On this first anniversary of Katrina, all the news channels and media are devoting special coverage to Katrina recovery. Over the past year, we have worked with many Katrina evacuees who have had to move to a different part of the country and find new jobs. Many of these were quite fortunate that their jobs were readily transferable to different parts of the country and were considered higher demand positions (such as healthcare, for example). Others have not been so fortunate.
What about you? Is your job easily portable or is it tied to one particular geographical area? Are your skills so specialized that a sudden disruption to your employment would cause a serious problem in finding new employment readily? In this new and uncertain world in which we live, job security has a new meaning and takes on new implications to our overall lives. It's a new concern that many people have not considered.
How many people depend on you? Your family, your employees, and maybe friends depend on you as part of their lives. What if a hurricane suddenly blew your town away? Are you ready with a plan for how to continue to support those who depend on you? I would wager a guess that most of us are not. I recently saw a statistic that 80% of the US population lives paycheck to paycheck. Don't we do that in our planning, too? We don't plan much beyond next Christmas or next summer.
No matter where you live, it's important to be ready to evacuate for whatever reason at a moment's notice. Have all your important papers together in a briefcase or a binder that can be grabbed on the way out the door. Make sure your resume is up-to-date and is included in your important papers. Those who left their homes for Katrina never thought they'd come back to sheer devastation. Let's use the lessons they have taught us and be prepared.