Whether or not you manage staff you may find your own job in the scope of reviews and savings programmes.  So how do you cope with the stress of the situation, and how do you plan for the future?  While decisions are made higher up, those of us lower down the decision making process are often in the dark when it comes to future plans for the organisation.  Some of the points I made yesterday about managing staff can be brought into play when thinking about yourself.  It's tempting to sit around doing nothing but actually this is probably one of the worst things you can do.  You end up drifting aimlessly through the working day, with your mind vacant enough to think the worst and to worry about things that might not happen.

If you are finding yourself with extra time on your hands than seek out work.  Ask your manager, or offer to help a colleague. This could help to foster a cooperative atmosphere in the office which will help affirm your working relationships.  It may also show you in good light when managers get round to deciding where the axe will fall, and demonstrates team building skills.  My experience is that changes often happen at the last minute, so you might think that it is too late to affect matters when it isn't.  And don't limit your help to your own department, look at the broader picture and work with people across the organisation, if you can.

What if you have the opposite problem where you are snowed under with work but fearful for your job?  Firstly, analyse why you are snowed under.  Does the level of work required of you hint at the possibility that your post is needed?  Maybe you have nothing to worry about.  Is the restructure going to mean that someone else will do the work?  How you respond to this depends a bit on how much control you have over work throughput.  If you don't have control, then it's a case of carrying on as before since your daily responsibilities probably haven't changed.  If you do have some control, make sure that your working day or week is structured to provide task completion events which help to give a sense of achievement at regular intervals. Planning your day and achieving your goals will help you to keep motivated.

You may find it helpful to meet up with colleagues over coffee or lunch to share your experiences and any information.  Be careful though.  If you colleagues are in 'doom and gloom' mode and full of negative energy this may be a time to go it alone and work on your own energy levels. Now is not the time to drop your good exercise habits, to start living off donuts, or develop a drinking problem.  Keeping yourself fit and healthy and getting a good amount of sleep will help you get through this.  You will be in much better shape to cope with the news when it does come.  Accept that you will have good and bad times, feeling anxious one minute and calm the next.  That is quite normal in circumstances you feel you have no control over.

If you company are expecting you to carry on as normal, find some training relevant to your job and apply for it.  This may stand you in good stead whether you keep your job or not.  You may also find it motivating to attend a course and it may be a networking opportunity.  If you have colleagues in other companies, now might be a time to connect with them again to see how things are going there.  Might be some job opportunities coming up soon!

Finally, brush up your CV, and do a review of your financial situation.  Should the worst happen at least you know what to expect.  Talk to friends and family to see where any help may lie.  Find out what benefits you are entitled to.  Do a skills review and work out a plan for where you want your career to be heading.  Many people suffer job losses and go on to have successful careers so think of this as a blip on the landscape.  At the very least you are learning a lot about yourself and how you deal with difficult situations.  I like the quote from Seneca who said:

So you manage at team of people whose jobs are under threat.  The response of your team probably depends a bit on their emotional maturity, but it also helps if you don't mismanage them too!  One common complaint of staff in this situation is that they are not told what is happening and how it is going to affect them.  Managers, quite reasonably, want to protect staff from worrying information, especially if it is not clear yet whether they are going to be affected.  However if the staff concerned know something is up, then they may start filling in the blanks themselves and coming up with even more frightening scenarios that are unlikely to happen.  If at all possible, give staff as much information about the financial picture, the timetable of events and decision making, and an estimate of the reliability of the information they are being told.

Anyone who has been around a while will know that things can change at the last minute.  Jobs cut, and then reinstated, redundancy notices issued and then retracted, and then issued again.  I imagine that this is very stressful for staff, however leaving them with no information at all is stressful for them too.  The problem many managers have is that they have managers above them controlling the information.  You may have some inside info, but there may be significant gaps in your own knowledge too.  If your team is easy to gather together I would advise regular meetings, even if there are no particular announcements to make.  This gives them a chance to speak as a group and to express any concerns they have.  Not everyone wants to raise their issues in front of others, so offer your time when you are free to discuss individual concerns.  The important thing is for there to be consistent information to everyone.  If staff feel some people are better informed than them they will not be happy.

It is important that staff are kept occupied and focussed on current projects.  Provide them with projects that have clear deadlines so that they are still achieving at work.  This is a lot more motivational than having nothing to do.  Much as we might like to 'have a rest' most of us actually respond better to having tasks and targets.  And don't forget to reward people for their achievements. 

Try to avoid giving tasks with an end date beyond what might be their employment termination date.  Projects with short lead times are much more motivational.  While I accept the view that they should carry on as usual until they know what is going to happen, human nature is such that they will already be planning for not being there if the rumour mill is working.  It is not very motivating to have to start work that others will finish, and some might say it is unethical to ask someone to set up work for their replacement.

See if you can give them some added responsibility to enhance their skills.  This experience will be valuable to them if they end up looking for employment elsewhere and, again, it can be very motivating to feel trusted to do more advanced work.  Also offer training if at all possible.  The offer of training is a signal that you are valued.

If you get on well with your staff, regular coffee breaks with them might help as well.  Spending time with your staff will help you discover what their personal concerns might be, and any support you subsequently are able to give can be more targeted.  Remember the basics of good communication.  Stopping to chat, thanking them for a job well done are small gestures that are appreciated by people.

Times are certainly tough right now, but they will turn around and my advice would be to start planning for the good times!!  Tomorrow we look at how you motivate yourself!

So, how's the economy working for you then?  Lord Young, a Tory adviser,  recently claimed that we had 'never had it so good' which I think is probably stretching it a bit.  Needless to say he was sacked for his lack of sensitivity but I don't think he changed his view at all.  It is true that if you keep your job and you have a mortgage you are probably better off to some degree.  Mortgage interest rates are low, so some families will be better off.  Of course many people are worried about their jobs right now, so it was an injudicious comment. 

Many people in the public sector are awaiting confirmation of job cuts that will effect them.  Even if they are lucky enough to keep their jobs those that remain will be expected to pick up ex-colleagues' work as a result.  And where we see cuts to front line services, of course this means fewer services for the public, and less business for those private sector companies that support the public services.  Not a climate for growth it has to be said.

So how do we keep our morale up in these difficult times?  This week I'll be writing a couple of posts, one for managers, the other for staff, discussing how we can deal with the stress of insecurity and anxiety about the future.