Mergers and acquisitions, alas, are no passing fad. While that may be great for the investment bankers and attorneys on Wall Street, it's not so hot for the folks who work for the corporations that acquire and get acquired. Safety directors are especially vulnerable to the shakeout that invariably follows a big corporate deal. History has shown that the safety director position is one of the first to get consolidated when two companies combine operations. Here are four things you can do to improve your odds of surviving the acquisition or merger of your company.

Before a Merger

1. Recognize Your Vulnerability

In today's business world, anybody and everybody who works for a corporation is vulnerable to job loss because of merger and acquisition. The people who get hurt the most are the one who don't recognize or acknowledge their vulnerability until it's too late.

2. Make Preparations

Once you come to grips with the tenuous nature of your position, you can start making preparations to survive losing it. That includes financial preparations like setting aside funds so you have something to live off of if you lose your income. It includes professional preparations like maintaining relationships with headhunters and other contacts. And it includes psychological preparations like understanding that losing a job is an experience lots of people go through and doesn't have to be demoralizing.

After a Merger

3. Stay Neutral

Once the merger or acquisition happens, there are certain things you can do to position yourself effectively. The first is to avoid "choosing sides." Loyalty to the "old company" might seem admirable but it's misplaced and apt to get you into hot water with the new regime. By the same token, currying the favor of the new guys can make you look like an unprincipled suck-up. The smart play: Keep doing your job and show proper respect and deference to both sides.

4. Be Prepared to Adapt

Keep doing your job doesn't necessarily mean doing it the same way you have in the past. One of the keys to surviving a merger is persuading the decision-makers of your willingness and capability of adapting to changes in operations implemented by the new regime.

Parting Words

Paraphrasing a popular bumper sticker, mergers happen. And they cost people their jobs. These are laws of the universe that you can't control. What you can control is how a merger affects you. Once the merger happens, you may be able to take steps to increase your chances of staying on with the new company. But that's not always the case. After all, the decision-makers may have already decided your fate and there won't be anything you can do to alter that.

So the real key to surviving a merger: Be prepared - financially, professionally and psychologically - to lose your job. That means building a financial reserve, keeping your professional contacts alive and having the mental toughness to shrug off the blow.

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