a shift in how you spend your income, conflict ensues. The best line of logic I have heard is: “This is what it is. Now we go to the next phase of our lives, sometimes you cannot change what is happening, only how you manage your reactions.”
No comments:
Post a Comment