SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 190,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our e-newsletter.
Last week, we asked: How frequently do you worry about getting fired ?
- Never — I’m irreplaceable: 20.49%
- Sometimes — when projects go wrong or bad things happen: 55.74%
- Often — I am frequently on edge: 17.49%
- All the time — I live in perpetual fear of getting fired: 6.28%
Fear of Firings. Clearly the vast majority of you are in fear of losing your jobs on a regular basis which is disappointing. You should never have to question where you stand with respect to job security (this means also knowing if you are in danger of losing it). If you are wondering if you’re at risk, there are some pretty easy ways to know if you’re about to be fired. One implication for you leaders – I’ll bet your team members feel the same way as these poll results reflect. When people are worried, they’re distracted and morale/performance suffers. If you can give them a little security with some simple conversations, you would be well advised to do so.
Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS and author of “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”