OUTSWIMMING THE SHARKS
HOW TO RECOVER WHEN YOU GET FIRED
Get help. Get stabilized. Get busy. You didn't have time to keep in
shape when you were logging those 12-hour days at work? Well, you have
plenty of time now. And once you get rolling, you not only feel better
physically, you also feel better emotionally.
Getting stronger and healthier helps put a lot of other things in
perspective. You may have loved your job, but dying for love,
particularly for love of a corporation, may not have been the smartest
thing you ever did.
Once you feel the young tiger inside you start to stir again after
years of slumber, it's a lot easier to handle the bumps in your career.
And when you do go in for interviews, if you're in shape, you'll look
better and have more self confidence than in years.
Then start learning. Friends, relatives, old schoolmates,
customers, vendors, business associates, professional advisers. Focus on
the positive - you have something to offer. By helping you, all whose
assistance you solicit are helping themselves as well. They're helping
put you back in a position where you can do them some good.
You need to take inventory: financial, professional, and emotional.
It's time to revise your budget. There are advisers who will tell you to
cut down on everything. Not me. You can't cut down on your medical needs.
If you can swing it, don't cut down on your kids' needs - it hurts them
too much, they can't hide the hurt, you'll be infected by guilt and that
will affect your own self-confidence and ability to perform.
Self-improvement is the one area in which you should really
increase your spending. Take courses. Upgrade your skills. Enhance what
you already know and pick up new material. Nothing impresses me more as a
potential employer than someone who is out of work but still actively
going to school. It's the true test of your determination to present an
up-to-the-minute, trainable, quality package to an employer.
Get a routine. Like yourself again. Make love to your significant
other. Spend extra time with the kids. Read. Have a little fun. And get
busy, none of us has time to sit around feeling sorry for ourselves. If
you're fired, it's a great way to prove to yourself and others that
you're capable of bouncing back after a setback. It's a real confidence
builder. It's the single best thing you can do for yourself.
HOW TO ASK FOR A RAISE
You've survived the downsize; now it's time to upsize. Judging by
the beaded foreheads I've seen over the last 30 years, asking for a raise
can be traumatic. There's a right way and a wrong way, yet whether it's
shipping clerks or CEOs, the common denominator is the same: unvarnished
fear.
o Business is business: Don't try to use a personal crisis as a
lever to increase your income. It's unfair and it won't work.
o Know what you're worth. Don't think you can march in and ask for
a raise that's out of line with what your company - and your industry
-pays people for performing at a similar level.
o Don't go in with an attitude. Calmly decide before the meeting
whether you're prepared to issue an ultimatum.
o Do your homework. Have your rationale for a raise in writing,
including customer letters, supervisors' notes, and your desk
calendar.
o Show your boss what you're going to do for your company in the
future. Your goals should be specific, measurable, and in writing.
o Timing is everything. Don't ask for a raise when you just blew
the GM account or when the last two quarters were downers.
ILLUSTRATION
From Sharkproof (HarperBusiness), by Harvey B. Mackay. Copyright
(c) 1993 by Harvey Mackay.
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