Feeling job insecure is normal because it is a manufactured problem.
This wonderful article by Vox titled “Are layoffs common?” talks about job insecurity in the US. This was a change in management thinking and that is why productivity and loyalty are so low.
People it isn’t your fault! You have been made to feel worthless by a system designed to squeeze every last cent out of you. Instead of pensions and the other benefits of being a good employee, you have seen that as benefits have decreased, costs have increased. We have a worse standard of living than years ago, and who is to blame? Not millennials spending on avocado toast. It is managers deciding that people don’t need to be trained, invested in, and believed in when times are tough.
Apple once said that when times were tough that was the best time to innovate. They didn’t let people go when times were tough. Now at the drop of a hat, people will be let go even after doing the work that makes the company they worked for record profits. People feel used and rightly so. If their hard work isn’t rewarded, then why work hard?
So what can we do? Find employers that invest in your training, invest in your training, and make your opportunities. Don’t rely on others to give you an opportunity in the world. Make one for yourself. This has always been my strategy and it has worked great. No one person can break me, because no one person has made me.
It’s okay to feel insecure, you are just feeling what management wants you to feel. Move beyond that and realize that you are a small cog in a big machine and that you don’t have to feel insecure when you use your talents to secure your future.