New Year’s Headlines Impacting Employment – What Actions To Take

New Year’s Headlines Affecting Employment and Job Search

Tech Industry Getting Hammered

Headlines everywhere about tech stock prices dropping and layoffs or companies slowing growth. What can you do to minimize the impact on your career?

If You’re Employed –> Prepare for a Layoff:

• Identify your references. Get their personal contact information in advance of a layoff.
• Meet with your manager. Review your recent projects. Ask for feedback on your performance and suggestions on how to improve. Make a plan to get monthly feedback from your manager and peers.
• Volunteer for cross-functional projects with visibility across the organization. Highly performing employees known outside their department are less like to be laid off.

 If You Lost Your Job –> Stay Calm and Focused:

• You have lots of company. This isn’t all bad. Why? Because you can help others. Mutual support will reduce emotional stress, broaden your network, and may result in an opportunity. Ask people about their job search. Ask yourself: who in your network is a helpful contact for them to meet? While your contact may not be hiring, the power of broadening a network and learning about different career directions can unexpectedly open doors.
• Look at more resilient industry sectors outside the software tech industry. With the government infrastructure spending, the war in Ukraine, and household focusing their spending on staples, look for positions at companies in manufacturing, industrial, consumer staples, automotive, large retail, and military equipment developers. All these industries have invested in technology to advance their corporate goals.

Good News for a Change – New Employment/Hiring Laws & Trends

• As of January 1, 2023, companies hiring in California must disclose the salary range on job postings AND give the salary range to their current employees. Pay range disclosure is also required in Colorado, Washington, Nevada, Connecticut, Maryland, Rhode Island, and New York City. Wage transparency will help to reduce wage discrimination. This is excellent news!
• The Federal Trade Commission is proposing the elimination of noncompete clauses in employment contracts. Noncompete agreements restrict workers’ ability to work in their industry for a certain amount of time or in a specific geographic location. The FTC says these agreements exploit employees and violate the Federal Trade Competition Act. I recently heard about one company’s contract that restricted former employees from contacting their former clients for TEN years! You can submit a comment to the FTC on this proposal:  https://www.regulations.gov/document/FTC-2023-0007-0001. The last day for submitting a comment is March 10, 2023.