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Harvey Mackay
Column
For the week
of May 3, 2010
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Today's Job Market:
The Innings -- and Outs
In Hollywood -- where the tinsel
tarnishes fast on Wilshire Boulevard -- the old adage goes:
"You're only as good as your last picture." In big-ticket
professions like acting and athletics, life has gotten tougher.
The roar of the crowd may still be reverberating and even that
won't save you from obsolescence in your present job.
Recently Tyler Kepner of the
New York Times did a feature on star outfielder Johnny Damon.
The Caveman -- as Damon was dubbed in his Red Sox days of shoulder-length
locks -- moved to the Yankees in 2005. In the 2009 World Series,
he was a .364-hitting, base-stealing superstar for the Yanks.
Mere months later, Damon is now in the Detroit Tigers' lineup
with a one-year contract, making $8 million versus the $13 million
he'd been pulling down with the Yanks.
Why? Damon was re-engineered
out of his paycheck when New York hammered down its team salary
cap. The franchise wouldn't even offer him $6 million. |
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Damon analyzed it for the press
saying: "It's just like going to you guys and saying, 'You
wrote great stories for us, you worked your tail off, but take
a pay cut.' It's a little humbling ..."
"We can't do anything,"
the New York front office said, so the story goes. "Thank
you very much," Damon answered. "I had a great time
playing for you. It's time for both sides to move on."
And Damon was right. No matter
what business you're in, the days of sticking around for the
gold watch are gone. The bigger the price tag in your pay package,
the easier it is for your organization to develop loyalty amnesia.
Bosses already know what you did for them yesterday, but what
matters more is what you can do for them today and tomorrow .
. . and at what cost.
For many folks in the job market,
this comes as an ice-cold karate chop between the shoulder blades.
Realists just take it in stride. With Johnny Damon, the Yankees'
priorities changed in the face of an ever-shifting marketplace.
Most of us don't report to work
at Yankee Stadium. But the laws of survival aren't much different.
You may have heard of Moore's Law. It describes the continuing
exponential growth of computer memory. Any task hinged on managing
and analyzing data has become streamlined. This very same force
is also making organizations leaner and more efficient.
Enter another reality, one I've
dubbed Mackay's Law. I formulate it this way: In most companies,
if there are 25 people in your department today, chances are
good that number will be down to 15 in five years.
Sure, most of the folks lopped
off will have jobs. But they are likely to be doing different
things for other firms. Or they may be doing the same thing
they star at today for other companies.
How do you put Mackay's Law to
work for you? Always pay attention to your own lifetime career
plan. Every three months, sit down and take stock of where you
stand:
- Where is my company or organization
headed? Are its priorities likely to shift? Are some big events
looming on the horizon -- bad or good -- likely to change what
it needs?
- A career path that steadily
advances with regular promotions and pay raises is the perfect
picture everyone wants for their résumé. In truth,
more and more careers won't ascend with such a smooth, shooting-star
profile. Be able to explain to yourself (and everyone else)
why you make each career move you make. Mull on this regularly.
Don't wait to think it out until a day or two before a pink
slip comes sailing your way without warning.
- What if an opportunity springs
up and you can make good money as a troubleshooter and add laurel
leaves to your credentials -- like helping the Yankees back to
their World Series rings after a painful drought? Consider seizing
the moment, I say. But never lose sight that the situation is
exceptional, and you and your salary may have to return to earth
at any moment.
As I've said many times, "Failure
is not falling down but staying down."
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Mackay's Moral: |
Any astronaut will tell you, when
you hang out on the starscape, it's your re-entry strategy that
matters most. |
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The Author  |
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Harvey Mackay is a nationally
syndicated columnist for United Feature Syndicate. His weekly
articles appear in 52 newspapers around the country, including
the Chicago Sun Times, Rocky Mountain News, Orange County Register,
Minneapolis Star Tribune and Arizona Republic.
http://www.mackay.com/
Copyright, Harvey Mackay. All rights reserved. |
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