How not to get retrenched / 5
Your job -- besides working hard for your boss -- is to identify the right godfather or godmother and pay allegiance to that individual. Nowadays, they call them "mentors", a better sounding word than "godfather" (someone in a Hollywood movie who would happily get you killed and then make it up to your widow by bedding her and giving you a grand funeral).
The godpa or godma is usually your direct boss you have to serve faithfully. But this does not have to be always the case.
In fact, a wise strategy to is adopt more than one godfather.
Look for someone senior and with authority, but in an unrelated part of the company. You must be pro-active in this respect -- you have to do the adoption, not the other way round. Top people are too busy and too high up to notice the little people at the bottom. Cultivate their friendship. They will feel flattered that you admire and respect them. They think you are genuine because you have nothing personal to gain (they are unrelated to your work and therefore not directly involved in your promotion or salary increment).
You, of course, do not need to point out to them that although they do not determine your job future, they can influence it a great deal if they open their mouth. Because if you have become close to them, they will not keep their mouth shut when they learnt that you are in danger of being retrenched.
You start your godfather adoption scheme by doing active, regular networking in the office. Make friends with everyone and judge their worth to your survival. It's good to have four people thinking well of you but it's even better to have 40 people thinking well of you.
Roam around the office -- talk to people, listen and make yourself seen far and wide. Life is strange -- a manager working in a remote part of the office whom you hardly exchange a greeting could suddenly move on to a top job elsewhere and offer you an opening in his new company. He may have been eyeing you and receiving the impression that you are a responsible, productive worker, and because you hardly mix with him there is no opportunity for him to revise that impression!
