Will My Job Disappear After Coronavirus?

Today’s fast-changing world seems to be an increasingly threatening place these days.

There’s a lot of fear out there right now and you have probably worried a bit about the future. That’s understandable. After all, everyone’s thoughts have turned to ‘what if?’ while they are in isolation.

Will my business bounce back? Is my job safe? How will I take care of my family if things go wrong?

It can be helpful to examine just what kind of fear you’re feeling right now. Don’t leave it undefined. Fear becomes much easier to deal with when you can attach a label to it.

In fact, the negative effects of fear are much more easily solved when you can drag them out into the open and expose them.

So let’s look at how you label your fear. There are four levels to the anxiety you may be feeling right now. If you can recognise yourself in any of these labels you can start to manage your emotions in a positive way:

Anger Fear: This one is self-explanatory. You can’t admit you’re fearful. Instead you project your fear internally upon yourself or externally upon others. If you’ve caught yourself ranting incoherently at the government, your employers, your supervisors or maybe even your family, you’re dealing with anger fear.

Flee Fear: In this case, you feel like you’re constantly trying to run away from nagging doubts and worries in your head. You’re distracting yourself from what needs to be done while denying the fear exists. Maybe you’re doing unimportant, trivial tasks and you’ll get to the real work “later”.

Faint Fear: You find that everything’s just “too much” and you feel faint, ill or sick as a result of what’s going on in the world. Even the simplest of tasks seem exhausting and futile.

Freeze Fear: You can’t do anything at all. You know you have tasks and responsibilities, yet you can’t move forward on any of them even though you know you should be focusing on your future, planning ahead, learning skills online, and so forth.

Do you recognize yourself as suffering from any of those fears?

If so, then don’t despair. There really is a way out. Just acknowledging your fear is a huge step forward.

Now here’s how to take action, even if you might feel powerless right now.

Fear of losing your job is not a new phenomenon. Many jobs have been under threat by automation and robots, for example. The Coronavirus is just the latest wrinkle. So as scary as the virus seems right now, you’ve been scared before … and survived.

Think back to when you first wondered if you’d be replaced by a robot or a piece of software. Think back to just about any time you felt scared by the unknown, whether it was job-related or not.

You’re still here now, right? Today’s Coronavirus fear shall pass too.

Now take a deep breath. The world isn’t ending, but it might be changing. This is an opportunity.

Yes, you need to think “opportunity” not “threat”.

Instead of letting fear enrage you, chase you into a corner, weaken you, or paralyse you, take that energy and turn it into something exciting for a new future.

This is your chance to be creative about a possible new career direction you might enjoy. This is your chance to follow your heart and consider doing something new.

• When you first finished school, what were your dreams? If you could do any job at all, what would it be?
• Perhaps you need some retraining. What skills do you need? Which courses?
• Do you have a purpose in your life? And if so, what is it?
• What feels “right” to you? What makes you truly happy?
• Maybe you love your job already and just want to boost your performance levels. What will it take to become a master of your craft?

Let your mind run wild because worry and concern only fix you in a fearful place. You need to jolt yourself into positive action now.

Try to be as flexible as you can.  Start to prepare yourself for change, and think about doing something positive and action-oriented. That’s because taking the ‘wait and see what happens’ approach is too risky. It’s passive and that’s just being fearful again (it’s freeze fear or flee fear, actually).

Why not be excited instead? This is your big chance to take charge of your life.

The main thing is to snap yourself out of your fear and start dreaming today. Right now, even.

At the very least, think about how to market yourself and become highly valued by employers. What are you good at? What do people like about you?

Maybe all you need to do is simply update your CV to reflect your strengths and skills. If so, why not tick off that box on your to-do list right now?

Maybe marketing yourself means creating a hard-skill inventory you can use as a lever to transfer to a different career entirely.

Maybe it means thinking long and hard about what you really value in life, and what you can do that reflects that value.

The choice is up to you.

The main thing is to take positive action right now. You have plenty of energy swirling around inside you already. So why not put it to good use? Even the smallest step forward is better than none at all.

You can do it. You just need to believe in yourself.

Believe in a better career and a better life in your future.

We can help you to update your CV, brand you in terms of your value and show hiring employers how you will benefit the company.  Just complete the form on this page explaining your current situation and dilemma and we’ll get back to you.