Unemployment, or OVER employment?

It’s easy to be worried about unemployment; it seems we are reminded of layoffs almost every day, either through news reports, or when we receive a note from an old friend or co-worker who’s been displaced. But there are other, perhaps less apparent byproducts to this recession.

Redeployment. The survivors of layoffs can often suffer dramatic increases in workload after their company has been “right-sized.” To make things worse, these folks often suffer from a form of Survivor’s Guilt.

Over-employment. Often, companies will reduce the hours of workers, in the hopes of avoiding (or reducing) the need for actual layoffs. Many people who’ve been cut from fulltime to part-time will seek additional part-time jobs, so as to maintain their income (lifestyle) until the world gets “back to normal.”

Hedgework. When people engage in a second job… in anticipation of future layoffs or job reductions.

Day-lighting. This is something like moonlighting, except that technology allows people to handle two jobs from one chair, “toggling back and forth” from one position to another. Read more about this observation in the most recent issue of the Iconoculture newsletter.

Implications: For years, marketers have coveted the cherished “two-income household,” assuming the target represented affluence. In the near term, you might consider adjusting your aim… to reach two-income people.

In an already time-sensitive household, can you imagine how busy these folks are? Do your products or services offer the promise of time savings that over-employed people might appreciate? And to address the obvious (but often un-noticed), is your company recruiting right now? There might be bargains out there, in terms of talent.

Mike Anderson