You think you’re among the untouchables in the workforce. Nurses, pharmacists, radiologic technologists, and other allied health professionals are in high demand and will continue to be as the population ages. You’ll never be fired unless you are grossly incompetent or bordering on criminal.
Not true, says Wesley Poriotis. In fact, you, too, are vulnerable to the “pink slip,” the symbol for being laid off.
Poriotis, founder of Wesley, Brown & Bartle, a corporate executive search firm, and author of How to Avoid the Pink Slip, injects a health dose of reality into rose-colored perceptions by discouraging too much individuality in the workplace and encouraging playing along with the corporate game — whether you like it or not. The bottom you save could be your own, according to Poriotis, when management starts inevitably to hand out pink slips during corporate downsizings.
Hospitals Are Not Immune
Layoffs in hospitals will come. Poriotis predicts that people will flood the healthcare business because of perceived financial and job security benefits. This will create an oversupply on the supply and demand curve. “Remember, there were no finance people in the mid ’70s, either, and schools started minting them and turning them out in droves. In ’87 and ’88 they were laid off and out of work for 10 years,” Poriotis says. “In the mid ’90s you couldn’t find enough technical people. Employers were giving them bunk beds and basketball courts — anything to come work for them. You could have the same conversation about manufacturing.”
Wait until pharmacists pour out of the military as they transition, he warns.
Hence, healthcare providers and administrators in hospital settings should watch for warning signals and know to start protecting their livelihoods should they sense a round of layoffs might result.
Beware if your hospital is…
Engaging in overzealousness acquisitions and mergers
Diversifying into nonhealth-related sources of revenue, which could drain resources for the core business
Weakening financially. Poriotis says that anyone working in corporate America should know how to read a balance sheet. He says in the book: “Make sure you know the difference between a balance sheet and a bratwurst, and if not, quit your job and learn to be a short order cook or take a crash course in finance.” Look at the balance sheet. See what the debt to revenue ratio is. These are public documents if the organization is part of a public entity.
Beefing up security.
Hiring consultants. If hospitals are hiring “efficiency” consultants, “management” consultants or others, it usually means that the organization is going to do something (like trim the fat), and it wants a third party — a consultant — to justify the idea. The consultant, Poriotis says, has to earn her wages, so she has to come up with a plan involving change.
Never Assume
Don’t assume that your skills and great works will keep you swimmingly in your career. “When sharks stop swimming, they sink to the bottom,” says Poriotis. Careers are the same way. Stop growing and the slightest wind will knock you down. “I’ve seen the so-called untouchables — those who perceive themselves to be untouchable,” he says. “I’ve got files filled with them. They’d wish they had seen it coming…read the signals.”
Don’t assume that pouring your heart out to peers or administration is a good thing to do. Poriotis says the same personnel officer who sits sympathizing with you today about your desire to spend more time with the kids might brand you tomorrow as not being loyal. “Maintain your privacy. Don’t spill your guts about your family, finances, and ills,” Poriotis says. “If you’re broke and have credit card debt to your ears, are living from hand to mouth, and think you’ll gain empathy about talking about your financial condition…no. If you’re weak in the barnyard, the chickens will peck you to death.”
What to do:
Read your culture in your own department. Figure out what the hot buttons to the leadership in your particular unit are. By hot buttons, Poriotis means, get a sense for where the leadership spends their time. “If someone’s a jock, then at least don’t disdain it. If another volunteers his time to the Republican state committee, learn a little about volunteerism in the political campaign.” The message, Poriotis says, is “If you don’t act like you’re running for office at all times, you’ll lose the vote and your job.”
If you’re shaking your head, thinking I’m not going to conform — it’s not me. Think about this: Poriotis says he has walked through many organizations where hundreds of people survived were doing the same jobs as hundreds of people who didn’t survive because the hundreds of people who survived were connected, and those who didn’t survive were disconnected. “Remember downsizing and career destruction is not an art form; it’s done piecemeal,” he says.
Poriotis explains the so-called “bean counter,” or finance person, at organizations might come to the principals saying the organization needs to cut 10% of its workforce. Management might consider the “critical” people — those who make them feel comfortable or others with “lifelines.” Poriotis says employees should develop and nurture those lifelines. Lifelines include knowing a board member or having close ties with key vendors, lenders, lawyers, outside auditors, etc. “Every organization has constituencies that influence it,” he says. “Tithe 10% of your time to building the lifelines — internally and externally.”
Poriotis writes: “Polish your image to improve your value.” Don’t stick out like a sore thumb with the way you dress — conform. “In Silicon Valley in the ’90s, if you were too well dressed, you were sure to go,” he says. If you workout and are fit and your coworkers are heavy drinkers, you’ll stick out. They might secretly despise you. Don’t be surprised if you’re the first to go. (Don’t start drinking heavily, but at least prepare for the worst.)
Survival, he says, sometimes involves being able to take on a completely different personality. Sometimes a good local acting class wouldn’t hurt. The personality you take on has to be one that is culturally adapted to your organization and one that shows empathy and sincerity.
If after all this, you’re getting that queasy feeling that you’re not blending in, listen to your instincts. They’re like a radar system, Poriotis says.
“In the healthcare business…a time will come when people decide who goes and who stays,” Poriotis says.
Nurses and other healthcare providers might be nurturers by virtue of their jobs; yet, Poriotis warns that for your own good, don’t view the employer as your friend. Instead, take steps to protect your job, and if despite your best efforts, you still think you might get the axe, prepare for the day — because you probably will.
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