ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 18, 1996 TAG: 9608170002
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 4 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Workplace
SOURCE: EUGENIE ALLEN\Working Woman
Linda Marti has spent her 10-year banking career just a few steps ahead of disaster, switching jobs whenever she sensed she was in danger.
A poor performer? Far from it. Marti, 36, is a top employee who, through her quick wits and sharp skills, has managed to stay on the winning side of her company's many downsizings and restructurings.
Today she's happily ensconced in the safe haven of a software product rollout at First Chicago, one of the 10 largest U.S. banks.
While some of Marti's moves were lateral, others - especially her recent switch into computers - were definitely upward.
Yet she's modest about her uncanny timing. She has no crystal ball, she says, but ``you can almost feel it in the air when your area is about to be downsized.''
Some people, of course, can't expect to influence their fate. At firms where cuts are severe or indiscriminate, the best you can hope for may be a generous severance package and good outplacement assistance.
But if your company is making more conservative cuts (say, 10 percent across the board) or strategic cuts by department or function, why not play to win?
Paolo Carotti, a vice president at the outplacement consulting firm Drake Beam Morin, says that when management downsizes, it asks three crucial questions about each potential victim:
Does this person have the strengths and skills we need?
Does she use them well in her immediate department?
Does he (or can he) use them well in the company in general?
True, not everyone with three "yes" answers will escape the ax, but with those accomplishments under your belt, Carotti says, your chances of survival are vastly improved, both inside and outside the corporation.
Here, then, are a few strategies that can help you dodge the firing squad's bullets.
Assess Your Own Worth
Tim Walsh of Blessing/White, a management consultant in Princeton, N.J., recommends that you make a monthly - or even weekly - date with yourself to review your progress and make sure your contribution is in line with your company's needs.
``You need to remind yourself of your personal goals and the organization's goals and make sure they're in sync, because they often change,'' Walsh says.
Linda Marti attributes a large part of her success to this sort of ongoing analysis.
``I'm constantly asking myself, `If I were the corporation, would I keep me?'''
Sharpen Your Skills
The surest route to safety is to acquire new skills. That principle guided Leslie Abi-Karam, 37, through a major transition from manufacturing to general management at Pitney Bowes, where she has worked since 1984.
Though her manufacturing job wasn't in immediate peril, she had grown weary of implementing the company's ongoing downsizing policies and wanted to make herself more marketable - just in case.
So she earned her MBA while continuing to work full time and took a two-year in-house management course.
By no coincidence, she's now vice president of customer service in the $90million copier division.
While Abi-Karam figures her job is secure, she says, ``My business could be sold tomorrow. But I own these skills, and I can transfer them to a really good job.''
Take the Hint
Marti never dismisses rumors about impending cuts.
``I've learned there's usually some truth to them,'' she says.
Mary McDonald, 28, who manages direct-mail databases for Sales Technologies, a division of Dun & Bradstreet, reports that for some curious reason, whenever a company survey comes around asking employees what they think of upper management, a cut occurs soon afterward.
``So now we're all nervous, waiting to see when the next one comes out,'' she says.
Abi-Karam, who spent five years as a manufacturing executive issuing pink slips, notes that when a company offers employee training, it's all but announcing the skills it values most.
Befriend Your Boss
At the risk of stating the obvious, your boss's opinion of you matters desperately.
``As a general rule,'' says John Challenger of the Chicago-based outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, ``the people who get to stay are the ones who get along best with the boss. If you don't work on building good rapport with that person, you're making yourself more vulnerable in case of layoffs.''
Of course, if you work for a company in transition, your boss may be new, too. Let her know right away that you're on her side.
McDonald learned the importance of her boss's good will shortly after she joined Sales Technologies in 1993. When her job in direct marketing was in jeopardy, she says, ``my manager fought for me to stay because I already knew the client inside and out.''
Stay Visible
You can be the best performer in your division, but if that area of the company is condemned and no one on the demolition crew knows your record, you're doomed.
``People assume everybody knows what they do,'' Challenger says, ``but in big organizations, there's a lot of anonymity.''
That's one reason Marti serves on affirmative-action and employee-relations committees at First Chicago, which now employs 34,500, and Abi-Karam is involved in a task force on future technologies at Pitney Bowes, whose work force numbers 32,000.
Both women say their extracurricular doings keep them informed about the company while giving them valuable face time with higher-ups.
Save Your Skin
Even as the first rumors fly, it's not too late to run a rescue mission.
For instance, in late '94, McDonald's new department was in jeopardy because it wasn't earning money. Its 1995 budget for business development was slashed to the bone - there was barely enough to cover a few local trade shows.
McDonald and her crew went into overdrive, signing four new accounts worth a total Of $250,000 by last June. As a reward, their '96 development budget was quintupled.
Start Looking
If, on the other hand, switching departments or functions is your only chance, you need to launch an in-house job search. If you've been attentive to the corporate signals, you'll have time to be choosy.
Abi-Karam took 18 months to took for just the right job at Pitney Bowes, turning down two superficially attractive propositions along the way.
nBe Prepared for the Aftermath
Face it: Working beats being laid off. But expect guilt over seeing colleagues let go, anger at your company for causing such turmoil and exhaustion from doing the same (or even more) work with fewer people.
When she witnessed her first downsizing, McDonald says, ``I kept looking around me, saying, `Why am I here?' I saw people who had given their lives to the company escorted out of the building like criminals.''
Her sadder-but-wiser conclusion: ``I don't think I'll ever feel my job is secure again.''
In today's workplace, survival starts with that bleak but realistic premise.
Eugenie Allen is a Tarrytown, N.Y.-based free-lance writer.
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