Take this job or else!

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CNNMoney.com has a somewhat discouraging yet eye-opening article that outlines the problems many Americans are having during this troubled economy. People who have lost their jobs are being forced to take a new job making less money, in some cases a lot less money.

After Jarrod Posner, 34, was laid off from his $110,000-a-year job as a mortgage lender for D.R. Horton, he had to change careers to find employment. After months of looking he took a job as an enrollment counselor at the University of Phoenix – a position that paid $33,000.

How would you be impacted if you lost your current job? Do you have an emergency fund in place that would allow you to be patient until the right job came open or would you just be looking for any job available just to try and make ends meet?

Many people think that because they have a job with a large corporation their job is safe. Unfortunately that is not true anymore. Even the big, “been around for ever” companies are laying people off. Within the last year banks and car companies have laid off hundreds of thousands of employees. Bear Stearns fired over 7,000 people as it was bought by JP Morgan. Washington Mutual laid off 3,000 people earlier this year, and as Countrywide was taken over by Bank of America thousands more lost work. There really is no such thing as job security anymore. You are only as safe as your current emergency fund.

Here are a four things you can do to minimize the probability that you will be laid off:

Always do more than is expected
When given the opportunity, volunteer for more work
Look for opportunities to expand your roll on the team
If possible, produce more than anyone else

Even when doing things like this there is no guarantee you won’t be the next person to be handed a box. However, if you are doing more than anyone else, your boss will at least have to think twice about letting you go.

If you do find yourself being laid off, don’t get lazy. As quickly as possible you need to find another job, especially if you receive a severance package. If you can get a job making the same salary as your previous job, then the severance package becomes a bonus package and can either be used to pay off a large chunk of debt or start/build-up your child’s college fund. Either way, until the economy picks up, you need to do your job in a way that makes your boss want to keep you. Plus, all the extra effort can’t hurt when performance appraisal time rolls around.