Don’t “talk it out” with your management

80% of people are employed by SMEs, Startups and Mid Sized enterprises in non-tech industries. We shouldn't assume good management.

We normally give advice based on how things operate in MNCs and new tech companies. Telling someone “talk it out with your management” can often be the best way to get them fired.

I was surprised at how the DJs and guest on 938Now handled the callers yesterday who asked about dealing with the intense fear of being fired when their company is downsizing. And addressing managers who take advantage of that fear to extract lower pay and more hours out of the workforce. Another caller even asked about how to handle employers who are behaving unethically or illegally.

The response to the various concerns raised by callers could be summed up as “Don’t worry. You need to find a way to talk about it with your management and work out the issues.” A management team threatening you, using downsizing as an excuse to pressure you, or asking you to behave unethically or illegally isn’t worth talking to. Trying to “talk it out” is the best way to raise your hand and say “fire me next”.

If your company is going through this kind of a mess, do not try and talk it out with your management. You need to survive long enough to get out.

Bad Company Survival

Instead, I strongly recommend this strategy -

1 — Become the “best” employee possible — show up early; leave late; volunteer to be involved in new projects; support and encourage management ideas even those that you feel are meaningless or dumb. Basically, focus on becoming a loyal soldier of the company. Learn to and play politics to protect your role.

2 — Relook at yourself, your skills and what you want to do — you likely don’t want to maintain the political show longer than you need to and the struggles your company are going through are likely a sign that your industry, skills or focus are no longer as competitive as before.

Spend your early mornings, evenings, weekends doing research. You can start with a profile like http://www.vip24.me/ or https://www.mynextmove.org/ which will give suggestions of careers, skills and areas where you can explore further.

3 — Start learning — once you have an idea of the kinds of things you want to do, start exploring. https://www.coursera.org/ or https://ocw.mit.edu/ are great, free places to start investigating the skills and areas you want to get into.

4 — Focus and go deep — after exploring different areas for free, you will likely find a profession, set of skills or area that you want to explore further. In many situations, you can find companies willing to hire you and pay you to learn the area in more detail. This requires reaching out directly and building relationships with the managers in the companies. Applying to jobs online where you don’t meet the requirements is a waste of time.

Most countries offer skill-retraining / industry-transitional / professional conversion programs like the WSG Professional Conversion Programmes in Singapore. These are excellent avenues to explore when the roles align with the direction you want to take with your career.

A last option, you can consider, if you have additional financial buffer, taking a paid skill upgrading program like those offered by https://generalassemb.ly or a full polytechnic https://www.sp.edu.sg/. If you do invest in this kind of skill upgrading make sure the programme has strong industry-placement support. If you pay and spend your time on a training program it should provide you a clear runway into a new paid role.

5 — Consider other ways to monetize your professional skills — the simple reality is that no company offers “employment for life” and we can’t guarantee that there will always be another company ready to hire us full-time when we need a job. As we get older, there are an ever decreasing number of senior roles available.

Explore websites like https://www.upwork.com/ to get an idea of what kind of freelancing and part-time work is out there. Consider writing, starting a website or just reaching out to friends and contacts that you are open to working on side projects.

You can consider doing “free” or trial work for people to let them evaluate your skills. I recommend being very careful with these kinds of engagements. If you do agree to any free work, it should be tied to some potential payment if certain agreed criteria are met.

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Keep working at it. Be diligent and you will make it through stronger and better off than before. And, who knows, you might survive long enough that your business management turns around the business and you end up in a better position and situation than you thought possible.

Don’t risk it. Prepare and invest in your future self. You are the only one who can.