Almost every day in the newspaper we read another story about "job losses.” They tell us the economy is tanking, job growth is sputtering, and the sky is falling. From the sound of it, we'd better hunker down and prepare ourselves for the next great depression!

Uh-oh!  Here we go again!

Ten years ago, economists, sociologists and futurists, many of whom foresaw dire consequences for work in the 21st century, hotly contested the future of work. Numerous books and articles declared the need for a new "mindset" about work and jobs, prescribing entrepreneurial thinking and self-reliance as remedies for succeeding in our rapidly changing workplace.

In his then groundbreaking book, "Job Shift," William Bridges warned of a "workplace without jobs," predicting that jobs would continue to disappear indefinitely. Similarly, Jeremy Rifkin's "The End of Work" cautioned a "world without workers" as production and labor succumbed to technology and information. And economist Robert Heilbroner questioned whether our ever-expanding technological capabilities would "threaten the fabric of existence itself."

Say what?

In case nobody noticed, it's 2001 -- and we're still here! We’ve not only preserved our "fabric of existence.” Miraculously, we've survived -- even thrived -- despite all the dour predictions about our work world. We’ve been on a pretty good tear for the past 10 years -- and now we're poised to reinvent ourselves yet again.

So what have we learned here?

For starters, we learned that lifetime employment in one organization was not a viable career goal -- that if we defined career success as having a traditional job, moving up to positions of power and authority, salary and status, we were destined for trouble. We found out that job security demands secure employment, of which there was, and continues to be, very little. We learned that our security has to reside in ourselves.

Second, we gained a resilience to change, or so it would seem. The relentless impact of technology combined with global competition to forge a new economy with promising new jobs and emerging career options. Who knew? While some jobs disappeared, new ones quickly filled their place. Greater efficiency enabled more flexible work options -- telecommuting, flextime and contracting provided alternatives to the 9-to-5 scenario.

And third, we started to like this new economy. Looking ahead suddenly got more exciting. Fewer of us were yearning back to the supposed "Wonder Years.” Remember? -- the TV sitcom, replete with a single income, two-parent family, upward mobility, a nice house in a nice neighborhood, with family evenings around the TV set.

In one episode, Kevin Arnold, the central character, enters the kitchen as his mother is planning supper and innocently asks:  "Hey, Mom, what does dad do for a living?" to which his mother replies sweetly, "What do you mean what does he do for a living? He works at NORCOM, honey," assured that she has adequately addressed his question.

But Kevin persists, only to become more confused, until later his Dad comes home, slams the door, grumbles about his day, and storms off to the living room to read the newspaper. When Kevin approaches him to ask what he does all day at NORCOM, his dad snaps: “I shovel crap all day so you kids can eat!” Kevin learns that "working at NORCOM" is the price his Dad pays for acquiring happiness in life. Kevin’s dad had the promise of lifetime employment, but apparently found little job satisfaction beyond that.

Now, we wouldn't think of parking ourselves in a miserable job just for the security. “The Wonder Years" seems about as realistic as "The Flintstones.” The only vision of work that most of us have known of late involves continuous change -- rightsizing, reorganizing, reengineering -- and few of us harbor illusions about finding the "promise of lifetime employment.” We’ve learned that if you think you've got your career all set by the age of 30, something is seriously wrong.

USA today recently reported that people are changing jobs an average of nine times before the age of 32.Nine times! The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports average tenure on a job of 4.6 years. Futurists predict the average to drop to 3.8, maybe even 3.5 years, by 2010.Whether you see this is as good news or bad news all depends on your particular experiences and expectations of work.

The language of "The Wonder Years" regularly collides with the vocabulary of today's workplace. But far too many of us continue to let our careers just happen "by accident," as though nothing has changed. We yearn for something that doesn't exist.

Take the term "upward mobility" for example. The concept implied that everyone had a chance, if they worked hard, to climb the corporate ladder. If you were willing to work, you could basically pound the pavement and be reasonably assured of finding that good job. Parents advised their children to just get your foot in the door, and through a series of promotions be propelled to the good life.

How do these familiar slogans and phrases translate to our contemporary work world?” Pounding the pavement" rarely gets you past the receptionist, if there is one -- voice and email have all but decimated the receptionist's role. Getting your "foot in the door" requires a comprehensive job marketing strategy -- networking, electronic resumes and career Web sites. And "climbing the corporate ladder" has much less meaning when many of the rungs have been removed. These phrases are relics of a bygone era. They’re not coming back.

During our last economic downturn, many people resisted change, instead looking backward to a time that had passed. They denied the need to reinvent, to create or to embrace any new vision of work. As a result, they became powerless. But many others moved toward new options and possibilities they would not have imagined before. And in the process, they gained a measure of security that comes from resilience -- the ability to bounce back, to know how to find a new job quickly, to always land on your feet come what may.

Here's what they recommend this time around:

Evaluate your career status, regularly -- your performance, your relationship with your manager and colleagues, the outlook for your department. Make sure your career isn't another accident waiting to happen!

Inventory your skills, periodically -- your base of knowledge, your transferable competencies, your natural talents. Discard the obsolete skills and replace them with new, more marketable ones.

Build your networks, continually -- both personally and professionally. Make yourself visible, volunteer for committees, stay in touch with old friends and colleagues -- even if you have nothing to say.

Know your career options, always -- explore the internal and external marketplace regularly. You’ll be better able to navigate through change if you have a contingency plan in place. Don’t wait for the crisis.

Cultivate an optimistic outlook -- imagine having fun at work. Investigate your dream job -- maybe it's not as unrealistic as you think. If you do what you love, you'll find a way to make the money work.

To again thrive at work we need to, once-and-for-all, shed the nostalgia of the Wonder Years. We need to gravitate toward the next chapter in our evolution of work in the information age. We’ve done it before and we can do it again. So let's go -- we've got work to do!

© 2000, Career Planning and Management, Inc., Boston, MA.  All rights reserved.