By Jennifer Openshaw Last update: 8:28 p.m. EDT Sept. 22, 2008
NEW YORK
(MarketWatch) — As the Lehman saga reminds us, it doesn’t take much bad news these days to sack your employer. When you pick up bad signals on your antennae, be prepared.
Recently, an escrow officer told me about her own workplace story. Laura, who preferred not to use her last name, worked for Financial Title, a division of a large national financial services firm. It could have been a secure company in an insecure industry. But in this case, it wasn’t.
Laura first knew something was definitely wrong when company computers were mysteriously inaccessible at 5:15 p.m. one day. “Routine maintenance — we’ll get them running soon,” was the official line from the corporate information-technology department.
When she arrived for work the next morning, the doors were locked. People were let in to clean out their desks, but not much else. Cold turkey, no pay going forward, no bonus, accrued vacation gone.
There had been a few warning signs in the weeks before. The company’s largest
underwriter had filed suit, and the company had filed a countersuit. Laura had heard about the suit through the grapevine and had asked her immediate managers about it. “Nothing to worry about” was the answer. In fact, the company president had sent out a couple of reassuring emails that week saying “everything’s fine.”
And now this.
Laura is well connected in her industry with 20 years of experience. Even as she accepted what her management team said, she started contacting her network. Good thing, too: She landed another job in a week.
Don’t put your head in the sand.
Especially in bad times, when people sense trouble, there’s a tendency to look the other way or trust the first thing they hear if it’s what they want to hear. Laura asked her manager about the lawsuit, heard a reassuring answer, and didn’t look further.
Better to ask more questions, do independent research, and monitor industry news and sources. You still may not find out much, but it starts the rest of the preparing process. “Don’t be afraid — take charge…
