How safe is your job (really)?

January 30, 3:52 PMGadgets ExaminerDan Appleman

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Unemployment hits 7.2% - well past the worst
of the 2002-2003 recession

There are a number of websites with online quizzes to help you figure out whether your job is safe. Most of them cover the typical questions you would expect:

• Are you still “in the loop”?
• Do people come to you for advice?
• Is your job critical to the company?
• Are your skills up to date?
• and so on…

It strikes me, however, that many of these quizzes and surveys are based on knowledge gained from many years of experience, and those years were mostly good ones. Or they are based on past recessions that were somewhat milder than the current one.

I humbly offer the following job security quiz, designed for today’s unsettled times (give yourself one point for each yes answer).

• Was your CEO removed from his office in handcuffs by FBI agents or Treasury department officials?
• Has your company recently been named on CNN by Congressmen, Senators or the President?
• Did you just get an Email from anyone higher up in the company that says “I am no longer with the company, please contact me at my personal Email …@gmail.com” ?
• Was your corporate credit card rejected last night when paying for dinner?
• Are the products you make poorly rated on consumer sites? (check them out at Amazon.com).
• Is your company losing money? (See finance.google.com).
• Was your company just bought or merged with another company, or did it buy another company?
• Are you over 40?
• Have you been with the company for less than a year?
• Do you work in one of the following industries: banking, real estate, technology, health care, food service, transportation, personal services, retail, entertainment, wholesale, publishing, manufacturing, transportation, natural resources, the private sector, the non-profit sector, local government, or state government?

If your score is one point or higher, your job is at risk. In which case taking one of the quizzes below might help you come up with some ideas to keep it. Because this is certainly not a good time to be unemployed.