As I travel around the country consulting, speaking and writing, one subject continues to surface:  change. Whether it is downsizing, layoffs, retirements or multiage employees struggling to co-exist, the impact of change is ever present in global business. In the current US economy, baby boomers are being forced to accept an evolving work consciousness that is foreign to everything they were led to believe about midlife careers. The “entitled” career ladder has collapsed and the midlife employee has to choose between change and retirement.

 Many midlife employees feel betrayed, cheated and disgruntled as perks and pensions have disappeared. Midlife employees find themselves being considered dinosaurs because they were not born tech savvy. These employees have worked at a company or in an industry with the implied agreement (based on past practice) that they would be rewarded with comfortable, authoritative positions in the mid to later parts of their careers. Technology, global consumerism, capitalism and global business have changed the value of employees in the workplace. Youth reigns supreme. To survive and flourish, not perish, the midlife employee has to re-evaluate his/her professional value in the workplace.

 Andy Warhol once said, “They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”

I think Andy was right. In order to survive as a viable player in the current workforce, the midlife employee has to accept responsibility for his/her own fate. Change is inevitable and it should begin with the employee. Don’t let change be something that happens to you. Take charge and direct the change. Begin by exploring your personality and re-examining your preferences. Have you ever taken the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator?  HR departments use the personality instrument to help managers form compatible work teams. It is an instrument that helps people become aware and understand their preferences for operating in the world.  The Myers & Briggs Foundation explained the MBTI best in company literature that stated:

             “… People often find difficulty defining what kind of work they    want to do or why a given field makes them feel comfortable or uncomfortable. Personality type is a practical tool for investigating what works for you, then looking for and recognizing work that satisfies your preferences.”

 As a midlife employee, it is the right time to re-examine your work preferences. Have you moved up the ladder or moved laterally in your company without much thought of whether the work suits you? Now is the optimum time to be introspective. Stop and ask yourself what energizes you? Energy sparks creativity and creativity in midlife is the catalyst for reinvention.

 The following suggestions are additional steps to managing change and reinventing yourself in midlife career:

• Do a preliminary assessment of your marketable skills
• Talk to an HR person to review your skill sets
• Match your skill sets with your department and company goals
• Check with HR about training opportunities to strengthen your skills
• Research local educational opportunities to increase your tech knowledge
• Seek cross training or retraining opportunities both internal and external
• Redo your resume in a contemporary style
• Make attempts to interact with multiage co-workers/ seek common ground
• Keep current on industry news
• Volunteer to help with company activities (good networking opportunities)
• Be appropriately visible
• Become an expert in some part of your daily work and be available to train others
• Write a five year plan to clarify your career goals 
• Learn a new sport or begin a hobby that you enjoy

Midlife and change do not have to be polar opposites. If you want to stay in the game, direct the change and start with yourself.

 For more information on how to manage change and reinvent yourself visit the APLS Online Store.

As an employee do you consider yourself political or apolitical?  I ask that question because recently the news reported that Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff, is leaving the oval office to pursue his “dream job” as mayor of Chicago. I found the story odd since Emanuel left Chicago to take one of the most influential jobs in the country just eighteen months ago. Now we are supposed to believe that he wants to give that position up to run for mayor. I could not help but wonder what is the real story? Alex Spillius of the UK’s Daily Telegraph speculated that the relationship between the President and Emanuel is fine, however the same cannot be said about the relationship between the President’s inner circle and Emanuel. As the news anchor droned on and on with his commentary on Emanuel’s impending departure, it occurred to me that workplace politics are alive and well wherever one is employed. 

Could it be that Emanuel underestimated the importance of paying attention to the inner circle?  Did he concentrate on his relationship with the President and assume that everyone else would fall in line? If that’s the case Emanuel made a rookie mistake. Office politics is the ever- present white elephant in most organizations, including the oval office. It is the illusive office dos and don’ts that the “in crowd” knows, the climbers work feverishly to find out and the neophytes foolishly rule out because they believe their talent is going to revolutionize the organization.  Political savvy in the workplace is the secret to corporate longevity, the critical key to business success and can foster alliances that help you achieve your professional goals. 

If you have stayed out of the politics in your organization, it is not too late to get involved. The following suggestions are ways to get you on the right track: 

• Stop talking and start listening
• Never participate in company gossip
• Seek out the Old Guard and learn the company history
• Become familiar with the “real” decision makers in the company
• Respect the authority of assistants to titled organization members (they have more power than their titles suggest)
• Know your current status on the organizational chart and target your goal position
• Be confident when your opinion is required and aware when facts are necessary
• Be clear about your business ethics and how they align with the ethics in your organization
• Be prepared at all times with current information in your field (read, research)
• Network outside your organization both in and out of your field
• Develop a credible reputation among your peers
• Build relationships up and down the organizational chart
• Leave personal life at home
• Find a mentor and be a mentor
• Attend company functions and keep your behavior professional
• Learn how to play social games or sports to participate competently at company functions
• Accept responsibility for good and bad decisions (don’t play blame game)

 It is important to remember that politics in itself is not a bad thing. Politics is basically a game plan of how to run things. People give politics a bad name by being unethical, spreading rumors, creating suspicion, innuendo, and abuse of power. As previously stated workplace politics is the white elephant in the middle of an organization. Acknowledged or ignored, the politics of an organization play an integral part in the success or failure of the company as a whole. Employees are on their own to decide whether to be political or apolitical in their workplace.

To learn more about workplace politics be sure to visit APLS Online Store.

Unless you have been living under an insulated rock during the last few years, you have been inundated with the words unemployment, downsized, layoff, pay cut, job loss, furloughs, double- digit unemployment, corporate buyout, and stimulus. Between the end of 2007 through 2010 the unemployment rate has fluctuated between 9.5% and 10% in nearly every industry from manufacturing to education. Even local government employees in some states have been asked to do  “furlough days” where they take off a day without pay. Politicos are falling all over themselves pointing fingers at who is to blame for this situation. In the meantime, voters ponder who to believe and search for the candidate that can restore their lives to normal. The forgotten people in this scenario are called “survivors.” These are the “lucky people” that remain in a company after the layoffs.

My first order of business when I am working with “survivors” is to gain the employees’ trust. Initially morale is low. The employees are either lethargic or anxious. Many are full of questions and are suspicious about the real reason I am there. On occasion I have even been asked if I am a spy for management. The employees’ reactions are valid. My presence is perceived as another change in a series of upheavals at work. Unfortunately, following layoffs, downsizing and attrition many organizations maintain a “business as usual” attitude. Management treats the remaining employees with little respect. The same amount of productivity is expected in spite of dwindling numbers. The “survivors” become the walking wounded. The change in climate, work- load, and elevated stress levels are employee burdens overlooked by management. The expectation is for “survivors” to be grateful that they are gainfully employed. The lost of formal and informal relationships with departed colleagues; fear and anxiety over future mobility in the company; and the workers distrust of management are sensitive areas that effect “survivor” performance in the workplace. Shortsighted management is blind to the losses that the “survivors” have been forced to endure.

In uncertain times, when work life permeates every part of a person’s existence, successful coping strategies for employees and management are needed.  While “survivors” are suspicious of management after layoffs, the remaining employees need and want support. The following suggestions are ways management can effectively help “survivors” adapt to the changes in their work environment:

• Participate in honest communication between the staff and management
• Address the realization of the increased workload
• Give pep talks to boost morale
• Ask employees for their input on redistributing the workload
• Develop appropriate rewards for productivity (celebrate productivity)
• Acknowledge increased stress level and create time for exercise, breaks/stress relievers during the work day
• Involve HR in providing information to employees about counseling, financial strategies, health services, career planning
• Make an effort to show employees that they are valued and part of the organization’s future
• Share information on career planning in the organization with the staff
• Encourage relationship building among departments

In closing, I can’t help but mention the most important overall strategy to assist any organization in promoting maximum productivity regardless of economic times.

In Diana McLain Smith’s book Divide or Conquer: How Great Teams Turn Conflict Into Strength she talks about the importance of establishing relationships in organizations. Relationships promote understanding of the employee’s place in the scheme of the big picture. Well functioning organizations include relationship building as part of their core values. When an organization provides a climate where relationships both formal and informal are the norm, change is much less stressful. According to Smith:

“The reason most people change so slowly, or not at all, isn’t because

you can’t teach old folks new tricks (you can), but because we expect

them to change independently of the relationships in which they operate…

People and teams will change a lot faster if they do two things: focus on their

relationships, and make them flexible and strong enough to support change at all

levels— from the individual to the team to the overall organization.”

For more ideas about ways to support “survivors” after layoffs visit the APLS online store.