OK... I've taken a couple of weeks off for Christmas, but now I'm back! did you miss me?... of course not... no bugger reads this shit anyway... ah well... Hopefully, one day, this blog will take off... and when that day comes, people might find this useful... though I'm guessing that'll happen during the next recession in 2050.
Either way... I give to you the scouse economist's recession survival guide! Part three!
Five: Find a change jar
Everybody has owned one of these at some point, and it contains an almost comical amount of pennies that no one can be bothered to take down to the post office and get changed.
From now on, this is how it’s going to work. Every Friday, when you get in after a hard day doing whatever you do for a living, open your wallet and tip it upside down, unleashing a blizzard of shrapnel (hopefully). Take anything less than a pound coin and put in to your change jar.
The change jar will serve two purposes. Firstly, if you ever run low on odds and ends of cash, you can dive in to it and save yourself from drawing out an unnecessary amount of ‘big cash’ from an atm. Secondly, it can also serve as an additional fund to your savings. Once it’s full, get it changed and put it in to the bank.
Six: Open a savers account.
Yes, I have been saying this all along, but it is an important step, that deserves its own point. If you don’t already have a little money tucked away for a rainy day, then I suggest you start doing so.
There are a multitude of ‘horror-stories’ making the rounds in the press at the moment. ‘Hundreds of workers laid off!’, ‘Banks collapsing’ and ‘pension funds becoming worthless’.
If anything were to go wrong, either you taking a pay cut or losing your job altogether, you want something to support you for at least a little bit whilst you get back on your feet. I’m not scaremongering or anything, it’s just better to be safe than sorry. This is a recession after all.
Seven: Work hard.
As I have alluded previously, employment is on the decrease, and the job market is getting more competitive. You’re going to have to do more than before now in order to get a job or keep your current one.
With a little determination and a bit of arse-kissing you can make yourself more employable and more efficient than your co-workers. These, and those looking for your job who are currently in ‘welfare-land’, are your competition after all… and you need to beat them.
A warning, however. Working too hard can stress you out, make you less efficient and a pain to be around. Also, arse-kissing can only go so far before it becomes tedious and creepy. Your boss signs your pay-check, and that’s all. He/she doesn’t deserve free tickets or a bubble-bath. Coming on too strong will get you fired.
Remember this, be as good as you can be. That is all that anybody can ask for, and if that doesn’t keep you employed, then the company doesn’t deserve such a dedicated worker as yourself. It’s their loss.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
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