Time To Suck It Up And Change You Ways As Companies Begin Firing Middle Management  

With so many companies cutting their rank and file workforces to the bone because of the tough economy, it seemed inevitable that some firms would eventually get to the fatty middle — middle management that is. They get paid more than the rank and file, but they’re not at the top of the corporate food chain. These factors create a precarious situation for middle managers, and things could get worse if the recession drags on.

So, now is a good time for supervisors with one underling, or one thousand, to start making themselves indispensable to those folks in the corner offices. But how do you do that? Author Janet Banks provides her observations of middle management layoffs and why some supervisors were able to survive.

Here’s what she had to say:  “I had to go through seven rounds of cuts at one company and I had to make the final decisions on who stayed and who would go. What I learned is that you can’t control what people are going to do but you can control how you’re going to be perceived. The ability to have a positive attitude is critical as opposed to a person that’s so fearful that they take everyone in the downward spiral with them. You’re in good shape if you can project positive energy, and look at what is most relevant in terms of the work at hand.”

One of the key characteristics of a manager that tended not to get cut was that they remained upbeat and never acted like it was the end of the world. Another big plus is being flexible, she stresses. During a downturn in the business cycle, priorities of a business can change dramatically. That means you have to be ready to shift gears and look beyond the goals you set during up times.

There’s also a lot to be said about humor and making yourself lovable. It’s all about having the right people on your side during the downsizing war. If you only concentrate on protecting your job, you’ll be out of touch with what’s happening around you. People want flexibility and a positive attitude during layoffs. It’s what this crazy world demands.

Women’s portability comes from two sources: a greater emphasis on external relationships, and conducting better research about a company before joining it.

HBS professor Boris Groysberg started to notice something quite different about the career paths of successful analysts who were female. Star women, he found, maintained their shine even after switching companies. Unlike their male peers, they thrived in new work environments.

Why the difference? Female star analysts, it would seem, take their work environment more seriously yet rely on it less than male stars do. They look for a firm that will allow them to keep building their successful franchises their own way.

Women tend to do better after a move for two reasons. One is that they are more invested in external than in in-house relationships. There are four main reasons why star women maintain external focus: uneasy in-house relationships, poor mentorship, neglect by colleagues, and a vulnerable position in the labor market.

The other reason is that women do far more due diligence when they receive a job offer than men do, because women need to ensure that the company is good for women and that they won’t be treated as token females. In the process of due diligence, star women learn a lot of valuable information about the company that helps them make good strategic decisions. They scrutinize prospective employers on receptivity to women, managerial support, latitude and flexibility, and performance measurement.

A company that is willing to double your current salary, but will not invest in your long-term success, is not a good choice. Investigate a firm’s management, its culture, its resources, the commitment it is willing to make to you. Women in a male-dominated industry realize that they are vulnerable, but men are vulnerable to bad management and cultural mismatches more than they realize.

You must realize that if you aren’t managing your own professional image, someone else is. 

The definition of Professional Image is a set of qualities and characteristics that represent perceptions of your competence and character as judged by your key constituents. Most people want to be described as technically competent, socially skilled, of strong character and integrity, and committed to your work, your team, and your company. Research shows that the most favorably regarded traits are trustworthiness, caring, humility, and capability.

“People are constantly observing your behavior and forming theories about your competence, character, and commitment, which are rapidly disseminated throughout your workplace,” says HBS professor Laura Morgan Roberts. “It is only wise to add your voice in framing others’ theories about who you are and what you can accomplish.” Keeping on top of your personal traits is only part of the story of managing your professional image. You also belong to a social identity group—African American male, working mother—that brings its own stereotyping from the people you work with, especially in today’s diverse workplaces.

For example, African American men are stereotyped as being less intelligent and more likely to engage in criminal behavior than Caucasian men. Asian Americans are stereotyped as technically competent, but lacking in the social skills required to lead effectively. Working mothers are stereotyped as being less committed to their profession and less loyal to their employing organizations. All of these stereotypes pose obstacles for creating a positive professional image.

Despite the added complexity of managing stereotypes while also demonstrating competence, character, and commitment, there is promising news for creating your professional image! Impression management strategies enable you to explain predicaments, counter devaluation, and demonstrate legitimacy. People manage impressions through their non-verbal behavior (appearance, demeanor), verbal cues (vocal pitch, tone, and rate of speech, grammar and diction, disclosures), and demonstrative acts (citizenship, job performance).

In order to create a positive professional image, impression management must effectively accomplish two tasks: build credibility and maintain authenticity. When you present yourself in an inauthentic and non-credible manner, you are likely to undermine your health, relationships, and performance. Building credibility can involve being who others want you to be, gaining social approval and professional benefits. If you suppress or contradict your personal values for the sake of meeting societal expectations for professionalism, you might receive certain professional benefits, but you might compromise other psychological, relational, and organizational outcomes.

In virtually every occupation, women are being afflicted on a large scale by the same troubles as men: downturns, layoffs, outsourcing, stagnant wages or the discouraging prospect of an outright pay cut. And they are responding as men have, by dropping out or disappearing for a while. When economists first started noticing this trend two or three years ago, many suggested that the pullback from paid employment was a matter of the women themselves deciding to stay home — to raise children or because their husbands were doing well or because, more than men, they felt committed to running their households.

“When we saw women starting to drop out in the early part of this decade, we thought it was the motherhood movement, women staying home to raise their kids,” says a senior economist at the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, which did the Congressional study, said in an interview. “We did not think it was the economy, but when we looked into it, we realized that it was.”

For the first time since the women’s movement came to life, an economic recovery has come and gone, and the percentage of women at work has fallen. The pattern is roughly similar among the well-educated and the less educated, among the married and never married, among mothers with teenage children and those with children under 6, and among white women and black.

People are overpaid because there are certain things consumers just don’t want screwed up.

Almost no one in America would admit to being overpaid, but many of us take home bloated paychecks far beyond what we deserve. Below is a list of the 10 most overpaid jobs in the U.S., in reverse order, drafted with input from compensation experts:

10.) Wedding photographers: Photographers earn a national average of $1,900 for a wedding, though many charge $2,500 to $5,000 for a one-day shoot. The overpaid ones are the many who admit they only do weddings for the income, while quietly complaining about the hassle of dealing with hysterical brides and drunken reception guests.

9.) Major airline pilots: While American and United pilots recently took pay cuts, senior captains earn as much as $250,000 a year at Delta, and their counterparts at other major airlines still earn about $150,000 to $215,000. The pilot’s unions are the most powerful in the industry. They demand premium pay as if still in the glory days of long-gone Pan Am and TWA, rather than the cutthroat, deregulated market of under-$200 coast-to-coast roundtrips.

8.) West Coast longshoremen: In early 2002, West Coast ports shut down as the longshoremen’s union fought to preserve generous health-care benefits that would make most Americans drool. Next year, West Coast dockworkers will earn an average of $112,000 for handling cargo. Office clerks who log shipping records into computers will earn $136,000. And unionized foremen who oversee the rank-and-file will pull down an average $177,000.

7.) Skycaps at major airports: Many of the uniformed baggage handlers who check in luggage at curbside at the busiest metro airports pull in $70,000 to $100,000 a year. On top of their salaries, peak earners can take in $300 or more a day in tips. That amounts to a $2 tip from 18 travelers an hour on average. Many tip more than that.

6.) Real estate agents selling high-end homes:  Anyone who puts in a little effort can pass the test to get a real estate agent’s license, which makes the vast sums that luxury-home agents earn stupefying. While most agents hustle tail to earn $60,000 a year, those in affluent areas can pull down $200,000-plus for half the effort.

5.) Motivational speakers and ex-politicians on the lecture circuit:  Corporate trade groups pay astronomical sums to celebrity-types and political has-beens to address their convention audiences. The national convention circuit’s shame is that it blows trade-group members’ money on orators whose speeches often have been warmed over a dozen times.

 4.) Orthodontists:  For a 35-hour workweek, orthodontists earn a median $350,000 a year. General dentists, meanwhile, earn about half as much working 39 hours a week on average, in a much dirtier job. The difference in their training isn’t like that of a heart surgeon vs. a family-practice doctor. It’s a mere two years. U.S. dental schools have long been criticized for keeping orthodontists in artificially low supply to keep their income up.

3.) CEOs of poorly performing companies:  CEOs at chronically unprofitable companies and those forever lagging industry peers stand as the most grossly overpaid. Most know they should resign — in shareholders’ and employees’ interest — but they survive because corporate boards that oversee them remain stacked with friends and family members. The ultimate excess comes after they’re finally forced out, usually by insiders tired of seeing their own stock holdings plummet.

2.) Washed-up pro athletes in long-term contracts:  Those who sign whopping, long-term contracts after a few strong years, and then find their talents vanish, who reap unconscionable sums of money. They point to owners as the culprits, yet golf star Tiger Woods and tennis champ Serena Williams earn their keep based on their performance in each tournament.

1.) Mutual-fund managers:  They’ve been long overpaid. Stock-fund managers can easily earn $500,000 to $1 million a year including bonuses.  Now we discover an untold number enriched themselves and favored clients with illegally timed trades of fund shares. That’s a worse betrayal of trust than the corporate scandals of recent years, since they’re supposed to be on the little person’s side.

Gaming manager is one of America’s surprising six-figure jobs, as compiled by Forbes.com based on the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics salary data.

Flight attendants: The top 10% of flight attendants earn $102,660 a year. Florida is the top-paying state for this occupation.

Farm, ranch and other agricultural managers:  The top 10% earn $103,660 a year. Florida is the top-paying state for this occupation.

Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, except technical and scientific products: The top 10% earn $103,910 a year. New Jersey is the top-paying state for this occupation.

Network systems and data communications analysts:  The top 10% earn $105,980 a year. New Jersey is the top-paying state for this occupation.

Loan officers:  The top 10% earn $106,130. The median annual salary is $53,000. Alaska is the top-paying state for this occupation.

Gaming managers: The top 10% earn $106,220 a year. Nevada is the top-paying state for this occupation. Duh!

Real estate sales agents: The top 10% earn $106,790 a year. The top-paying state for this occupation is Hawaii.

Database administrator:  The top 10% earn $106,860 a year. Maryland is the top-paying state for this occupation.

Insurance sales agents: The top 10% earn $113,190 a year. New Jersey is the top-paying state for this occupation.

Market research analysts:  The top 10% earn $113,390 a year. Washington is the top-paying state for this occupation.

Teaching (post-secondary):  These teachers earn an annual salary in the range of $41,650 and $135,380.

A handful of women have achieved C.F.O. status at major Wall Street firms. Yet none of them have moved to the top job at their firm or even to an obvious precursor position.

Lehman Brothers’ pugnacious C.E.O., Richard Fuld, chief operating officer, Joseph Gregory, and the company’s co-chief administrative officers, Scott Freidheim and Ian Lowitt are all men who oversee the army of traders and bankers who make up the capitalist heart of the company. This is not a place where you see many women, unless they’re part of the secretarial pool.

To visit the floor is to realize how remarkable the presence of Erin Callan is. Ensconced in the office next to Gregory’s, seated before twin blinking flat screens, Lehman’s new chief financial officer is the first woman ever to serve on the firm’s 15-member executive committee. A former tax attorney who started at Lehman in the fixed-income department and then rose to advise hedge fund kings like Ken Griffin and Steve Cohen, Callan led some of the most important initial public offerings in the financial world in recent years.

Yet the C.F.O.’s office may be as far as Callan gets. She begins her new job just as women’s advances in corporate America and banking in particular have entered a surprising state of limbo. No woman has ever been named the C.E.O. of a Wall Street firm, and the prospects of it ever happening seem even more remote now than they did a year or two ago.

There are plenty of signs of ageism in corporate America.

American culture relentlessly celebrates youth. But in the corporate world, 80 is the new 50. Advances in medicine make a retirement age of 65 seem like a relic. Until recently, aging big-shot executives were generally happy to play golf, become ambassadors, or just sail away on their yachts. Today, not so much.

Most Type-A M.B.A.s could outpace these old-timers in a 100-meter dash. (Self-proclaimed workout stud Sumner Redstone, the 85-year-old chairman of both Viacom and CBS, might give the youngsters a run for their money.) But these are marathon men, not the sprinters who thrive during bubbles. In recent months, fiftysomething CEOs of Wall Street firms and large banks have been decimated by the credit crunch, just as twentysomething tech stars were crushed in the 2001 NASDAQ crash. Unlike their younger counterparts, today’s headline-making grandparents have experience managing through the last serious oil shock and prolonged period of financial pain in the 1970s. Kirk Kerkorian began his career during the Great Depression. These ancient rock stars have also proved willing to learn a repertoire beyond their greatest hits. Rupert Murdoch, 77, beat younger moguls in the race for MySpace and is now busily remaking the Wall Street Journal.

As they’ve moved through life, the baby boomers have altered societal attitudes on everything from smoking marijuana to Botox. As boomers coast into their golden years, it’s likely the acceptance of older workers at every rung of the corporate ladder will grow. In the 1960s, the boomers’ mantra was: Don’t trust anyone over 30. In the 2010s, it’ll probably be: Don’t trust anyone under 70.

 The bigger the boat, the harder to hide.

So many people have so many things they can no longer afford. Some people lose their house or their boat to abrupt setbacks: illness, job loss, divorce. This is an excellent time to be a repo man. After nearly 20 years in the repossession business, Jeff Henderson has never been busier.

Boating was traditionally the pastime of the well-off, but the long housing boom and its gusher of easy credit changed that. People refinanced their homes and used the cash for down payments on a cruiser, miniyacht or sailboat. Many boats are fuel hogs, and rising gasoline and diesel prices meant a weekend jaunt could cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Owners found they could not sell a boat for what they owed and could not refinance either.

Boat loans, like car loans, give the bank permission to recover its collateral in the case of default, which explains why a repo man can go into a yard without technically trespassing. Nevertheless, the custom is to get in and get out before the owners, neighbors or authorities notice anything amiss.

 No one grows up aspiring to be a repo man. When he meets strangers and they ask what he does, he merely says he is in the marine industry. He has repossessed the boats of friends and one relative, a cousin. “Somebody’s got to do it,” he said. “Might as well be me.”

Study Shows Average Age of Management Positions Now 25 Years Old

Generation Y people born after 1981 tend to climb to managerial posts in companies at a relatively much younger age than their older counterparts. Employees born after 1980 tend to first become managers at an average age of 25.3, compared to 31.8 for their counterparts who were born in the 50s. The Y-generation people seem to climb the career ladder faster as they tend to have stronger ability to learn and a stronger work ethic, according to the poll.

Most of the business executives said they do not particularly consider employees’ ages when they are choosing new leaders within their corporations. They choose according to negotiation and coordination ability. The ability to solve problems and professional abilities are more important factors when they are considering promotions.

Interestingly enough, the Y-generation people do not necessarily perform well in management terms. According to company executives, managers aged 39-48 were the best performers.

Robots could fill the jobs of 3.5 million people in graying Japan by 2025.

Japan faces a 16% slide in the size of its workforce by 2030 while the number of elderly will mushroom, the government estimates, raising worries about who will do the work in a country unused to, and unwilling to contemplate, large-scale immigration. The current fertility rate is 1.3 babies per woman, far below the level needed to maintain the population, while the government estimates that 40% of the population will be over 65 by 2055, raising concerns about who will look after the graying population.

Japan could save 2.1 trillion yen ($21 billion) of elderly insurance payments in 2025 by using robots that monitor the health of older people, so they don’t have to rely on human nursing care. Caregivers would save more than an hour a day if robots helped look after children, older people and did some housework, it added. Robotic duties could include reading books out loud or helping bathe the elderly. Mommy, I want Yuki 2.0 to wipe my @**.

The New Economics of Outsourcing

Companies that traditionally rely on India for offshore IT services have been looking for that something beyond India for years, citing such reasons as high employee turnover and unreliable communications. But the search has taken on added urgency recently, especially for U.S. companies, as a weakening dollar has boosted the cost of IT services priced in India’s rupee. Over the past five years the dollar has declined about 16% against the rupee. High real estate costs and expectations for tax increases also have diminished India’s allure.

As outsourcing to India becomes more expensive, North American companies are more inclined to “nearsource,” keeping work in the Western Hemisphere, where they can operate in a closer time zone. In years past a company could save 40% to 50% by hiring Indian firms to handle IT and other services. Should the U.S. dollar continue its descent, that differential would shrink to 10% to 20%.

How much longer the world’s companies will have financial incentive to outsource to India is a matter of lively debate. India’s “advantage as an offshore location is fast eroding—its attractiveness takes a hit with each passing day,” analysts at Forrester Research wrote in a January, 2008, report. Forrester catalogued some of the well-known challenges, such as increasing staffing costs, turnover and strained infrastructure.

The benefit of doing business, from a labor-cost point of view, in such locales as Bangalore, India, will disappear for some companies in three to four years. Indeed, while costs are increasing in India, the country is generally less expensive than Latin America and most other locations, especially for companies that don’t require high-end software developers. The average annual salary for an IT worker in the U.S. is about $75,000. In India it’s about $7,779 and in Argentina, it’s slightly higher at $9,478. In Brazil, the annual wage jumps to $13,163, and in Mexico it climbs to $17,899.

Increasingly, companies want a provider that can nimbly shift tasks and labor among its own global network of work centers. The dollar’s decline aside, even Brazilian firms are benefiting as companies spread their outsourcing around. The real question, if you’re going to sign onto somebody for five to seven years, is do they have a vision for how they’re going to move work around the network.

Workers in certain industries can have more comfort in knowing that, even if they are fired, there is so much demand they should be able to find another job very quickly.

Talk of a recession and creeping unemployment rates are enough to make you wonder: Where can you find stability in unstable times? Kiplinger consulted career experts and combed through job trend data to come up with five industries that should provide safer havens to workers, no matter what the economy is doing. No matter what field you work in, you have the possibility of losing your job. But there are things you can do to protect yourself and increase your odds of getting another job, just in case.

Healthcare  
Many of the nation’s fastest-growing careers are in the health care industry, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. An increasingly aging population fuels demand in this field. Some specific jobs with stable prospects include doctor, nurse, pharmacist, physical therapist and physician assistant.

Education
Teachers for any grade level who specialize in high-demand fields such as math, science or bilingual education should have an easier time finding and keeping a job. And the outlook for college instructors looks stable, too. College enrollment is rising as the number of 18- to 24-year-olds increases. Some areas of the country are more stable than others for teachers because education jobs follow population trends. So teachers in fast-growing states in the South and West, such as Nevada, Arizona, Texas and Georgia, will have more opportunity than in slower-growth areas in the Midwest and Northeast.

Security
Crime doesn’t stop in a recession. That makes security jobs, such as police officers, detectives, private security guards and international security experts, a good bet. Layoffs in this industry are rare. In the off-chance law enforcement officers lose their jobs to budget cuts, they have little difficulty finding jobs with other agencies because demand is so high.

Environmental Sciences
The current “green” movement reaches far beyond changing your light bulbs to fluorescents. It’s also translating into a solid career choice. The BLS expects environmental careers, including ecologists, hydrologists, environmental chemists and others, to grow 25% over the next decade.

Government
Some of the most stable jobs around are within the federal government, where firings and lay-offs happen at just one-quarter the rate in the private sector. One reason: Even in hard economic times when big businesses are forced to downsize, the government must carry on. And only one in every 5,000 non-defense workers is ever fired for poor performance each year. Crazy odds! Due to an increasingly aging workforce, the government is doing a lot of hiring lately, especially among the 20-something crowd.