It’s not possible to lay low, just do what you’re told in your work and try to wait out the downturn. If you’re trying to do so, you may be putting your job and career at risk. Here’s why:
1. Intensified competition for opportunities: While you’re standing still, your peers are continuing to increase their knowledge and skills. If you’re competing for an internal promotion or an external job opportunity, that puts you at an immediate disadvantage. And competition for any job openings and promotions is more intense than ever.
2. Accelerating change: Knowledge in many fields is being obsoleted faster than ever, thanks to accelerating technology and business practices. Often, technology can cause disruptive changes; you need to be prepared to anticipate and embrace them, not stand in the corner, hoping they’ll just pass by.
3. Employers want passion and commitment: Employers naturally want employees who are committed to helping grow the business, not people who just show up and put their time in. If your boss senses that you are not committed to grow you’ll probably be passed over for future promotions and cool projects in favor of those who have more of a passion for what they do.
4. Think about who you would want working for you: Somebody who has repeated the same level of experience and skill each year or someone who has progressively increased their knowledge skill and proficiency year after year? Obviously, you need to become the latter person if you want to survive and even thrive in today’s uncertain business climate.
Randy Gage, in his book, Risky is the New Safe: How Playing by the Rules Costs You Money, is very blunt about the dangers of standing still. He calls people and companies that continue to stay the course and hope for the best “stark raving mad” and compares them to “lifeless zombies.” I don’t know if I buy into this level of hyperbole. But one thing IS abundantly clear to me:
What if you do nothing?
An old anecdote says that if you put a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will immediately jump out. But if you put it in room temperature water and slowly heat it to boiling, the frog won’t even notice the gradual increase in temperature and will sit in the water until it boils to death.
What does this story mean to you? Change is happening all around you. The water is getting hotter. Ignore it at your peril.
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