WHAT’S YOUR JOB STRATEGY IN THE FACE OF THE NEW RECESSION?
The next recession is now here, depending on the of source of information or this source. The Federal Reserve is reversing interest rate hikes to soften the economic expansion and the unemployment rate is at a 50 year low. We are well past the cyclical ten year timeframe as recessions go. What is your strategy to preserve your job in the face of this new recession? What is your strategy if and when you are laid off?
You are probably thinking, œwhat strategy? You get up, go to work and hope you can continue to remain an at-will employees until the end of the new pay period, under the presumption you have no control over your job. Better yet, you planned on retiring from your company in the distant future. On the other end of the spectrum, there are employees who think their longevity with their employers will insulate them from any headcount reductions during recessions. Both viewpoints are wrong and employees can control their employment outcomes during a recession.
5 STRATEGIES TO SAVE YOUR JOB DURING A RECESSION
The following strategies are followed by our clients when they see the œwriting on the wall by their managers. Although some clients never see the messaging from their employer, we do. Depending on how soon you pick up all the clues determines which strategy to pursue. Hint, the sooner you speak with an employment attorney the better. If we are engaged earlier in the process, we can evaluate and develop an aggressive strategy that will force the employer to maintain your employment and/or pay a larger severance package with more favorable terms.
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PLAN AHEAD AND GATHER INTELLIGENCE FROM MANAGERS AND COWORKERS
Are you proactive about your employment or do you follow the wait and see approach? Becoming proactive with your employer means obtaining objective feedback from your managers and coworkers. No, I am not referring to the annual performance review or 360 reviews. A proactive employee will develop an initial assessment of his or her own performance by quietly engaging in one on one discussions with managers and coworkers about their working relationship and performance. You will need to keep detailed notes of these conversations in order to track the information over time and over various contexts. Forget about the formalities of the annual review or the vague performance metrics employers follows. I am talking about all the intel you can gather by having a straight up ever day conversation with your manager and coworkers. Examine the body cues such as facial expressions, tone of voice and the context of conversations in relation to those cues. Observe more instead of being reactionary or defensive. The better you are at this task, the more intelligence you will pick up, as your manager or coworker will not know you are gathering information. Once you collected this information, you will need to strategize how to position yourself as a thought leader, influencer, leader and over-all get the job done kind of employee. Lead by example and always remain the consummate professional during all interactions with your employer and coworkers.
Ironically, your employer is collecting similar information about you and your coworkers. In a recent article from SHRM, œA good way to begin is by collecting information about the organization’s workforce that can be used for long-range planning. ˜[HR] should be looking at the data, knowing who is where in their careers, who is where in their teams’… ˜Are people ready to move into the next position? Are they happy where they are?’ Review job descriptions and tasks and determine whether responsibility for those tasks can be more evenly distributed throughout the team. By understanding the big picture, HR leaders can advise business leaders on how to ready the workforce for future changes without resorting to morale-damaging layoffs.
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FILE INTERNAL COMPLAINTS OF DISCRIMINATION TO MAINTAIN YOUR JOB
Once we determine you are may be the victim of employment discrimination or have other employment claims, we will advise you about bringing these claims to your employers attention without escalating to an external governmental agency. The main idea here is to engage in a protective activity to force your employer to œback the heck off and cause them to reevaluate your potential termination. Our longest standing record to keep an employee employed using this method is two years (my opposing counsel in that case was not happy, but I was not there to please him).
If necessary, you may need to file your discrimination claims with governmental agencies in order to preserve your legal rights. The same antiretaliation laws apply and employers will back off for a limited period of time in order to avoid you asserting an easy to prove retaliation claim.
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DEALING WITH PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT PLANS (PIPS)
Combatting those inaccurate, one-sided and self-serving performance improvement plans. We wrote about this issue in Are Performance Improvement Plans (PIPS) Illegal? A PIP is a clear indicator you will be terminated and you will need to engage an employment attorney ASAP!
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SEVERANCE NEGOTIATION BASED YEARS OF SERVICE
This strategy is relatively straight forward. If you are slated for termination in a layoff, your employer may have a severance plan governed by ERISA, a federal statute that governs these plans. Essentially, an ERISA severance plan spells out the amount you will be paid a salary continuation based on the number of years you worked for the company. There is one catch, you will need to sign a waiver and release of all your legal claims against the employer in order to receive the payout. You will also need an employment attorney to review the settlement agreement to insert favorable terms or get rid of unfriendly terms like noncompetition agreements. Make sure when speaking with an employment attorney that he or she is an ERISA attorney, as there is a difference. Our ERISA attorneys know how the statute works and will even point out in certain cases that you can create an ERISA plan based on one employee, œyou, even though the employer never created an ERISA plan. Engage us to learn more.
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GETTING RID OF THAT NONCOMPETE AGREEMENT ON THE WAY OUT
Great, you will be getting terminated but your employer stuck you with a noncompete, either at the start of your job or as part of the severance agreement. What do you do? The noncompete does not benefit you at all, only your employer. Now you have to navigate away from jobs you would normally apply for given your years in the same industry. Is this fair? No. Someone has to pay the utilities, mortgage and household expenses, but do not count on your employer to do you a favor. I have long taken a stand against these selfish one sided agreements and forced employers to rescind them or obtain an order from the court to void them. We can help you remove your noncompete agreement with your employer and make you a free agent in the job market. We will challenge the validity of the agreement with the employer directly and if the employer does not back down, we will take them to court through what is called a declaratory judgment action. Essentially, we ask courts to void the agreement due to lack of intention by the employee to enter into the agreement, aka a lack of consideration.
What’s Your Job Strategy In The Face of the New Recession? If you need more help planning for your future employment issues, please contact an employment attorney in our office. Employment law is all we do. Call 203-255-4150.
COVID-19 CANCELS ALL NONCOMPETE AGREEMENTS DUE TO IMPOSSIBILITY