A collared lizard in Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona. Most lizards can drop their tails as a defensive maneuver. If a predator has grabbed the tail, the advantage of shedding it is clear. But tail-shedding usually results in distraction of the predator, which can be advantageous even when the predator hasn't grabbed the tail. Shedding a tail is an expensive maneuver, and can result in lower social status and competitive disadvantages. Perhaps these phenomena explain why collared lizards so rarely shed their tails.
Troubled corporations sometimes engage in analogous behavior, selling off parts of themselves to raise cash. Usually we think of these maneuvers as signs of trouble, but selling a business to a competitor can do more than raise cash: it can distract the acquiring competitor as well, providing the seller with the time it might need to reconfigure itself to compete more effectively. This is yet another reason why positioning yourself in the most central parts of your company can be so advantageous. Photo by Marge Post, courtesy U.S. National Park Service.
These are unusual times — few of us have ever seen anything like this. You have a job now, but you're concerned about possible layoffs, and you want to reduce the chances of being laid off. Many career strategies of long standing no longer apply. For instance, a job with room for advancement might have been attractive a year ago, but a very secure job might be more attractive now.
To keep your job, when many others are losing theirs, recognize first that you aren't the only one thinking this way. Many of your colleagues are hitting Google looking for "how to avoid a layoff". Many are already applying what they've learned.
We've already examined tactics for stabilizing your own frame of mind and strengthening your relationships. Here are some tips for enhancing your relationship to the organization.
- Be irreplaceable
- Normally, being irreplaceable is undesirable, because it reduces the chances of promotion. These aren't normal times. Hang on to assignments that put you in positions the organization cares most about. Strategic importance is less critical than tactical importance.
- Work in the most important business unit
- If things get really bad, entire units — divisions, product lines, locations, subsidiaries — will be sold or closed. Being an irreplaceable part of one of those units won't matter.
- Work in a stable line of business
- Some companies serve multiple markets. The more stable the market, the safer you are. For instance, in advertising, serving the automotive market is riskier than serving health care.
- Skill up
- Acquire any skills, knowledge, or experience that would enable you to take on some of the responsibilities of a co-worker. If you already have such skills, make certain that the right people know. These skills will enable you to take on the duties of that co-worker after the layoff. Not having them makes you more eligible for layoff than someone else who has both those skills and yours.
- Tactfully decline re-assignment
- Unless a re-assignment puts you in a more secure position, you'll be the newbie when you get there. Newbies are more vulnerable to layoffs.
- Hang on to assignments
that put you in positions
the organization cares
most about - Be alert to high-level personnel changes
- Any change in personnel in your upward report chain could be significant for you. When you hear of a change or potential change, learn why it might be happening and what the consequences might be. Prepare yourself.
- Set Google alerts on your company and your report chain
- Google alerts can provide information about conditions and rumors long before any concrete events, by automatically sending you email when Google finds a hit that matches a search string you define. You can specialize to news. By setting alerts for your organization name and the names of people in your report chain, you can be tuned in to changes that might affect your position.
There are no guarantees — layoffs might eventually affect you. What to do then? A topic for another time. 
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Related articles
More articles on Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness:
Never, Ever, Kill the Messenger- If you're a manager in a project-oriented organization, you need to know the full, unvarnished Truth.
When you kill a messenger, you deliver a message of your own: Tell me the Truth at your peril. Killing
messengers has such predictable results that you have to question any report you receive — good
news or bad.
Breaking the Rules- Many outstanding advances are due to those who broke rules to get things done. And some of those who
break rules get fired or disciplined. When is rule breaking a useful tactic?
More Stuff and Nonsense- Some of what we believe is true about work comes not from the culture at work, but from the larger culture.
These beliefs are much more difficult to root out, but sometimes just a little consideration does help.
Here are some examples.
Top 30 Indicators That You Might Be Bored at Work- Most of the time, when we're bored at work, we know we are. But sometimes, we're bored and we just don't
realize it. Here are some indicators of boredom that might escape some people's notice.
Way Over Their Heads- For organizations in crisis, some but not all their people understand the situation. Toxic conflict
can erupt between those who grasp the problem's severity and those who don't. Trying to resolve the
conflict by educating one's opponents rarely works. There are alternatives.
See also Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness and Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness for more related articles.
Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout
Coming February 26: Devious Political Tactics: Bad Decisions- When workplace politics influences the exchanges that lead to important organizational decisions, we sometimes make decisions for reasons other than the best interests of the organization. Recognizing these tactics can limit the risk of bad decisions. Available here and by RSS on February 26.
And on March 5: On Begging the Question- Some of our most expensive wrong decisions have come about because we've tricked ourselves as we debated our options. The tricks sometimes arise from rhetorical fallacies that tangle our thinking. One of the trickiest is called Begging the Question. Available here and by RSS on March 5.
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My blog, Technical Debt for Policymakers, offers
resources, insights, and conversations of interest to policymakers who are concerned with managing
technical debt within their organizations. Get the millstone of technical debt off the neck of your
organization!Beware any resource that speaks of "winning" at workplace politics or "defeating" it. You can benefit or not, but there is no score-keeping, and it isn't a game.
- Wikipedia has a nice article with a list of additional resources
- Some public libraries offer collections. Here's an example from Saskatoon.
- Check my own links collection
- LinkedIn's Office Politics discussion group
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