How To Survive A Demotion

As companies struggle to cope with the recession by cutting and consolidating staff, many

workers are facing a plight that used to hit only underperformers and burnouts: They're

getting demoted.

Getting kicked down the career ladder stirs up a conflicting mess of emotions these days.

You feel humiliated and discouraged, but at the same time you feel lucky to have any job.

What's the best way to cope when it happens?

Career coaches and staffing experts suggest that, in this cold economic climate, you have to

grin and bear it. "At another time, you wouldn't take it. You would just move on," observes

Eileen Wolkstein, a New York career coach. "At this point, you have to be pragmatic. The

alternatives are bleaker."

Wolkstein is helping several clients cope with demotion right now. One was let go and later

returned to his old workplace as a contract employee. "I have people who have been out of

work for a while and then taken a job that they would never have done in the past, so it

amounts to a demotion," she reports.

Coping is tough, but career professionals agree that workers need to swallow their pride,

work hard and demonstrate a positive attitude. Stacey Jerrold, who used to head the human

resources department at the investment company ING Clarion and now works as a career coach

with a New York firm called the Five O'Clock Club, says an upbeat attitude and diligent work

habits are more important than ever right now. Figure out how to add value to your

organization, even from your rung lower down the ladder, she advises. Then when the outlook

starts to improve, you'll be able to sell yourself as the most deserving of promotion. If

you balk at your new-old responsibilities, the bosses will be more likely to show you the

door the next time the company cuts back.

Then there's the old job search rule that it's always easier to get a job when you have one.

Even if your demotion makes you miserable and you decide you can't bear to do it for long,

at least stay while you put out feelers.

A demotion can present unexpected networking and learning opportunities within an

organization. Ralph Maratta, who works at the Warren, N.J., headquarters of the Chubb Group

of Insurance Companies, was demoted from manager in the operations division to specialist

when the office cut a division. His pay remained steady, but his responsibilities diminished

and he suffered a bruised ego. However, he soon realized that as his job changed, he'd get

to meet a whole new group of Chubb executives. Also, he shifted his focus to social media, a

growth area. "Even if it looks like you're going backward from the outside, new

opportunities can present themselves, and growth can come from that," he says.

Although these days many demotions are the result of belt-tightening, some workers still get

booted downward for old-fashioned reasons like poor performance. Mary Anne Walsh, an

executive coach with the Five O'Clock Club, has a client in his late 50s who recently got

demoted from director of sales at a medical device company to sales manager, with a pay cut

of $20,000. At first, he was angry and depressed, but after Walsh encouraged him to take a

hard look at his recent performance, he realized he'd been feeling burned out, and showing

it. With coaching, he came to see that what he most liked to do was to work with younger

staff people, helping them develop their skills. He decided to look outside his company, and

now he's in the final round of interviews for a position at a business school.

Though her client is headed toward a happier career path, Walsh says, the transition from

humiliation to ambition wasn't easy. She impressed on him how much better it would be to

stick it out in his lower-level job than to bolt. "This is not the time to say, 'I'm out of

here,'" she says. "It's much better to suck it up and use your new job as an opportunity."