Is your company downsizing? Are personnel costs about to be reduced? Will salaries and bonuses be lowered? This situation is a reality for many people. What can you do to help yourself?

The current world recession is probably the worst since the 1930s. Most of the developed countries are still in an economic recession, which has lasted a year and there is still a lot of instability in the financial sector. It means that the jobs of many people are under threat. More and more people lose hope in the future.

The ongoing crisis is the result of a long economic prosperity, which caused heavy lending and consumption. In good times, the demand for products and services was high, which meant that it was relatively easy for companies to make a profit. That led to the inefficiency of many companies. There was not a great need to optimize costs, since even if a company had high and useless costs, it could still make a lot of money.

But it’s all gone now. To survive the recession, companies have to cut costs. If it is not possible to sell as many products now, it means that the income is lower and therefore the costs must be lower to make a profit. Since salary costs are one of the main sources of expenses, companies are looking for ways to operate with the fewest number of employees. In the new economic situation there has to be more income generated per employee, which means that workers have to be more productive.

So to avoid getting fired, you have to be more productive. How can you achieve that? One possibility for that is to increase your reading speed. For many jobs, you will spend a considerable amount of work time on reading assignments. For example, you need to read email, product documentation, invoices, manuals, etc. For a typical office worker, reading can take 20-30% of work time. It means that if you could read faster, then you could end up with more work at the end of your workday. Faster readers will produce more results.

How can you be a faster reader? You’ll have to learn to speed read for that. It means that you will learn special techniques to get information from a text considerably faster than the average person. You can increase your reading speed by learning to read without regression, previewing before reading, and optimizing your eye movements as you read.

Since reading speed affects productivity, all else being equal, employees with higher reading speeds are more productive. In the situation where companies are downsizing, faster readers have a higher chance of keeping their jobs. Learn to read fast and impress your boss with your reading skills. By doing so, you can not only avoid getting fired, but also get a promotion or pay bonus.

The recession provides good opportunities to upskill as workloads are lower than in boom times. It means that you have more time available to learn, so it would be convenient to use it. The problem is that during those tough times, companies may not be as willing to pay the cost of training. What can you do then? If your boss doesn’t pay for it, then he can pay those expenses out of his own pocket. It may seem expensive to cover the training costs on your own, but it’s actually worth it. If you increase your productivity, in the long run you will not only keep your job, but you will end up with a higher income. I’m pretty sure your boss will be delighted that he has invested in you and it will benefit your career progression.