Disclaimer: I have no intention to offend anyone / anything as a result of this post. These are totally my opinions and is posted on my website held against my domain hosted on someone Else’s server. If you seriously have a problem beyond this point, you need a life desperately!
AND Oh!, Warning… Long post!!!
Layoffs are happening everywhere… People dont have a jack’s clue of whats happening… Everyone is mouthing the same set of words, more so like hashtags: recession, layoffs, cost-cutting, downsizing, rightsizing, et. al.
But yeah, if we all have to face the truth, we have to… don’t we??? This post is not going to be yet-another-recession-reasoning post. I’m going to more so crib about it and probably try to see what we can do about the stark reality we are facing right now and are going to face for some more time to come. So, here goes:
First off, The recession syndrome:
Every single organization is talking about cost-cutting. This basically means that employees in the hard-hit Information Technology and allied ITES sector need to face one or more of the following:
- Job cuts. Well, they right-sized… and… you’re out!
- Lesser Perks. No more Organization sponsored Birthday parties, team lunches, team outings / trips, et. al.
- No more free coffee / tea / lunch / breakfast / dinner. [More on this later]
- Lesser number of buses / cabs
- No more free outgoing calls from the desks / cubicles or reduced free telephone bill limits
- Frozen salary hikes
- No salary / virtual salary if your case is a really sad one, like the folks at Satyam!
Now that the cost-cutting-list is made, I have a few questions for the organizations, all of them:
- What is your meaning of cost-cutting / down-sizing / right-sizing? [Personally, my question would be: Why dont you have left-sizing? Why does it have to go only in the "right" direction?]
- And yeah, if you’re right-sizing now, were you not of the right-size back then??? How were your profits coming in so beautifully??? Quarter on Quarter on Quarter… Did you also muck up your numbers like Satyam did???
- Why do you have to do it because someone else is an ass??? Did You not do your job right then?
- If you were interested in saving some money back then… You wouldnt have to do all this shit right?
- How do you choose who do down-size? The slave who clocks 20 hours per day at work? Or the doofus who licks-your-a$$ clean irrespective of whether you take a dump or not?
- How do you weigh these options?
- What if YOU get thrown out in the process of downsizing?
- And the most important question of all, What should an employee do to protect himself from getting booted out? [I'm guessing girls are safe from this market effect... They either dont get shown the door or they retire as housewives]
Well, the sad part is, none of the good things happened… and we all live to bear the brunt… I want to go hunt down the management guy who taught me to “Make hay while the sun-shines” and kick him dry! It was in all probability him and his boss that were busy eating the hay. Aaargh!!!
Part II of the post – What can YOU do?:
First off, I’m no management guru / PM guy, bigshot-whatever. But I still continue with this part of the post because of two reasons:
- I have seen / am seeing people live through these “harsh times” and more importantly,
- This is MY goddamn BLOG!!! I have an opinion… Just about like everyone on this planet has an a*&hole!!!
Yeah, getting along… The first thing I would like everyone to realise is thus:
The world has not come to an end! It is not doomsday. Not YET!!!
Its just a market slowdown… Organizations are introspecting on the moves they made… The markets are introspecting about the stuff it traded… Managers are continuing to eat and give the bullshit they always ate and gave!
So yeah, what can be done about this??? Truly, nothing… The industry is working itself around… and it will take time… What can YOU do in the meanwhile??? Lets talk about that now:
Lose the fear: This is a statement that my mom always told me whenever I had a problem. I advocate this to a whole lot of people who are in a state of absolute panic.
Face the stark reality. You are at the bottom of a pit. You cant get any deeper. The quicker you realise this and gain confidence, the better and more easier it is for you to walk out of the trap!
A person who has lost his job has definitely lost quite a lot of things. All plans have definitely gone awry, Financial security is at ground-zero, the future is a huuuuuuge Question mark… but hey, you still have YOU! You still have your friends… You still have a gazillion others in the same scenario.
This statement is from hard-personal-experience:
The moment you lose faith in yourself, you lose the race. Period.
Hunt for a new job: This is the simplest way out of the situation. Simple… Get a new job! If one organization is not doing good, there are others that are… Try to pump up your resume, apply and get hired. [I am not going to do the how-do-you-get-recruited part of the story here. That is out of scope of this blog post. I'll cover it later].
There is always someone who’s in need of a person to share the workload. Look to freelancing, look at startups, look anywhere… But… LOOK! And look some more…
Now IS the time you look at using the internet for doing something other than “Hi, I wnt 2b ur frnd… Plz b my frnd” bullshit on orkut! There is more to the internet than orkut.com!!! Seriously! Websites like linkedin.com, and other useful websites exist for this sole reason!
To prepare your legitimate network that can help you in times of need.
Experiment with your ideas: If you are of the kind that knows has atleast attended one barcamp religiously in his / her life, I think its time you put that knowledge into action. Think of doing something on your own. Work up an idea thats been hitting on you for quite sometime… Team up with friends / colleagues and code it up… and presto… you could be on your way to doing something really good 
and really useful…
Theres nothing wrong in giving an idea the chance it deserves. You never know what the payback could be. And, you’ve got all the time in the world sitting at home.
Dignity of Labour: This point is specifically for people who are low on resources. Time, cash, anything… How about, we consider you giving up the “I am the fricking king of the world because I’m a techie” label and say you get yourself a job that just about feeds you and keeps you running…
- Something like Job-typing for someone for some cash
- Teaching at a school / college / university
- Working as a network admin, cable guy at an organization
- whatever else fits the bill
I have noticed that Indians are the hardest hit in the economic recession because of this main “thing”… This stigma we all have in our heads… The feeling that we need to be doing only something that fits our levels of respect and self-esteem… Well, here’s what I think…
If you dont have a job… you dont have self-esteem, do you??? What you need is money… not arrogance! If you were worth that much in the first place, you would still have a job!
Now that I’m done with the things I wanted to write about… I’ll end this sober and long post with this one line… err…. paragraph:
The world is not ending… You need to be concerned… not lose your head. You need to be confident and the most important thing of all
Stay Hungry… Stay Foolish…
P.S.: I’m not plain advocating stuff to people who are reading this post… I have been in the same situation… My friends and family are in the same situation… and yes, I have come out of this situation by doing more than one of the things I have listed above there… Comments and suggestions welcome…
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