Millennium Marketing Research®

Tom Schori DBA Millennium Marketing Research®, 808 Ironwood, Normal IL 61761, 309-532-8466

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The illusion of job security.

By Thomas R. Schori, Ph.D., and Michael L. Garee, Principals,  Millennium Marketing Research, 808 E. Ironwood, Normal, IL 61761-5239. Tel. 309-532-8466 -

Anyone who has ever worked for a company of any size for any length of time at all has it. "It" is the illusion of "job security." And, to be sure, as recent business permutations have amply demonstrated, through such phenomena as "down-sizing," "right-sizing," "re-engineering," etc., that’s all "it" is, too, an illusion.

Certainly, today, there is nothing even approaching genuine job security, that feeling of absolute certainty that as long as we do a particular job reasonably well and keep our "nose clean," the company will always have a job for us. Does anyone honestly believe this anymore?

Employee reactions to the current lack of job security vary. Some employees react with fear and anxiety, keeping their heads down in hopes that they won’t be noticed and therefore included in the next round of staff reduction. Others react with anger and resentment, feeling the sting of rejection and "disloyalty" from the company. Still others adopt fawning, solicitous behaviors in the presence of those who hold sway over their employment futures. In our opinions, none of these reactions is very realistic, nor are any of them particularly well suited for keeping the axe from falling¾on anyone. Indeed, most of these reactions simply tend to reinforce and perpetuate the illusion of job security.

We contend that a far more appropriate reaction is, for starters, simply to accept the fact that things in business, insofar as the issue of employee longevity is concerned, are never again going to be "the way they used to be." Never. And, therefore, based upon this recognition, it would seem to us that, in the future, employees will find it in their very best interests to widely and continually "market" themselves in the workplace. Sound like a "hired gun" approach to employment? Perhaps. Nonetheless, it appears to us¾and certainly to a lot of others who are far more expert in this field than we¾that this approach makes the most sense, given the apparent dynamics of today’s workplace.

The younger generation of workers appears to readily grasp this new reality of the workplace. They’ve seen their parents and other relatives lose their jobs in down-sizings, sometimes after many years of working for the same company, and they’ve seen the personal and economic devastation that can cause. As a result, most young people instinctively approach any job with any company as merely one in a series of many jobs they likely will hold during their long working lives.

Older workers, of course, usually don’t share the attitudes or orientation of the younger generation regarding the workplace and their role within it. After all, it is they who gave rise the notion of job security. It is they who (seemingly) actually enjoyed the benefits of that job security. Understandably, then, it is also they who usually are the most ill-equipped to face a new life that doesn’t include being employed by the company for which they’ve worked for most of their adult lives. Again, understandably, it is they who feel the most betrayed, when they are found to be "superfluous" by the company to which they have so long demonstrated unmitigated loyalty. What is this generation of workers to do to adapt to the new exigencies of the workplace?

As difficult as it will be for older workers, they, too, ultimately will have to acknowledge, and then come to grips with, the new dynamics of the workplace. Since it usually is they who enjoy the higher salaries in most companies, it is they who are most likely to be affected by the job losses increasingly necessitated by cost-cutting initiatives, particularly among the giant companies. But they will have to take a somewhat different tack than the younger workers who suddenly find themselves without a job.

Assuming that an older worker has wisely accumulated a nice "nest egg" during his or her many working years¾and, given the traditionally low savings rate among Americans of all ages, this is quite an assumption¾then he or she can merely retire, take it easy and enjoy the remainder of their lives. More realistically, the older worker probably will have to find "something" to do!

With the economy booming today, there is the unprecedented opportunity for older workers who find themselves out of a job to utilize their usually extensive skills, talents and knowledge to go into business for themselves. This can be a risky, tricky and many times scary endeavor, but each year more and more older workers are taking this course¾and succeeding!¾and many say they wished they would have done it years earlier!

Older workers also can take advantage of the booming economy in other ways, too, of course. For example, with unemployment levels at historic lows, there are ample opportunities for them to begin new careers with new companies. Usually, they will be working for less pay than they previously enjoyed with "their" company, but with retirement pay, or proceeds from, say, "buy-outs," the "bottom line" could easily end up being precisely the same as it was when they were employed by "their" company.

We don’t mean to imply that it’s going to be easy for anyone affected by the erosion (if not the elimination) of the concept of job security to adapt to the new realities of the workplace. What we are saying is that we believe those realities are genuine, and appear to be long-lived in nature, so one either accepts that fact and adapts accordingly, or one can simply go home, get in bed and pull the blankets up over one’s head. But, anyway it’s sliced, job security appears to be a thing of the past, if it indeed ever really existed at all.