I recently read a report from the Conference Board that showed that less than half of US workers – 45% to be specific – like their job which is the lowest result in the 22 years that they’ve been measuring it.

When the survey started in 1987, 61% of respondents were happy in their jobs but over the past 22 years, this number has steadily declined.

About one quarter of respondents also felt that they didn’t expect to hold their current jobs in one year’s time. I’m not sure if this is because they were planning on looking for a new job, felt they were going to be laid off or (more likely) a combination of both as it wasn’t expressly stated.

Having said that, I suspect a significant percentage of these respondents figure that they’re going to be laid off at some point in the next year and that perhaps there isn’t much they can do about it.

Over the past 22 years, this poll has shown that job satisfaction has steadily declined and specifically areas like job security and the interest in the job have dropped dramatically. Certainly 22 years ago while layoffs and downsizings occurred, they somehow didn’t seem to be as prevalent and widespread as they are today.

As a high school student in the late 1980s, I recall when IBM went through a large downsizing and I specifically remember thinking about what this must have meant to the thousands of employees and their families. For some reason, this downsizing in the late 1980s is one that I remember and that stands out for me even though it didn’t affect me personally.

For many people who find that they don’t like their current job, they might simply end up feeling that they are fortunate to have a job and stay put for at least the time being. The devil-you-know attitude is one that many people probably fall back on these days and figure that even if they’re not happy, perhaps the grass isn’t greener on the other side. Certainly if some of their friends have been laid off and are finding it hard to find a new job, those who are unhappily working but end up simply feeling fortunate that they are in fact working.

I recently got an email from a friend who just got laid off several weeks before Christmas. She works for a major bank and figured that the layoffs were finished and that her job would be safe but alas, it wasn’t.

Two of her family members also lost their jobs in the past few months too so she has plenty of company.

In my friend’s case, she commented that the company she works for is fairly unorganized and tends to make decisions like reducing staff that don’t seem to indicate any sort of plan. The two of us used to work together about 11 years ago and the company we worked for would restructure and have many downsizings numerous times while we were there, often more than once in the same calendar year. So in that regard, she is used to facing this sort of thing except this time, she was one of the people being downsized.

We’ve already discussed a number of aspects of downsizings and restructurings in previous posts but in general terms the best ways to remain include are to ensure that you do the following:

Make the company money, save the company money or ideally do both: If you can quantify how much money you bring into the company (ie. sales) and/or how much you save the company, chances are the company can quantify this too and will therefore know your value to the company compared to your peers. Sometimes you might be working in a position that neither brings in money or saves the company money (ie. customer service roles for example) so it can be difficult for you to quantify your importance to the company especially when the downsizing axe starts getting swung. In this case, the following points might be even more important for you to consider.

Be high profile: If you’re someone who is well-known in your company and has a good reputation, this can only help when it comes to deciding who will be let go and whose job will remain. Taking part in high-profile tasks that show people within your company your skills and accomplishments not only helps your resume, but it can help to separate your from your peers. Certainly being well-known within a company doesn’t guarantee anything but it can help.

Be well-liked: This is more about having a good personality and being someone who others in the company like to be around than it is about kissing ass or becoming a sycophant. No one likes a whiner so make sure you aren’t the person that the company looks at downsizing if only to rid themselves of the personality.

Go the extra mile: During downsizings I witnessed earlier in my career, I noticed that many times the people who got downsized were the people who were (not surprisingly) generally poorly regarded in the company and they more often than not tended to be the people who were last in and first out each day, too. Offering to help out and do more than what your job requires can often help your cause and remind your colleagues and superiors that you are a valuable resource to the company.

Have you been laid off recently?

With companies increasingly laying people off, you might already have found yourself among those who have been negatively affected by the downturn in the economy. I’ve been laid off twice in my career – one company went bankrupt and the other downsized and moved most jobs overseas – so I know the feeling.

As the number of displaced people increases, the harder it gets to earn the attention of hiring managers who are actually hiring as you’re probably going to find yourself competing with more people for fewer jobs.

I recently read an article that profiled a professional who went from earning $100,000 per year to being out of work for 7 months and having to rely on government assistance. He has managed to get back into the workforce part time to start with and mentioned three things that he suggests people who are out of work need to do:

Stay positive: This is a very important point for sure. Although it’s difficult and it probably seems obvious, remaining positive and motivated is key to getting back into the workforce in a timely fashion.

Try to stick to your normal schedule when you were working. Get up at the same time, shower and dress and pretend you’re still working. If you get out of schedule at start getting up at 11am and bumming around the house, it won’t be hard to get demotivated and depressed.

Don’t sit in front of your computer all day firing off resumes to nameless, faceless email addresses either. Get out and meet people.

Think about what you like to do and figure out what you’re best at: Use this time to figure out what you’d like to do next in your career and if you’re in the right industry.

Consider taking training classes or attending self-help classes if your budget allows for it. Keep busy and meet new people.

Network as much as possible: As mentioned in the previous point, meeting new people is important not only to expand your network but you keep you motivated and active. Attend local networking events – check out your local chamber of commerce, board of trade and job centers to start with – and you might find yourself meeting up with people who are not only in the same boat as you are, but who might be able to point you in the right direction of people who can help you find a new job.

Layoffs, downsizings and rightsizings all mean the same thing: The company will continue long after you are gone.

Companies have come up with creative names to describe when they eliminate jobs and people that they don’t need.

They used to call it a layoff ie. “We are laying people off. You are being laid off.”

Then they started calling it a downsizing ie. “We are downsizing. You are being downsized.”

As political correctness crept into our vocabulary, HR-types figured they needed to soften the blow and invented the term called rightsizing ie. “We are rightsizing. You are being rightsized.”

Rightsizing means the same as layoff and downsizing but it sounds better. Rightsizing makes us believe that we weren’t the problem, the company was the problem.

Trust me, you were the problem. Specifically, it was a problem that you were taking up a desk and chair and cashing a check every few weeks. That was a problem to the company’s board of directors and by extension to their shareholders. And their earnings per share, too.

The most recent round of layoffs were probably described by senior management as helping the company “prepare for the future” or to “become leaner” or “to become better able to compete in the new economy” or something like that.

By rightsizing, your company has told you that they were the wrong size while you were in their employment. Now that you are no longer there, they are the right size.

Interestingly enough, the company has also indicated that it was their right to rightsize you. That’s why it’s called rightsizing. They had the right to reduce their size and rightsizing happens to involve downsizing you. In that regard, the choice to rightsize you will always be considered the right decision.

Very clever, eh?

The key to remaining employed is to ensure that your name stays out of the company directory.

A former colleague of mine once told me this while we were working for a company that was known for having restructurings several times per year that resulted in job losses each time.

I was working on contract at the time and my name hadn’t been added to the company directory yet so he suggested I do what I could to ensure it stayed out of the directory.

I saw his point, and suggested that it was true that if our name wasn’t in the company directory, those making the decisions regarding job cuts wouldn’t know we were still employed and couldn’t downsize us. I already had an unlisted home phone number I told him, so being unlisted at work might have a further benefit based on his advice.

The theory was that senior management wouldn’t be able to find us at work because when they typed our name into the company directory to find out what floor we worked on, our name wouldn’t be there so they’d probably assume they’d turfed us in the previous round of layoffs.

The sad part is that as much as we were joking about it, at the time it actually seemed quite true and accurate. Headcount meant everything and a contractor like me didn’t actually count as an official staff member which had its advantages when it came to laying people off.

Moral of the story: The best way to remain employed these days is to ensure that the company you’re with understands your value. If you can show that you’re adding value – or more specifically adding revenue – you stand a better chance of remaining employed than someone who is doing a job that isn’t seen as bringing in revenue or is seen as doing a job that the company could do without.