Fraters Libertas

I’m proud to announce that I have just accepted a 20 minute contract with highly-esteemed and nationally praised local blog Fraters Libertas to write this piece.

We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know

Layoffs. They’re still happening. It seems every time there is one bit of positive economic news there’s another story on it’s heels that contradicts it. Consumer confidence is up point-one percent, but unemployment claims are also up. Guys crying in their beers at Mainstreets in Hopkins is down 5%, but orders for Denny’s $1.99 Jobless Loser Omelet are up.

My own layoff was a shot to the bread basket. Me? How could they lay ME off? You become Fredo: “I’m smaht, I can do it” and your boss becomes Michael saying that’s the way Pop wanted it.

The biggest thing I’ve learned from the entire ordeal is the simple fact that we don’t know what we don’t know. How are you perceived in the organization? What does your boss really think of your abilities? You may think you have an inkling of these things, and perhaps you are right on. But there’s also a damn good chance your take is tainted by a thousand variables (ego, friends who don’t want to say what they really think, forest for the trees and all that) that no one is smart enough to fully compute.

The maddening thing is a layoff can happen right after a good job appraisal, as mine did, so I would guard against putting too much weight in that.

What’s my point? My point is that if you want to make yourself more layoff proof (and btw ALL of you can be laid off) you have to try to find ways to discover what you don’t know.

The thing that sucks about this endeavor is that just by discovering what you don’t know (and I’m talking about things like communication skills, negating skills, how power relationships work) that is just the first step. Then you actually have to begin to know the thing you discovered you didn’t know.

I’ve been attempting this by going to Barnes and Noble, skipping over the history and politics sections (do I really need to read another book on WW2 or Why Liberals Are Wrong? will that help me get ahead?) diving into the business section and looking for the self-help type selections.

Not long ago, I though books like these were stupid and beneath me and I Know All That and of course, there are tons of books that fall into this category. But after digesting useful titles like this and this and this,

it turns out I just didn’t know what I didn’t know.