Hi all, Scott Fitzgerald here. I was walking around an entertainment complex last night and it was like a ghost town, with all the shops, cinemas and restaurants all closed due to lock down. I thought back to February, which was the last time I went their and remembered it was absolutely packed with people, I had to drive round a few times to get a car parking space. Now here we are in June and its all closed and no one else is around. Its funny how quick things can change. A lot of people I know have been furloughed from there job and wonder what is going to happen after this scheme finishes. Some of the people I know are really worried and can't afford to lose their jobs and won't know what to do. They have struggled to live off 80% of their wages and come to me anxious about the future. Where as some of the people I know are just begging to be made redundant, they have made more money than ever from being on furlough and are rubbing their hands together about the excitement about their future. So how are these people in such different mindsets about the future? Well simple answer is that the ones that are excited about the future have been preparing for life without their jobs. They have back up plans and other income streams to fall back on. The ones that are anxious about their future are the ones that had no plans and just lived off one pay cheque to the next. I had a memory of when I was at school and I was asked by the careers officer what I wanted to do. I must of only been about 14 or 15 at the time and I didn't have a clue what I wanted to do for a career. The problem was when I was asked the question I assumed they meant what job did I want to do for the rest of my life. Now back then I didn't have any clue about hypnotherapy or psychotherapy I was in my mid 20's when I discovered that. When I left school I worked up Sainsbury's for 2 years until I decided to train as an electrician. I thought I would be an electrician for the rest of my working life.... That was until 2008 happened, the recession hit England and it hit the building industry hard. I went unemployed for a while then went to doing less paid minimum wage work for a while just to get by. In 2008, I learned a very hard but valuable lesson... NOTHING IS PERMANENT. Here we are in 2020 and I have built up a successful hypnotherapy practice but I do have other streams of income coming in just in case another recession hits. I would advise anyone to do the same. You might think your job is 100% secure but you are wrong, there is no such thing as a 100% secure job. I was told by someone when I worked in Sunseeker that they had a job for life, Sunseeker in talks to be making redundancies.
But just because the company you work for is successful doesn't mean your job is secure. Tesco's made thousands of redundancies for cost cutting purposes, and I'm sure you will agree with me that Tesco is a successful company.
I worked for a company many years ago, the team leaders there thought they were untouchable, they had a job for life, they had been working there more than 15 years, worked their way up the corporate ladder and were the manager's blue eyed boys. All was going so well for them... until one day the manager retired, and a new manager came in. They employed a new manager from outside the company because they wanted new ideas and fresh faces. Well not long after a couple of new team leaders came in and were getting trained up, and as soon as they were trained up guess what happened? THE OLD TEAM LEADER'S WERE MADE REDUNDANT! That's right. People who thought they had a job for life were booted out the company and didn't have anything to fall back on. Well to be made redundant is one thing, you get money to survive on with that, but what if you get fired. It doesn't take much to get fired, especially if someone higher up doesn't like you. Late in a few times, say the wrong thing to the wrong person, put a wrong comment on social media that could be offensive, have an accident... and the list goes on. Question is if you lost your job tomorrow what would you do? If the answer is don't know then you're in trouble (but hopefully you have time to put that right)
As many people have been finding out with being made furloughed in 2020, just as those team leaders found out and as I found out in 2008, nothing in life is permanent.
My advice to you is think about other income streams you can do on the side of your main job. Delay your gratification with money, do training courses and start investing in yourself. Always be prepared!
If you would like my help with anxieties, depression or confidence issues please call Scott on 07525851033 for a free initial consultation.
Comments