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Ralphs. Fresh for everyone. ♪ Recession is coming, and I want to make sure that you are prepared. And here's the deal. The key thing to do during a recession is make sure you keep your job. So today, let's talk about how to make sure that you keep your job in the coming recession.

♪ Welcome to the Radical Personal Finance Podcast. My name is Joshua Sheets, and I'm your host. This is Episode 192, the first part of a three-part series all about how to make sure you don't get laid off or fired in the coming recession. We're going to hit this in a three-parter.

Today, how to make sure you don't lose your job. Tomorrow, how to make a plan in case you do lose your job. And the day after, okay, you lost your job. Now what? ♪ Hopefully, if we take these shows in proper order, then you won't ever need the third show, and you won't ever need, hopefully, not even the second show.

But still, we never know exactly what's going to happen, so we want to plan for all eventualities. Now, one of the jobs that I feel very responsible for as the host of this show and also as a financial advisor is to always make sure that I'm warning you in advance of what will happen.

And one of the things that is important for a financial advisor to be able to do well is to be out of sync with society, to be out of sync with the common culture. In essence, the skill is when everything is good, talk about how to plan for when everything is bad and help people to avoid the things that can most go wrong.

And then when everything is bad, try to give people hope that things are going to get better. I'm not sure whether you call that therapy or just good financial advice, but it is a fundamental role of a good financial advisor. And as I sit here in May of 2015 and record this show, we are not currently in recession, but we're going to be because that's how our economy works.

We grow through periods of expansion and periods of contraction. We go through booms and we go through busts. That's the business cycle that we live in. And there are various reasons for that, but I'm not going to go into them today. My only point is that there will be a recession in the future.

Now, obviously, as I like to do, I've hooked you just a little bit by making a statement and now I'm going to annoy you by not giving a time. And that's very intentional. I'm not qualified to predict when the next recession is coming. Frankly, this is one of my blind spots as a young advisor.

I haven't been through many recessions. I've only been through primarily one that's--well, actually two major--three major ones if you go by the official measurements. But only really one of them has affected me as an adult. So I always have a little bit of that blind spot, and I'm not predicting any kind of timing.

And I think it's important also that you start to think that way. Don't worry too much about timing. Just worry about what's going to happen. And right now, things overall seem to be pretty good. That may be changing depending on what economic indicators you want to look at. But with regard to most of our lives, unless you're actively running an investment portfolio every day and paying very careful attention to all these metrics, that's not going to be a big deal.

The key is just to know that the business cycle will change. So whether it's a short-term recession or whether it's longer-term changes in the culture, this is another thing that I'm acutely aware of is the changing nature of work and employment due to changing technologies. There are all kinds of pressures in all kinds of fields with new technologies that are coming out.

And so we want to be aware of those things. Now, one of the most important things when preparing for bad times, especially recession, is to remember that no matter how bad it gets, it's always worse for those who don't have a job than it is for those who have a job.

In the United States of America and many Western economies, we're fairly blessed. In the worst year of the Great Depression in 1933, the unemployment rate in the United States of America was 25%. Now, that was pretty terrible, right? But remember this, 75% of the people still had a job, 75% of the workers.

And although life was tough for just about everything – excuse me, everybody, life was measurably tougher for the 25% who didn't have a job than it was for the 75% of people who were able to retain their jobs. Even that 75% or that 25% unemployment rate compared to some places in the world right now, that's pretty good.

I have a good friend from Nigeria and he was visiting and his wife were visiting here some months ago and we were talking about this and just some of the stories that he tells from there on the ground in Nigeria. The unemployment rate there is horrifying. And so you have to learn new skills there.

But the key is what people need is a job. Recessions and depressions can actually be a time of opportunity if you can stay afloat. And that requires some proper prior planning. The key to staying afloat is to protect your economic engine. In business, that would be your profits and your cash flow.

But for most people, in their own personal business, it's going to be your job. In the business that is your life, your economic engine is your job. And everything in your financial plan is driven by having that engine. To use an analogy, think about your job as being the engine in your car.

And think about there being different driving situations. Some of you are driving on flatland and everything is going pretty well. You are earning income. You're spending money. You're not necessarily piling up loads of money, not saving a huge amount, but things are going pretty well. Well, in that situation, if your engine dies, you kind of just pull over to the side of the road and coast.

Some of you are deeply in debt, struggling to dig yourself out of a hole. Well, in that situation, you're kind of driving up a mountain. And if your engine dies, that can be a very serious problem. Because all of a sudden, you might be rolling back down the mountain.

Some of you have crossed over the mountain and you're not facing bills or debt, but you're well on your way to financial independence. You've got a bit of a coasting downhill opportunity in front of you because your investments are driving your financial plan. Well, in that situation, if your engine dies, you're not necessarily stuck in the water or stuck on the mountain.

You can still coast downhill, but you're going to be going slower than you could with your engine. I don't obviously take the analogy too far, but I think it's a good analogy to compare to your job. Without the engine, the car might be in tough times. Now, another way to also think about it is regardless of whether you're coasting down the mountain, cruising up the mountain, or just cruising across the flat plains, all of you have a place that you are and a destination.

That destination is your financial goals and you have a timetable. No matter whether you're doing well or struggling up the mountain, your timetable would be dramatically affected if the engine stops working on your car and you have to pull over and fix it. Even if everything is going well, you're saving, you're investing, but then all of a sudden, you lose your job.

So one of the key things to always focus on is keeping your job, keeping the economic engine that will drive your financial plan. So today, I want to give you some big picture ideas and also a bunch of little tips and ideas to help you. Don't wait to see what happens in the next recession.

Rather, put in the hard work now so that you have a much higher chance of being able to keep your job and keep your family in that employed category when times get tough because times will get tough. They always do. And then when times are tough, I'll come back on the mic and say, "Times will get better.

They always do." In the words of some of the wisest bits of philosophy of all time, "This too shall pass." Don't wait for the rain to get the umbrella out. Rather, right now, make sure you've got the umbrella, the roof is patched, you got the rain gear ready, and you've got a stack of dry towels in the closet.

That's good planning. So a good place to start, I would encourage you, do a cost-benefit analysis of your current performance within your job and do a current risk assessment. If you're an MBA business type, then you would call this a SWOT analysis. SWOT is an acronym spelled S-W-O-T. It stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

But do an honest assessment of your job and your job prospects. And think about what might happen if there were a recession. Here are some keys to pay attention to. Number one, are you an expensive employee? Remember that when finances get tight, the management of a company needs to look to trim the budget.

And in the same way that I tell you in your personal budget, look to the biggest budget items first and then also look at the smaller items and cut in both. The management of a company is going to do both of those things. They're going to look at the biggest items first.

And the biggest item in most companies' cost is the cost of salaries. And when they look into the cost of salaries, they're going to be looking at the most expensive salaries. So question, are you one of those expensive salaries? They're also going to look at the cost-cutting measures. They're going to pull back on company travel and they're going to tighten the decorating budget a little bit.

But when you think about the cost of a Christmas party versus the cost of a bunch of high salaries, they both might get cut. But the salaries are going to make a bigger difference. So are you an expensive employee? There could be various reasons why you might be an expensive employee.

You might be – you might have been at the company for a long time and they've increased your wages steadily over time and now you are earning a lot. You might be older. Older employees are generally much more expensive than younger employees. Now, if you're expensive, recognize that you've got a target on your back.

And the question is, do you justify your salary? That's the next thing to pay attention to. Is there a clear connection for you between your cost and your value? Can you demonstrate that connection? So one of the reasons why I like working on commission, I like working in sales.

Salespeople are usually going to be the last to be laid off because salespeople are what's going to drive the revenue for the company. If you're laying off your salespeople as a team, you are probably in pretty rough straits. It's not to say that you wouldn't fire a bad salesperson or somebody who's committed some kind of act that isn't in favor of the company.

But the nice thing about salespeople is you can specifically prove, especially if you're paid on full commission, you can specifically prove your value. You only get paid when you produce. And so generally, salespeople are not going to be laid off in recessions. But a lot of times, salaried people are.

So the question is, can you demonstrate a connection between the value that you bring to the company and your cost? And are you bringing in financial terms much more value than cost? Can you prove it? Are you a commodity? Meaning can your employer or manager easily replace you? Are you doing the type of job that's kind of just plug and play?

They can lay you off and if needed to replace you if they fired you prematurely and they need to bring somebody else in in a year, can they provide a couple weeks of training? And then they'll be able to do it as well as you can? Or are you very specialized?

Big difference in job security versus somebody who's very specialized and very important and integral to the company versus somebody who can just be laid off and rehired at a later date. If you're a commodity, then one of the challenges, you can only really compete based on price. And sometimes just out of a desire for greater efficiency, if you're expensive and you're a commodity, you might be laid off and then a year later they can hire somebody half your age and half your pay.

It's a problem. Are you average? You have to be above average in your work and you have to be able to demonstrate that and prove it. If you look at the way that most layoffs are done, especially layoffs that are induced by a change of economic condition, they're generally done in waves and there's some kind of sorting mechanism.

Are you going to be sorted out in the first wave or in a later wave? Are you and your skills with regard to the job out of date and obsolete? Industry is changing. Technology is changing. Your job is changing for all of us. So are you getting slowly left behind because your skills are atrophying or are you leading the change?

Just some things to think about. Write down the strengths that you bring to your job and the strengths of your job, the weaknesses, the opportunities, and the threats to it. That can help you to understand some of the defensive measures that you might need to take now to protect yourself and to protect your job.

Overall, I think the fundamental key to being able to keep your job is to make your company more money than you cost and prove it. That's the deal. In a free market economy, you must be making profit for your company that's in excess of what you cost. You've got to be making your boss money.

Otherwise, you're done. Now, if you're not making your boss money, you might skate by for a little bit. But over time, the market will expose it. A competitor will come by who is making more money and is more profitable and costs will be driven down. Then all of a sudden, your bosses are going through and trying to figure out where they can cut cost.

So the key is to be thinking like an entrepreneur, thinking like a business owner, no matter the size of the organization or company that you're involved in, and always be focused on creating value and then proving and marketing that value internally. Make yourself valuable, measure it, record it, and prove it.

Now, here's how I think of this task of keeping your job. I think there are three major aspects to this. Number one, you have to look at the overall growth and success of your industry. Number two, you need to look at the overall growth and success of your company within your industry.

And then number three, you need to look at the overall position, growth, and success of you within your company. And all of these are important. If your industry is doing well, then there's going to be less pressure on your job. A rising tide raises all boats. So if money is flowing within an industry and profits are high, there's usually going to be less of a focus in most companies on cutting costs.

But it's when the focus on cutting costs grows that the spotlight comes to bear on the employee roster to try to figure out where can we trim cost. If the industry is struggling but the company is doing well, then there's going to be less pressure. So company matters as well.

But when the pressure comes to bear, you need to be well-established within your company. And so always practicing the principle of beginning with the end in mind, figuring out what the ultimate effect is that we want, and then going back and looking at the cause. Here's how we reverse engineer this process.

We know what the goal is, and so now we need to figure out what's the path to the goal. And in the context of this show, the goal is I don't want to get fired. I don't want to get laid off in the next recession. So in order not to be fired or laid off in the next recession, then you need to be a valuable employee contributing more to the company than you cost.

If possible, then you should work to be one of the most valuable employees in the company with the goal of contributing far more than you cost. I think that's a worthy goal. And if you can't do that, then I think it's a good idea to start looking to move to a company where you can.

If you can't be one of the most valuable employees in the company, then go where you can be because the key is to be in that top tier, that top 20% if we're going to use a Pareto distribution as a good measuring stick. You want to be positioned well within a company.

Now, in order for your company not to have mass layoffs in the next recession, which could affect you and your coworkers, then your company needs to, at a minimum, be profitable and functioning. And if at all possible, your company needs to be leading the industry. And it's your responsibility to be doing your part to help the company achieve that goal.

If you don't believe that your company can do that, if your company can't be leading the industry, then it might be wise to think about going to a company that can. And if you're at a company that could lead the industry, in order for your company not to have mass layoffs in the next recession, which could affect you and your coworkers, then your industry needs to be survivable at a minimum and, if possible, needs to be well positioned for growth through the next recession.

And if you don't think your industry can do that, then it might be wise to think about going to a different industry that's better positioned for growth. You're doomed, even if you are the very best company – excuse me, the very best employee at the very best company in a dying industry.

The old cliche of the buggy whip company in an age of cars comes to mind. Perhaps there's still out there somewhere a company making buggy whips. But I would be very surprised if they were a leader before the transition came in the automobile. So be aware of all of those things.

They're all important. And focus on all of them at different times, understanding that they're all going to impact your own economic gain. So today, let's tackle them in reverse order and let's start with your position within your company and let's move on from there to company and industry because, ultimately, you're going to have the most influence on the personal level.

One of the key strategies to think about when you're looking at your position within your company is how can I stand out as bringing massive value to my company? How can I be unique and stand out among my fellow employees? Obviously, there would be many, many ways to do this, and all of this would be dependent on your actual type of job.

I should have mentioned that earlier. Don't get too hung up if I'm using an example that's not appropriate to you. Try to think of a parallel or just look at your situation and try to think how you can apply the concept. One of the first places that I would start is something that my father actually drilled into me when I was younger and drilled into all of my siblings when we were learning how to work and working at different companies.

He would simply say this, "Find out who your boss is and keep them happy." Find out who your boss is and I say keep them incredibly happy with your work, with your performance, with your results. Just keep them happy. Your boss is your number one customer and everybody in every company has a boss.

The boss at the very top, his boss or her boss, is ultimately the customers. But all of us serve the customer, but we generally are going to serve it through a hierarchy where we're going to have a boss that's in charge of us. So how do you do this?

Well, I think a good way to start is find out what your boss's goals are and then do everything you can to make sure that those goals are achieved. If you look at a corporation and picture a large corporation, this applies in smaller companies as well, but picture a large corporation.

You'll see that at every single level there are goals. The board of directors and the company management lay out the overall strategic plan. Then the company managers come together and they figure out what the strategies are going to be for each part of the company. Then the managers break it down into different areas of responsibility for each of the executives.

Then the executives take that, they take it to their team, and they break down that plan into action steps and results measures for each component of their team. Then ultimately those things are, at the end of the day, broken down into tasks, individual tasks for various employees. The key at each level is to make sure that the overall goals are advancing.

So every one of us and every listener, you're going to have a boss that has goals that need to be done. Your job ultimately is to find out what those goals are and help your boss make them happen. Then, of course, you want to make sure that they know that those goals are being achieved.

There needs to be a little bit of marketing in this. Your bosses need to make sure that they know what you're doing. So keep them aware and in the loop on your progress. Write a progress report for them or find some way to regularly report your productivity and the things that are happening.

It's useless if they don't know what you're doing. So focus on making your boss's life easy and make your boss look good by accomplishing his or her goals for them. In my mind, that's the simplest place to start. Now, when looking at how to stand out as a key employee, recognize that you're both competing with your fellow employees and also collaborating with them.

Collaboration is ultimately what helps your company and possibly even your industry do well. And competition among and between you and your fellow employees is what might assure that your job is retained when the company and the industry aren't doing well. So when your job's on the chopping block, there's a little bit of a competition between you and your fellow employees.

Both of them are important, both that competition and collaboration. The good news is this isn't a zero-sum game. So ultimately, if you're working hard, that's going to help you stand out, but that's also going to help everybody else. So you don't have to feel bad about competing with them because it's not a zero-sum game.

Your fellow employees don't have to lose because you're winning. Rather, you can win and they can win. So how do you stand out among your fellow employees? Well, let's start with a simple one, the thing that you can control. Consider focusing on simply outworking everybody. If you can outwork your fellow employees, that will help you to stand out.

Now, the good news is this isn't actually that tough. Depending on what statistics you use, I checked various sources and I've decided to use the Federal Reserve data from 2011 from the St. Louis Fed. The most recent data that the Federal Reserve released on this was 2011. They said that the average American works 1,703.55 hours per year.

You've got to look through and look at different sources of data to figure out part-time, full-time, and all of that. But I just decided to use this as a good example because I've heard this number cited and I've also seen some other studies, which I'll go into in a moment.

So let's just start with this number and use 1,700 hours a year. Well, if you divide 1,700 hours per year of work into a 52-week year, then you wind up with an average work week of 32.76 hours per week. If you divide it into a 50-week year, you wind up with a 34-hour work week.

Basically, what you find is that most people work somewhere in that range of fewer than 40 hours. Other industries, it's higher. Some studies will say 47 and different things. I like this 32-hour week or 34-hour week. Now, interestingly, that's just the amount of time that people work. But one of the things that is truly incredible is that your competition, at least in the United States, really isn't that tough.

Most people don't actually work all the time that they're at work. You may not believe that. But most people don't actually work all the time that they're at work. I decided to reference here an interesting Business Insider article. I'll put the link in the show notes, but I'm basically reading the article.

It's very short. But this is from various data sources. But consider these facts and figures. 73% of people say that they waste time at work, at least one hour per day. If you study the actual studies, by the way, you'll find out it's much higher than one hour per day.

But that's self-reported. Most people waste time by surfing the web, 48% of respondents, talking with coworkers, 33% of respondents, taking care of personal agendas and calls, 49% of respondents, and taking long lunches, 15% of respondents. But a lot of time is also wasted on menial work tasks, like fixing coworkers' mistakes, 54%, dealing with office politics, 47%, waiting on colleagues, 42%, getting dragged to meetings, 42%, and doing administrative work, 33%.

Checking email wastes 50% of the workday. Employees do most of their work between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m., and then after that, it's all downhill, and they don't do much work after that. Many employees are in the bathroom checking Facebook, 54% of women and 46% of men report doing this.

77% of employees who have access to Facebook from work check it daily. Weirdly, a lot of people watch porn at work. A Nielsen study found that 27% of respondents watch adult content in the office, and most pornography is downloaded during work hours from 9 to 5. When people aren't at their desks, there's a good chance they're getting more coffee.

The average worker drinks three cups per day. One in three people come to work with hangovers. 15% say that they've been drunk at work, too. Most people abuse sick days. One firm found 57% of U.S. employees call in sick when they're really not, and more than 50% of people lie on their resumes.

When young employees stay late, it's usually because co-workers expect them to, not because they're still doing work. People shop a lot at their desks. More than 14 work hours are spent shopping online during the holidays. That's the Business Insider article. I've read various studies. Some say that people work 50% of their day when you start factoring all those things in.

Others, two hours a day. Some, it's an hour a day. But the point is most people don't work all the time that they work. If you start with simply that, work all the time that you work can make a dramatic difference for you. Let me give you an example of what a difference this could make in your productivity, and let's put this in perspective.

Let's calculate this based upon an eight-hour work day. Most people waste at least two hours every day, and again, some studies report more like four hours out of an eight-hour day. But let's just use two hours to be conservative. If you don't put in any more hours, but you just simply work for a full eight hours, well, two extra hours per day of work and productivity times five days per week, times 50 weeks per year, we'll give you two weeks of vacation, that equals 500 extra hours of work.

Now, divide that back into the six hours of work that most of your peers and coworkers are actually doing in a day, and you've just gained 83 extra work days over them. That's 16 weeks of additional productivity. Four months of additional productivity, not by putting in any more hours or any more time, but just simply by actually working all the time that you're at work.

Well, what else could you do? Well, you could get there earlier and you could leave later. That's a good idea. You could work through lunch. That's a very simple one. Think about this. These hours start to add up, which is why I'm demonstrating it to you. If you work through lunch, that's five days per week, you have 250 extra hours per year or a total of 41 extra full work days or eight full weeks on your competition.

Now, even if you only work through lunch, say, three days per week because you're busy using two of those days' lunch appointments for planned, systematic networking power lunches to enhance your career, that would still be an extra 150 hours per year, which comes out to 25 extra six-hour work days compared to your competition.

If you get there a little bit earlier and leave a little bit later, that would be a good sign, at least 15 minutes. If nothing else, maybe getting to work at 7.45 and actually being ready to start work at 8 instead of getting to work at 8.05 and being ready to start work at 8.45 and then actually working till 5 and then leaving at 5.15 instead of working till 4.30, which is what many people will do, and then leaving at 4.55.

That can make a big difference, but even just one extra hour in the morning or one extra hour in the afternoon. Let me give an example of what an amazing difference this might be if you just simply use some of these simple ideas. One extra hour in the morning, one extra hour at lunch, working through lunch, and one extra hour at the end of the day, and then actually working those two other hours per day when most people are slacking off.

That would come out to an extra five hours per day of work and productivity, and in a five-day workweek, 50 weeks per year, that would come out to be 1,250 total hours per year. Divide that back into your competition, six hours of productive working time, and you wind up with 208 extra workdays or 41 extra workweeks or 10 extra months per year.

That adds up over time as far as results and effect and productivity and value. Add in a few hours on Saturday morning if you need to, and all of a sudden, you are twice as productive as other workers. That's just simply with putting in time. Now, obviously, you have to choose if you want to do this, and you would have to choose if it's worth it to you.

I just wanted to show the impact of a little bit of extra focus and dedication here and there with regard to actual hours and percentage increases of work. Me personally, I very much think it's important to focus on working comfortably instead of focusing on retiring comfortably, so I'm not advocating burnout or working too hard or getting out of whack with work-life balance.

But those types of things have far more to do with the actual type of work you're doing than the amount of work that you're doing. For me, some of the most fulfilling times of my life have been when I've been working the hardest, and some of the most difficult times have been when I was in a work environment that was extremely easy or extremely monotonous.

Hard work is good for us. So today, don't spend too much time on that. Just think about working hard. We spend plenty of other time on this show talking about the ideal design of work and how to live an easy life. But today, focus on the benefits of hard work.

Another thought I'd share with you that for me has been a big deal is if you're not working at a job that you care enough about to actually put in that amount of time or put in that amount of focus, then consider changing jobs or careers or businesses and get into a position where you're doing something that you care about, and that can make a dramatic difference.

If you're going to work, you might as well work and get better results. Now, of course, you've got to decide, is this an appropriate stage in your life where you need to come in an hour earlier or just 15 minutes earlier? But there are phases of life at which this kind of hard work can make a dramatic difference.

In some ways, it's a lot easier to work hard for 10 years and retire early than it is to work for an extra decade because you played fantasy football and did all your shopping during the workday. If you want to get ahead in life, look around and see who's doing the type of thing or who's getting the kind of results that you'd like to get.

I've never seen myself, a high-level corporate executive, who ever worked less than a 50-hour work week and most would work a 60-hour work week. Every company I've ever been involved with, usually the nicest cars are there the first thing in the morning or they're there on Saturday morning. I always just observe as I drive around on Saturday morning.

I personally don't love working on Saturday mornings. I like to have that time with my family. But on occasion, I've needed to do it, and I've always observed the nicest cars are in the parking lot. Now, of course, again, it might be worth it to have a less nice car and be home with your family on Saturday morning.

But there is a time and a place for putting in the hours. My experience in financial planning, I never saw anybody make it in the meat grinder that is the financial advisory business that wasn't in the office early in the morning, that wasn't in the office late at night, and that wasn't there on Saturday morning.

Never saw it. Maybe it happened. I never saw it. So it was generally pretty easy to predict who was going to actually succeed in the financial advice business. Finally on this topic, before I get off onto other topics, before I get off this number of hours and working hard, remember that hard work is painful, but so is unemployment.

And losing a job in a recession, that really stinks. So choose your pain carefully and choose which you prefer. You get to choose how aggressive you want to be in attacking your goals. So consider being the hardest worker at your company if you want to be. It's hard to find good workers.

So be a hard worker. Be a good worker. You might not be able to control being the best in your field. You might not be the most skillful or the quickest learner. But you can always control how hard you work. And it's hard for me to think of a boss in any company that would fire their hardest worker.

So you might just simply employ this simple strategy. In most companies or industries, it shouldn't be too hard to be either the best or at the top level and to be the hardest worker without going over into the area of burnout. And then just look at the times in your life where you can do that without having deleterious effects in other areas of your life.

Now, more importantly, don't just focus on putting in the hours or don't focus on trying to fake the hours. Focus on outproducing your fellow employees. Work productively when you're working. Focus on results and effects. And always focus on making the most valuable use of your time. I'll tell you just personally for me, this has often been tough.

Both of these things have been tough, putting in the hours and then focusing on the things that are most important. I've always had a moral burden, I believe, that if you steal time from your boss who's paying you for your time, that is theft. And it would be dishonorable and immoral to do that.

And so I've tried very hard to not steal time from my boss. But the challenge for me is what about when you're the boss? It's a lot easier to steal time. And I'm convinced that if you don't have a desire to focus on the productivity and you don't have the desire to work hard, it might just simply be because there's not a good fit for you.

So think about that. But even if there's not a good fit for you or hopefully if there is, still focus on working on the highest value activities. Turn off the email. Turn off the phone and focus on creating, producing, or whatever the highest value activities are for your job.

Plan your workday. Plan the impact. Plan the accomplishments that you need to get done to move those goals forward. Ask yourself the question, "What can I and only I do which, if done well, will make the greatest difference for my results?" And focus on the high value activities. Work steadily.

Don't burn yourself out, but work steadily. Steady, regular work makes a difference over time. Work faster. Just simply move faster. A pet peeve of mine is how fast people walk. I know maybe I've mentioned this before and I hope it doesn't get old, but I watch people. You can tell a lot about how effective somebody is at working based upon how quickly they just simply walk across the parking lot.

And I know other people watch that as well. I've talked to various executives, including former bosses of mine, who said that was something they always watched. Walk. Work. Move quickly. Work efficiently. Learn the tools and the tricks of your trade. Learn how to type more quickly. Switch your typing style to a faster typing style.

Learn the keyboard shortcuts for the programs that you use. Learn the technologies that will make your life better. All of these affect your output, and your output is ultimately what you're measured on. And so when you start to combine these things, I think you can get some pretty amazing results over time.

I really do. I think most people work probably about half the amount of hours during the day that they actually are working. And so if you just work all the hours that you're supposed to be working, that should double your productivity. I think that most people could probably, with some focus and practice, depending on the job, over time, with working faster, working harder, investing in better tools, technology, probably double their output on a per hour basis.

When you start putting that together, I don't think it's crazy to think that one person, you, hopefully, could be four times – or me, hopefully, too – could produce four times the output of another worker. I've seen it happen. So it may be different for each of us in our own individual application, but perhaps some of those ideas could be helpful to you.

The key is remember this. You're paid based upon what you're worth, and your bosses need to cut your pay, if at all possible, in order to make more money. So the only way you're going to keep your pay from being cut and increase it is to be worth the money, be worth far more.

Find out what you're being measured on and focus on delivering those results. Volunteer for more responsibility. Innovate. Look to improve the inner workings of the company. Think like a marketer within the company. Think like an owner, an entrepreneur. Market the company's products and services, and then market your own contributions within the company.

Analyze your value and clearly demonstrate it. Keep a diary of the things that are working. Focus on what you need to do for the next promotion and emphasize that you're a team player. There are a lot of little things. I just wrote down a few, but even just little things.

Keep your desk clean. Dress appropriately for your position. Just a tiny little bit better than your coworkers. Don't be wearing a suit if they're wearing jeans, but dress just a little bit better. The personal styling, all that stuff. And overall, focus on what are the personal development skills that you need to have mastered in order to deliver more value to your employer.

Start with just simply doing your job and doing it well, but then focus on those other things. You need good communication skills. You need to be able to write well, write professionally. So practice that. If you don't know how to do it, practice it. Proper spelling and punctuation goes a long way.

Speaking well. Join Toastmasters. Learn new skills. Hopefully, this just will spark the ideas in your own industry, but I hope these are some things that have been helpful to me and I know have been helpful to a lot of people. And these will all help you to be a standout employee when they're sitting in a room and they're looking at names on a list and they're trying to figure out, "Well, let's cut out the easy ones.

Is there anyone on this list that we absolutely can't afford to lay off?" Your name needs to be that name that they say. Now, additionally, focus not just on competing with your employees, but on collaborating and cooperating with them. This is important. Make those around you look good. Make those beside you, below you, above you look good.

Be a team player. Build the networks. Build the good old boys' networks or the good old girls' networks. Build the good relationships with your coworkers. This is just common courtesy, but at the end of the day, who you know and who likes you matters. We'd like to believe that everything is measured in a spreadsheet, but we know that's not the case.

So focus on it. Give it attention. Focus on having and developing good relationships. Be the guy or gal who steps forward and buys the round of drinks. Invest that money. Build the social capital. Be the person who raises everybody's morale. Pay attention to the names of the spouses and the children of your coworkers.

Simple secret, like people, and they're going to like you. Make everybody around you better. I feel like in some ways, for most of you, it's like, "Okay, Joshua, I know all those things. I do all those things." But I guess I just feel like there are a few people who take the time to teach these things any longer, and they're so important.

Even just for my peers in my age bracket, I was just with a friend of mine, and he's my exact age, a night or two ago. This friend works in a fast food restaurant, and he was just bemoaning about how difficult it is for him to get his coworkers and people that he's managing just to not be on their cell phone when they're serving the customers.

If one customer is offended and turned away by that, it's a problem. People are, and they stop coming back, and then enough people stop coming back, and it causes a problem. It reminds me of just even the thing like moving quickly. I was just talking with my wife. My wife doesn't like shopping in big box warehouse clubs, so we looked at getting a Costco membership and a Sam's Club membership.

Finally, I thought it would be a good idea and save us money, so I persuaded her to go ahead, and we went ahead and joined Sam's Club. She liked it better than the local Costco. The problem is the people that work at the Sam's Club, it's just – it's exasperating.

The checkout people, and I sound a little bit – I hope this doesn't sound arrogant, but they move like molasses. And every single time that we go there, it's annoying because you stand in line forever, and the people move so slowly. Now, of course, there's a monetary savings, and at this point, we just decided it's not worth the hassle to save the money versus the shopping experience that we have at Publix, which is where we do most of our shopping.

It's a regional grocery chain, and there, the customer service people do a great job. The checkout people move quickly. They're pleasant. When you ask somebody a question, the Publix training is they make sure that their employees are trained to – if you're asking for something, to hopefully take you and actually show you on the aisle where it is, and they do a good job of that.

So we all vote with our dollars, and Sam's Club is – at the end of our one-year membership, losing a subscriber, and Publix will pick up the extra business. So these things ultimately that you and I individually do within our companies are going to impact our company. Let's move on and talk about company because your position within your company matters, but so does your company's position within the industry.

The overall success of your company is extremely important. So how can you avoid getting laid off in the next recession? Well, don't get blindsided by what's happening with the company. Pay attention. Read the industry periodicals. Pay attention to the trends. And focus most of all on helping your company be a leader.

Make sure that your company is the most innovative, the most advanced, the most efficient. Don't wait for things to happen. Lead the change. Now, obviously, if you are working a cash register at the local Sam's Club, you're not necessarily going to be able to affect today the overall direction of the brand.

But you can affect your cash register, and you can make your line move more quickly, and you can affect and encourage your employees, and that will result in a promotion. And then ultimately you'll be able to affect your store, and then that will result in a promotion. And then ultimately you'll be able to affect a region, and someday you'll affect a company, maybe.

So always be focusing on leading the change where you are. What's the old saying? The best way to predict the future is to create it. So if you can help in any way your company lead the industry, then you're less likely to be blindsided by a sudden round of layoffs because your company is going to be a little bit insulated.

They're going to be later to do the layoffs than their competitors who aren't doing so well. Make sure that you're networking within the industry so that you get the inside scoop of what's going on in other companies within your industry. Friends will often tell other friends what's going on in advance.

Now, in general, if things are sensitive or private, it's probably not going to be put into an email, at least if people are careful in any way. But you might get a tip. You might get a notification. And so you need to be well networked within the industry so you can find out in advance what's going on within your industry.

Notice what's happening. There are always going to be signs and signals of what's happening in an industry. So if you see something coming down the pike that's going to affect your company, then be out in front of it. And be out in front of it in multiple ways. Be out in front of it helping your company to not get blindsided by the change.

But then also be out in front of it. And if you figure out that your company is going to be affected by a change, then consider jumping ship to a better position at a better company before that change comes. Now, of course, you might miss out on a severance package or some other benefit.

You need to factor that into your decision. But you might also be able to miss the pain of reactively finding a job. We're going to cover that more in the next two episodes. But proactively finding a job might allow you to beat all of your coworkers who are applying for the same jobs because you were all laid off together.

So being out in front is going to be important. And tomorrow as we talk about how to make a plan in case you are laid off from your company, you'll hear how many of the things that you do are going to make you a higher value employee within your company.

But they're also going to be part of the plan in case you can no longer persist and continue with the company. That's the cool thing about this kind of thinking. It's win, win, win. And you're the one who wins. Focus on helping your company lead the industry. And maybe, just maybe, that will help you to avoid getting laid off.

Finally, industry matters. Pay attention to industry trends. And if you see industry trends changing, consider your plans and get out in front of them. If you go along with your head buried and not looking to either side and not paying attention to the things that are coming, then often you get blindsided.

But that's not for you. Don't get blindsided. Pay attention to what's going on. And if you see your industry heading down, jump ship early to a different industry. And the cool thing is by following some of these practical tips and suggestions, you'll be well positioned. Because you're going to be well positioned within your current company in case the recession comes and the layoffs start to happen.

But you're even more importantly going to be well positioned to be having to be transitioned out of your company or into your industry into any opportunity that you want. It is very possible to go from job to job to job to job, from opportunity to opportunity to opportunity. And your reputation matters.

So focus on building and being a benefit where you are. Save your company money and help your company make money. And if you do that well, someone else will come along and ask you to come and do that there and they'll give you a greater share of that money.

Just simply being excellent will get you job offers. I've gotten at least two or three jobs in my life simply because somebody watched me work at some volunteer scenario, some volunteer thing. I had no idea they were paying attention. And I've gotten six-figure job offers basically while working as a financial advisor to people that I called on.

They didn't know me but they were impressed by the work that I did as a financial advisor and they said, "I'd like to have you come and work in my company." I'm not saying those things to brag or to lift myself up just to say that I've experienced it in just a little bit and I've seen and heard so many other stories from other people who have experienced it.

So if business is good, doing these things opens opportunities to you. And if business is bad, these things might help you to be a little bit farther back on the chopping block. And if you do get chopped, then doing these things will help you find another position quicker so you get to win across the board.

Remember that there are multiple levels. It's absolutely impossible to guarantee no matter what that you can avoid losing your job. As I said at the beginning, you could be the number one most valuable employee in the number one most profitable and valuable company in your industry. And then that industry can get taken over by another industry that innovated and made your industry obsolete.

It happens. So on tomorrow's show, we're going to be talking about making a plan in case you do lose your job, in case you are laid off in the next recession. And then the day after tomorrow, we're going to be talking about what to do when you're laid off.

We're going to talk about some very tactical, practical stuff. But it's all based upon how to make sure that you're not likely to be laid off. Always start with the easiest solutions first. So take these things. I hope this has been useful to you. My hope is that you'll just take from this what's useful and skip what's not and modify these things to fit your individual situations.

Small companies are very different from big companies. And most people in the United States of America do not work at large Fortune 500 companies. Most people work at very small companies. And that trend is going to continue, I believe. It's going to continue more and more. But the key part is to remember that you've done the hard work of getting a job.

That's the hard part. Now you want to make sure that you benefit from it. And everything in your financial plan is driven by your income. So it would behoove you to spend a lot of time focusing on making sure that your income is as steady as possible. And the cool thing, again, is that by focusing on keeping your income steady and secure, you're going to wind up making your income bigger and better along the way.

Keep your customers happy. Make your boss' life easy. Be a good worker. Be a diligent worker. Keep your work-life balance. I'm not saying that you've got to work 13 hours a day. We'll talk about that actually tomorrow on planning how to lose your job. I don't think you should work 13 hours a day for a salaried company.

But I do think that a little bit of extra work is a good thing. That's it for today's show. I hope this has been helpful to you. And if it has been helpful, then I'm working hard on my end to be a good worker for you, my bosses. If you feel this show has been helpful, it has been worth my salary, come on over to RadicalPersonalFinance.com/patron and you can choose to give me your salary.

I'm trying to practice what I preach here, and so I work hard for you every day. And then in exchange for that, you get to decide how much that's worth. So if you think that this content is worth a little bit, you can come by and tell me this is worth a little bit.

You can put a little bit in that little box that says "Contribute to the show." If you think it's been worth a lot, then come on by and tell me it's been worth a lot. And if you have been giving a little bit and you think--or paying a little bit and you think it's worth a lot more, feel free to go ahead and increase your contribution.

That'd be great. So try to live by the maxim of "Deliver first and get paid" on the back end. And I thank you to all of you who support the show each and every day. That's it. I'm out. Be back with you tomorrow. Thanks, y'all. Thank you for listening to today's show.

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This show is intended to provide entertainment, education, and financial enlightenment. But your situation is unique and I cannot deliver any actionable advice without knowing anything about you. Please, develop a team of professional advisors who you find to be caring, competent, and trustworthy and consult them because they are the ones who can understand your specific needs, your specific goals, and provide specific answers to your questions.

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