Not the case.

In Newsweek’s A Recession Handbook, people working in cubes are offered this advice:

Stay visibly busy, says New York headhunter Stephen Viscusi. The first employees to go during a recession are the high-maintenance slackers. Come in early, leave late, eat lunch at your desk and try to figure out how you can make your boss’s life easier and more profitable. Update your résumé with all your current skills and accomplishments, even if you’re not planning on job hunting. You can post that résumé, absent your current employer’s name, at online job sites like Monster.com, just to see what else is out there. If you’re ready for a change, Vault.com reports that health-care and sales careers are the most promising and protected during downturns.

Call me crazy, but this has to be some of the worst advice I’ve ever seen on career management.

Coming in early and leaving late simply increases your stress. Besides, if your company really has the work to do, decide on doing the work, not making appearances thinking it will help your cause. It won’t.

Eating lunch at your desk is the worst thing you can do when times are tough. Use your lunch time to interact with other people and stay connected with your network. Build your network during your lunch hour. All eating at your desk does is isolate you from the rest of the world — a disastrous career move.

If you were slacking off before and have that as your personal brand, do you honestly think coming in early and staying late will change that image any time soon? Like before a layoff? Not really. Deliver your work; the rest will follow.

If your manager can’t figure out how you can help him or her achieve their goals, it is useful to make sure you show your talents to your manager to get the right work and help. But, go out and figure out how to make the boss’s life easier? They pay managers the big bucks to figure those things out with their team.

Posting your resume “just to see what’s out there” is pointless. Unless you are consistently updating your resume on the boards, they will drift off into electronic purgatory never to see the light of day. Either go look for a job and do the work associated with it or don’t. You’d be far better off communicating with your network about jobs than posting on boards in any case.

Applying for jobs in growing areas like healthcare and sales may make some sense — if you have the right skills and performance to do the work. But if your entire career is in engineering, don’t think you have the right stuff to be a doctor. Go with your strengths or, if you are changing careers, have a plan to do so and not just apply to where the pundits see the greatest growth.

When times are tough, it is important to keep your head on straight and have perspective. Evaluate those people giving career advice (including me!) based upon good principles, not on the latest dish from a pundit.

What’s the worst career advice you’ve every received?

Scot

Related posts:

1. Time management and conflicting career advice
2. Career Advice for the Older Worker
3. Career advice in the face of a meltdown
4. Burning bridges and career advice