Will the last one out please switch off the lights?

I got my first expression of interest in the O/O Assessment this morning which is great. But what was far more salutary was the fact that out of all the people I emailed with an outline of the service, a shade under half bounced back - or elicited a response that the person I'd mailed no longer worked for the organisation I'd sent the information to.

None of my 'targets' was a totally cold call: these were organisations I'd worked with before or people I at least knew through the CiB/IABC/Melcrum networks. While I'm sure some people have simply moved on from one organisation to another, it seems that IC has contracted pretty drastically in 2009.

Communication confidence is crashing

Some scary figures on the latest poll on the CiB website......And perhaps the scariest is that 3.8% of those people polled feel very secure in their jobs!

While it's sad to see that 13.3% of people polled have already lost their jobs in this recession (there's now a network of more than 100 'resting' communicators already on Linkedin), the concern is that 40% of respondents are feeling insecure about their jobs.

The poll asked: How secure do you feel in your job compared with 12 months ago?

About the same 24.6%
Quite insecure 21.3%
Quite secure 18.5%
Very insecure 18.5%
Have been made redundant 13.3%

Very secure 3.8%

At times like this, great communication, great engagement and great leadership are all vital for business. Yet our industry leaders haven't got the confidence to make their communicators feel secure. Is that because they still don't understand the value of effective organisational communication, or is it because some of our communicators are being shown up as lacking the skills necessary to thrive in a tough environment? I suspect it's a combination of the two - and the next few months will be very telling.

Where has the pace gone?

There are two apples left on my tree.....not normally something I'd notice. But it has been a SLOOOW day today. Much of it has been taken up editing and rewriting a document written in American business speak with the goal of making it rather more readable and relevant for an audience of sales people. It's not the most exciting piece of work I'll ever undertake, but ultimately it's quite satisfying to turn the unreadable into words that both flow and make sense. However, it has taken a long time, punctuated with periods of staring out the window at the leafless twigs that only a few weeks ago were home to about 2,000 apples (it's a wide, 40 foot high dual varietal tree!).

Other than that, today has mirrored the last few days - in fact not much has changed work-wise since the last posting. There's a real feeling of caution in the market at the moment. All I've heard for the last week is job losses and lay-offs. It started with freelancers and agency people, but has now spread in-house. I'm less affected than most - so far - but I could certainly be busier.

What I've noticed most though is a malaise around getting anything done. I have a list of interviews to set up and complete - but the first action's taking forever, and too few people seem to want to put their heads above the parapet and say anything of note at the moment. Those who have jobs are working hard to protect them. Those who don't simply don't want to be controversial at all at this time. There's no pace to communications activities in too many places. Any discretionary spend that was out there has gone, and even projects that have to happen are happening with a sense of shell-shock around them.

I suspect it's temporary, bout doubt we'll all get back to our senses before the New Year. Until then, I guess we'll all just battle on.

Meanwhile, it's getting dark...but there are still two apples on the tree.