Something to doJob security
Run a premortem on your job
A simple worksheet to turn a vague worry about your job into things you can do and things to watch
Why it’s worth your time
A vague worry is hard to act on because it has no parts. Imagining the failure has already happened, and explaining how, gives it parts: your performance, your team, your company, your industry. Sorting those into what you can influence and what you can only watch tells you where to put your energy, and what you can stop carrying.
How to run a premortem on your job
You’ll come away with a short list of what you can influence now and what you'll watch for.
We’ll turn this into a checklist you can tick off.
- Set the scene a year from now.
Picture a specific date a year out. Your job has gone wrong: you lost it, it stalled, or it became something you dread. Pick the version you're most worried about.
- Write the story of how it happened, then sort it.
Write in plain sentences, as if explaining to a friend after the fact. Cover the places trouble usually comes from: your own work, your team and manager, your company, your industry. Then go line by line and put each piece in one of two columns: mine to influence, or only to watch.
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Tip: Write it as if it already happened. It's easier to explain a failure than to predict one.
- Pick one thing to do this month.
From the influence column, choose the one that would most change the story. Often it's a conversation, like confirming your priorities with your manager, or asking plainly how the team and company are doing.
- Choose two signals, and a date to look again.
From the watch column, pick the two that would tell you the most, and put a date three months out on your calendar to check them. Until then, you can stop scanning for everything else.
Good moments for this: when a worry about your job won't settleafter big news at your companyonce a year
We’ll turn this into a checklist you can tick off.
Keep going with Truest
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Anything else we can help you with this week?
Making it work for you
Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.
Things to think about
Layoffs and restructurings reflect what a company thinks it needs, not a verdict on you. Remembering that while you write keeps the story honest without making it personal.
What might make this harder
Keep it short and move to the sorting quickly; that's usually where the relief is. If the worry is keeping you up most nights, talk it through with someone you trust, not just a page.
Questions people ask
How do I turn a vague worry about my job into a plan?
Get specific. Write down how it might happen, then sort the pieces into what you can influence, like your performance and visibility, and what you can only watch, like company results. Act on one thing this month.
What is a premortem?
A method from the psychologist Gary Klein. Before a project starts, the team imagines it has already failed and explains why. It surfaces risks people might not otherwise raise.
How do I stop worrying about job security?
Worry tends to ease when it turns into understanding and action. Learn how your performance, your company and your industry are doing, act on what you can influence, and set a date to check the rest.
Why this works, and where it comes from
Worry about your job often arrives without a reason attached. A tense all-hands, a distracted manager, a headline about your industry, and suddenly it's there. A worry with no parts can't be acted on, so it tends to just sit there. Most of what helps is understanding: how you're really doing, how your company is doing, what's happening in your field.
The method here comes from the psychologist Gary Klein, who calls it a premortem. In his version, a team about to start a project imagines it has already failed, and each person writes down why. Working backward from a failure that has supposedly already happened tends to make people more specific, and more willing to name risks they'd otherwise keep to themselves. Here it's turned on your own job, and done alone.
The sorting is where it pays off. Some of the story is yours to influence: which work you're on, whether the people who decide know what you do, whether you have a record of it, whether you're ready if things change. Some of it isn't: the company's results, a restructuring, the market. Knowing what you can only watch is what lets you stop carrying it every day.
It's the wrong tool once the uncertainty is gone. If you've been told cuts are coming, or you're on a formal performance plan, deal with what's in front of you: a direct conversation with your manager, your record in order, a look at your options. When the worry is less about the job than about everything, talk to a friend or a professional; they'll help more than any worksheet.
Other simple things to consider
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Written by Truest, based on Performing a Project Premortem (Gary Klein). Last updated October 2, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.