Be low-maintenance and tech-savvy

Keeping your job and advancing in your job require the same strategies, say Michael J. Kitson and Bob Calandra, two local authors and hockey teammates who cowrote a book on job survival.

How to Keep Your Job in a Tough Competitive Market: 101 Strategies You Can Use Today suggests that job survival depends on building your reputation for value, helping others and your company, and mastering office politics.

Here are a baker's dozen's worth of tips:

Number 4: Be a low-maintenance employee. No one likes a whiner or prima donna.

Number 10: Add technology to your brand. A useful person is less likely to be laid off.

Number 19: Quantify your value. If someone hasn't given you measurements, create your own, and then exceed them. Document everything, then show the results to your manager.

Number 26: Always carry a business card. You never know whom you'll meet.

Number 40: Let people know you enjoy your job.

Number 45: Draw attention to a colleague's good work. The bright light you shine on another bounces back to illuminate you.

Number 53: Offer to help new employees. You show yourself as a person worthy of respect and trust.

Number 58: Find ways to save money. It shows you have the company's interests at heart. That's a corollary to No. 57: Go easy on expenses.

Number 65: Control your anxiety. Taking action to save your job or find alternatives will alleviate some of the stress.

Number 73: Take care of your customers. Keeping clients is a good way to keep your job.

Number 75: Become the face of your company in your community. By furthering your company's philanthropic goals, you build up your network inside and outside the company. Besides, who could fire that face?

Number 90: Be aware of trends and changes in the office. If, for example, you see work being shifted away from your branch office, to headquarters, it is time to develop more connections there.

Number 94: Inspect and maintain your bridges. Good relations may help you survive a layoff.

   - Jane M. Von Bergen