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>Businesses are looking to cut down on costs. If they think they can
>find someone to do the job cheaper, they will. Don't get mad at them,
>for Pete's sake. You do the same thing in your own life with your own
>money. If two plumbing contractors offer to redo your bathroom, you
>take the bids and balance the cost against the performance and go with
>what you consider the best cost/performance bidder.
Sometimes we forget that an employment contract goes two ways. The
company pays us to specialize; we agree to let others specialize in
marketing, strategic planning, and other management functions.
Once hired, management evaluates our work, and we must evaluate theirs.
Are the management specialists making decisions and implementing
programs that will keep the company profitable -- and hence able to pay
us? If not, "fire" the company *before* it reaches the point of
layoffs.
So pay attention to industry news and company climate/culture. I've
been a free-lancer for nearly six years; I worked in a consulting
company for three years before that. And I've found that if a company's
"in trouble" it takes only a few days to see the symptoms of that
trouble in the workplace.
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Marcia Coulter
notjust -at- ix -dot- netcom -dot- com
