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Job loss is on my mind a lot these days. This, by itself, should be unsurprising for those who know where I work, and what the economy has been like these days. Actually, I am not worried about my job per se. I am worried for all the folks in my group to whom I don't want this to happen. I am terrified by the thought that I might have to carry out corporate orders to "surplus" some of the people in my own group.
If you work for a corporation somewhere, may be you too have secretly wondered if these job slashes can touch you. Or, may be you've fumed at the unfairness of some schmucks still sticking around making your life miserable, while your colleagues who were close friends are off the payroll.
While mulling over the unsavory topic of job loss in general, it occurred to me that clinging on to a job has lots of similarities with winning strategies while playing chess. Once I made this connection, I began to the see the parallels strongly, and decided to write them down. In my dream scenario, some acquaintance of mine will read this, retain their job and thank me profusely for it. Worst case, someone will pick up a chess tip or two, so what's the harm?
Ordering by Value
It seems logical to start out with the big ideas, and then zoom in on the nuances. Let's take the very elementary idea of the value of pieces. Every beginner knows this -- a queen is worth nine points, a rook five, bishops and knights are three (though in skilled hands a bishop is worth marginally more) and pawns are one point each. Basic stuff. And yet, I am shocked that people don't realize that this also applies to all the employees in a group in the corporate world. If we work in a group with four other team members, our boss has mentally assigned values to each one of us. When the crunch comes, the boss will sort in descending order and start knocking off the names from the bottom of the list. If it is a 40% cut, 2 people will go. It is that simple. I am shocked at how many people refuse to look at this objectively. Employees get emotional and moan and cry about their home mortgages and how much they need the salary. But have they really done the math and figured out where they stand in the queue to the gallows? A simple and useful exercise is to prepare a list like the one your boss would, and see where you fall. If your rank in your group seems unsafe to you, and if you need the salary, to me it seems like a good idea to start polishing your resume.
LPDO
Let's move on to another idea, almost as elementary. You can very quickly tell chess amateurs by watching for a particular error, the one that violates the LPDO principle. LPDO stands for Loose Pieces Drop Off. In other words, if your bishop or knight is totally unprotected, an enemy queen or rook could attack it at the right time capture it. You were careless enough not to protect it with even one of your pieces or pawns and therefore you paid the price. In the corporate world, loose pieces are employees whose work is deemed ad-hoc, or non-essential by outsiders. In my company I saw this happen more than you'd ever believe. I am again shocked by the number of people in my own workplace who assure me how essential to the functioning of the corporation their jobs are. This has led me to conclude that most people are unable to be objective about this. The solution to the LPDO problem in corporate life is to work on more than one project, preferably on many. (I know that this is not always up to the employee, but I have found volunteering for all sorts of tasks to be one possible approach.) To me, this means being an active participant in whatever project you are assigned to. There are proactive folks who go and ask for things. If you don’t want to lose you job, make yourself useful. At the very least, make yourself visible.
Transference
Since we are discussing LPDO here, I will take a moment to mention a very related concept that most people overlook. It is called Transference in chess. Sometimes, you don't really need the rook to protect a whole open file, a queen could do that nicely and do more. Alternatively, you may not need a bishop to do what a pawn can do. In the corporate analogy there are people, blithely smug because they are the only ones who can support that one essential system. How can they possibly think of even touching me, they think? But these employees don’t ask themselves, are there others who can do my job (or learn it quickly?) To be truly indispensable, one has to work on not one or two, but three or more different efforts.
Context-dependence
Quick, which is the weakest piece on the board? A commonly accepted answer is the King-Bishop's pawn, the f2 and f7 pawns, followed closely by the c pawns. Fine, let's say we accept that as the right answer without debating. What are the next weakest ones? Not so easy to answer. It depends on the position on the board. But still, given a position, all the weak pieces can be identified with relative ease. Keeping in mind that this value scale often varies, creating and re-creating your supervisor's list of expendables every time you change jobs or roles will prevent any unpleasant surprises.
Usefulness
The next idea in chess is that of usefulness. Even if you are just a pawn, if you are protecting the king you are a lot more valuable than the expendable one on the a2 square away from all the action. In chess, you learn that usefulness is context-dependent, not an absolute. So, how can it be any different for a job? It is really simple. As long as you are useful to your boss, your job is safe. Viewed in this context, it becomes clear why not getting along with your boss is a recipe for disaster. If you are not seeing eye-to-eye with your boss, you can do one of two things: Move and get a new boss. Or, get a new point of view.
Flexibility
Nasty and devious plans to storm the enemy's kingside are brewing in your focused mind. You have been ignoring your opponents' innocuous a4 and b5 moves. And before you know it, he has a full-fledged assault on your weak queenside and you are defending. Chess coaches will often advice by saying "Play to the position, not to your set plan." Every piece exchange means a time to reevaluate your old strategy. Flexibility is a virtue that we all preach, and want others to practice. At work too, to be fixated on a pre-date sense of value, when the world around us is collapsing is to beg for trouble. As a friend at work suggested in a meeting, unwittingly mangling the metaphor, "Let's not put the whole chicken in one basket!"
Passed Pawns
Let's next consider passed pawns. A passed pawn is one that cannot be stopped anymore by any enemy pawn. It is still a mere pawn, but exalted because of the prefix -- passed. A passed pawn represents pure potential. Any chess player worth their salt will die for a passed pawn. I am gonna grow into a big piece and gobble you alive, it tells your opponent. In the work context, these are employees whose present position is low in the hierarchy, but who are so very good that even directors and managing-directors and the CIOs know of their existence, and are watching out for them. When layoffs come, these passed pawns can always sleep easy.
Finally, as you know, there are any number of lists floating around – 25 Tips to Improve Your Game, 10 Ways to Win in Chess. These are good, but any list, no matter how good cannot achieve the win. Chess is a complex game, an organic whole with too many factors playing into the result. Jobs are like that too. The things mentioned above will help, but each job and each company is unique. You have to do a lot of things to stay off the chopping block. Good luck.
(Everything stated here is strictly my personal view, and in no way reflects those of my employer)
Ram Prasad
September 2002
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