Three Simple Ways To Create Your Own Job Security
The working world has changed. In fact, the working world has changed so much in recent years that it’s practically unrecognizable. There was a time when the expected thing to do was to find a job straight out of school or college, and that was it–job security. You found a job and that became your career. It defined you, and the only changes were moving up in that field.
These days the idea of working the same job for several decades seems almost impossible to imagine. Plenty of employees these days are considered disposable. There is always a whole slew of graduates and job seekers out there willing to do twice as much work for half the pay. With that kind of attitude, why would employers make it worth your while to stick around for years in the same job?
Of course, this is fine for those who want to flit around, taking jobs where they come. For those whose priorities lean towards their careers, however, this presents a serious problem. Building a career for yourself is just about impossible to do unless you’re able to put in the necessary time. And what happens if you simply love your job and have no desire to start all over again somewhere completely new? The key here is to do your best to achieve job security. That’s a word that gets bandied around a lot and is often a signifier of genuine success. And genuine success also comes from Finding Your Purpose.
But how do you go about achieving job security? Well for many employees, the best way to get it is to create it for yourself. Here are some ways that you can create your own job security.
Think About Professional Development
Know Your Rights
As cynical as it sounds, there are plenty of employers who rely on your lack of understanding about what your rights are. That way they can make unfair requests of you, deny you things they should be providing, and fire employees without any recourse. The best thing that you can do to protect yourself from being misused or unfairly dismissed from your job is to be as informed as possible. Do your research and make sure that you know exactly what your rights are.
Read through your contract carefully, then highlight and bookmark specific areas so that you can bring them up in the event of any unfair treatment or dismissal. Employment law is, unfortunately, not particularly simple or easy to understand, so it’s a very good idea to seek help from places in the UK like Peninsula Group’s employment law solicitors or in the US like Handel on the Law. That way you have support from experts and professionals who make it their business to know exactly how to protect you from any unfair treatment by your employer. Knowing your rights can be the ultimate shield to protect you from an employer who may not have your best interests at heart.
Make Yourself Indispensable
One of the major reasons that so many employers feel willing to have such a high turnover of staff, reshuffling their business over and over again with a never ending supply of new blood, is that many people have interchangeable sets of skills. A lot of job seekers are, essentially, identical in the eyes of employers. The key to avoiding becoming part of that cycle is to stand out. Now, since you’re already working then you’ve got an advantage. You likely understand the systems and processes that make up the business already. But that’s not enough.
After all, many job seekers will have the basic skills that will allow them to jump into your role without too much trouble. The key is to figure out what you can do that makes you genuinely indispensable to the company—Whether it’s a complex and intimate understanding of the programs that it uses, or a strong and well-defined relationship with various members of staff. The best thing that you can do by far is to show your employer that their company would be genuinely worse off with you in it.
Of course, no matter what you do, there’s always a chance that you’ll have to start afresh. Fortunately, these things can all transfer over to whatever job you’re doing. And being able to show that you’re committed to your personal development and that you can become an integral part of any business are skills that future employers will be looking for very carefully. If you are truly committed, eventually you’ll find a job that you can continue to enjoy and excel in for years. And that, at the end of the day, is the true mark of success.