Keeping up in today’s competitive and fast changing work environment can be a problem, especially when you have to keep learning new skills and strategies and fear your job or business could be the next to go. Some people even start thinking grievance or lawsuit when they find that the promises made to them when they are first hired by a struggling or downsizing company have not been kept. Or they feel they are unfairly marked for an early termination or retirement, perhaps because they are earning more, are older, or have been more recently hired. Whatever the reason for the problem, a good way to think about it—and help you keep your job or business—is to see the situation not as your problem, but as their problem. Then, think about how you can help them solve it. After all, if you turn yourself into the answer to their problems, you may find the answer to your own.
I received an e-mail from a man—let’s call him Henry—who was recently let go from a big company he had worked at for over 15 years. He had been a model and enthusiastic sales employee, even driving for about two hours a day to get to work—one hour there, one hour back— and he had built up a loyal customer base throughout his West Coast sales territory. But then, the corporation, which was based on the East Coast, hit by reduced sales and the need to downsize, decided to make some changes in its operations and brought in a new Regional Manager, Tony, who had the right to hire and fire any employees. In the ensuing shakeup, the Regional Manager brought in a new younger team, and Henry, now in his early 50s, was out. Worse, Henry was especially disturbed by some of the insulting things Tony said to him about his personal style. Tony had complained that he was disorganized and that his personality rubbed him the wrong way, even though Tony couldn’t fault Henry’s good sales record.
The firing rankled, especially since Henry found himself stuck with temporary low pay assignments as he scrambled to find work at other companies over the next few years. Then, a ray of hope. Henry’s old company brought in a new Regional Manager who was a long-term friend of Henry’s and hoped to rehire Henry, but the home office nixed the rehire. After all, if Henry had once been let go, why hire him again?
What Should Henry Do?
Here are some possibilities. In Henry’s place, what would you do and why? What do you think the outcomes of these different options would be?
- Write to the home office and explain the reasons you should be hired again, such as knowing the company and the territory very well.
- Contact an employment lawyer to negotiate for getting your job back or face an age discrimination suit.
- Learn more about the company and its problems and suggest some solutions that you can provide, if you are back on the job.
- Offer to get some additional training, even if you have to foot the bill yourself, to show how deeply motivated you are.
- Offer to work for less or agree to a trial probationary period to show what you can do.
- Other?
What should Henry do? Ideally, he wanted his old job back, but he was also wondering if he had the basis of a lawsuit because of age discrimination or the insulting way he had been fired. My advice to Henry—or to anyone in a similar situation—is to forget the lawsuit. Commonly they take years and extensive time and effort to pursue, even if you do meet all the requirements to be able to pursue a case, and in the meantime your life may go on hold. The company you are suing is unlikely to hire you back while the suit is ongoing and it could be a very uncomfortable working environment even if you are, since everyone will know about the suit. And if you don’t work there, other companies in your field will be even less likely to hire you.
So don’t use a club if you want to get rehired, since you’re likely to get clubbed back in return, and it could be a long time, if ever, for you to get a job back that way. Also, if you want another job in that industry, the memory of a lawsuit, whether you win or lose, can be like a memo reminding others not to hire you either for fear you might later sue them. Certainly, there are times when you don’t want to let your rights be trampled, say when the discrimination against you is so clear and so outrageous and your case is one that gains widespread support from others for your unfair treatment. But in general, look on lawsuits as a last resort—and avoid them if at all possible. Find other win–win ways to try to work out your differences; look for compromises and collaborations rather than confrontations when you aren’t in a power position to readily get your own way.
Thus, as I e-mailed Henry, his best shot at getting his job back would be to become a kind of problem solver for the company he wanted to work for. In other words, help them solve their problem as the route to solving his own. For instance, I suggested he might find out a little more about the corporation’s current situation and what kind of workers they were looking for after a period of downsizing and reorganization. Ask probing questions to understand better just what’s going on. Then, he should look at how to sell himself to them based on what kind of benefits he could offer them, given their needs. "See what kinds of skills they need and ask if you need any new training to fit in with their current direction," I wrote. "Perhaps be prepared to compromise on salary if that is an issue in these downsizing times." The result was that Henry was invited to work with the company on the basis of looking for new business opportunities in expanded markets. While there was no guaranteed draw, there was a generous commission, giving him the opportunity to use his abilities to establish new accounts in new areas, helping both the company and himself.
In short, whatever the problem, the best approach is not to focus on past recriminations but on future solutions. For instance, see yourself as a problem solver and think about what your prospective or current employer’s problems are and how you can help them solve them. Redefine the problem from how can you get a job or promotion to how can you help your company or employer do a better job of doing whatever they want to do. Then, you’ll be part of that solution leading to the job or promotion. In effect, the way to sell yourself is not to sell you but the benefits you can offer a company. Sell yourself as a problem solver who can offer just what they need when they need it, and you’ll solve your own problems by solving theirs.
Today’s Take-Aways:
- To solve a problem at work, try looking at it from a different perspective—theirs, not yours.
- Turn your problems into opportunities by thinking of new ways to solve them with your employer’s needs in mind.
- Look for the "probe" in "problems, and then probe for solutions to someone else’s problems, not your own, to make yourself an essential part of the solution.