Three things to do before you get sacked

Larry Hughes, sacked flack

Because it’s coming, brother. You know it is. What, you think you’re special?

So did my friend Larry Hughes, a publicity maestro at HarperCollins, whom I met when he coordinated publicity for my book. It’s weird: we’re in touch now more than ever, mainly because since his sacking he’s taken to the full-time job of publicizing himself. He’s really good at it, too. Seems every week he’s quoted in some other major media outlet, talking about his unemployment. Even his blog, Book Flack, got press on Bizweek’s web site. (Read his post explaining the origin of the word “flack,” which is what journalists call press agents; they get us back by calling us “hacks.” It’s a love-hate relationship.)

This week he’s in U.S. News & World Report, in this column (marketed somehow as a blog) by Liz Wolgemuth, giving his take on three things he woulda done differently before he got laid off.

“First, I would have made sure I had a database of my industry contacts somewhere other than my work computer,” Hughes says. “The morning I was let go, I was dismayed to find that by the time I got back to my desk, I’d been locked out of my computer. No access to the address book I’d created there–and that included not just work-related contacts but friends, my doctor, the woman who cuts my hair. I’ve had to rely on memory and have spent a lot of time figuring out how to reconnect with those people.” Hughes muses that many of us settle in and make a home for ourselves in our workplaces. “As I’ve learned, that can all be taken away,” he says. Job Lesson: Assume the ax could fall at any time.

“Second, I would have prepared a better record of my professional accomplishments,” Hughes says. His portfolio would have included media from successful publicity campaigns and praise from authors he’d worked with. In other jobs, the accomplishments worth recording or preserving would obviously be different. The key is to recognize that, if you wait, the information may be unavailable to you right when you need it the most. Job Lesson: Be at the ready to market yourself.

“Third, I’d have ramped up my networking–something I really haven’t paid sufficient attention to,” he says. Well, he corrects himself: “I think the truth is, I’m not comfortable doing it and don’t feel that I’m particularly good at it. However, if you wait until you’re out of a job to begin, it’s twice as hard because you feel your motives are completely transparent.” Job Lesson: Always be networking.

Now that I know he had to dig up my e-mail and all his other media contacts out of the ether (or Google), I’m extra impressed. This is what I meant when I criticized career advice from executive coaches: if you haven’t been in the trenches, like Larry, you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.