So by now, most of us know that the economy isn’t doing as well as we would like. I know that intellectually, but now it’s really beginning to hit home. My husband’s son lost his job, and now two people from my department have lost their jobs too. So, I guess the question I need to answer is “how do I feel about this?”

You know, I thought I would be a lot more anxious and stressed-out. I mean, there there is a good chance that I could lose my job within the next year too. But I’m not. I know that I have good qualifications, and I know that I am good at what I do. I also know that I have options. If I lose this job and

Interestingly enough, I just ran across this article in McKinsey Quartlery: Upgrading talent: A downturn can give companies a chance to upgrade their talent.  Be aware that you need to register, but that it’s free. In summary, the article states:

Cost cutting during a downturn is often necessary to ensure a company’s current profitability and future competitiveness. Rather than freezing all hiring and employee-development programs, companies should use this period as an opportunity to upgrade talent and better engage existing staff. This means reinvesting a percentage of the capital liberated from cost cutting into, for example, selective recruiting and development programs and in efforts to safeguard the culture and to redesign jobs so that they are more engaging to the remaining employees.

And this is exactly the approach that I think we need to follow more often.