Things don’t look too good. Your favourite boss has left, the company’s heading for financial meltdown and everyone’s speculating over who’s next in line to be fired. But when things are bad, there is always a way to make it worse. Here’s what not to do in times of turmoil:

Tell your boss that you’ve outgrown your role. In uncertain economic times, bosses often look for ways to reduce the headcount, says Dr Mike Owtram, a partner at Kiddy & Partners, a business psychology firm. They are looking to take the easy way out, so don’t put yourself forward. “An assistant sales manager went to his boss saying that he was bored with his job and that he had the ideal successor lined up. The boss needed to save a job and saw it as a win-win.”

Exude desperation. Sarah Hunt, the managing director of EquityFD, a financial recruiter, says that when job cuts are in the air, people’s reactions often help to decide who should go. “A slight air of desperation crept over one person at the firm – suddenly he wasn’t going on holiday and was working all hours. But the boss was looking for people who had capacity, not those who couldn’t cope already.” The colleague who carried on as normal ended up with both jobs.

Undermine a new leader. Beware of overkill when trying to impress a new boss. In his first days on the job, Stephen Bubb, chief executive of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, asked employees for their input. “One said ‘I have very strong ideas about how to take things forward but you’re not ready to hear them yet’.” He lasted three months.

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Create unnecessary panic. “I was working for a financial services organisation that merged with another. I found out about the merger on the radio that morning,” says Jo Causon, director of marketing and corporate affairs at the Chartered Management Institute. “My reaction was surprise and fear.” Roger Delves, the client and programme director at Ashridge Business School, unwittingly inspired panic in a posttakeover announcement. “I talked in a positive way about how we’d retain valued members of R&D, not realising that it would be dissected word by word.” R&D staff spent a frantic week debating who was valued and who wasn’t.

Lose sight of what is important. Delves was asked to run a workshop with a sales team in crisis. “The team leader kicked off by saying that everyone was motivated by the same thing: greed.” His greed, he said, encompassed very expensive sports cars and several holidays a year. His advice to the team was to look for the greed inside themselves, then to go out and sell to satisfy that greed. “It was the most appalling form of motivation,” he says.

Choose the wrong moment. Delves recalls a teambuilding exercise that involved building a raft on a lake. One team struggled, which enraged the managing director. “The raft sank and as [the directors] stood sheepishly in 3ft of water, he thundered that they were all bloody useless and that’s why he planned to fire the lot of them at the end of the month.” The MD admitted that it wasn’t the best way to break the news, but that they had to accept that they had tried his patience to the limit. Gary Browning, the chief executive of Penna Investor Relations, a human capital management company, agrees that insensitive timing often causes problems. “A client decided to announce redundancies on September 11. It wasn’t a great day to choose.”

Pull a wildcat strike in protest. “I was commissioned by the chief executive Adam Crozier to work with high-flyers in the Football Association,” Delves says. During the work, Crozier unexpectedly resigned. The group was devastated and desperate to act. “A notion swiftly grew that they could refuse to work until Adam was reinstated.” An FA executive pointed out that Crozier was free to resign whenever he chose.

Create a self-fulfilling prophecy. A team leader in advertising sales was worried about meeting targets because clients were cutting budgets, Owtram says. “When her team didn’t meet the targets she tried to be sympathetic, saying that it was to be expected in the current market.” The demotivated sales team couldn’t see why they should bother to make any more effort.

And if the worst happens ... don’t rush into a new job. Browning saw a highflying banker who had been made redundant immediately begin looking for the same role elsewhere. In the recruitment process he realised his true passion – to become a wedding singer.

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