Is your parachute packed?

I hear more and more often about people losing their main form of employment.

They are 'downsized' or 'rightsized' or told simply that they have no job now.

Whilst it may not come as a bolt out of the blue, most people are not prepared with a back-up plan.

In other words, they have no parachute ready packed for the fall.

Is your parachute packed?

Of course I'm not talking about a literal parachute but a back-up plan that you can roll out quickly if the worst should happen.

• The obvious element is how will you earn money?
• What skill can you fall back on that will create some income whilst you think about other things?
• What tools do you have available if you were asked to leave the work office and not return? Do you have a PC or smartphone of your own?
• What relationships will last beyond the office water cooler and be helpful for you later?
• What resources can you bring into use?

The point about a parachute plan is not that helps you to survive long-term (although it might) but that it slows your rate of descent to something that you can safely land from.

Your choice of landing area may be limited and you may still land with a bump; but you'll survive and just possibly thrive as long as you have that parachute plan in place.

Think about what your plan may involve and get started today. With luck you'll never need it but if the worst should happen you'll have a much better chance of survival.

Go pack that parachute today.