My World A Blog On All The Things That Happen In My Life

Layoffs galore
about Life on 17/10/2008 - like it?

SInce the past couple of days, I’ve been reading lot of email forwards regarding X or Y Company laying off Z people, and frankly it never really bothered me much – mainly because the forwards aren’t that reliable.

But then today, that whole thing of a layoff really hit me.

Today was probably one of the worst days of my life. I watched in horror as 90% of the team mates of my current project were layed off, all in the name of cost cutting. These guys weren’t even given a month or couple of days notice, infact no notice whatsoever. These guys came to office in the morning, afternoon they get a call from the HR asking them to meet, and then were told, “Please submit your resignation paper”. Even worse, they were further told “Don’t make us do anything harsh”. Like, helllooooooooooo? Calling them in the middle of the day, out of nowhere and telling them to get the fuck out of here isn’t harsh? Oh gee.

What depresses me really is that these guys weren’t slackers, weren’t under-performers, not pencil pushers. Hell these guys have really slogged – slogged IS the right word to use – working 6(often 7) days a week, working on public holidays, working religiously for 12-14 hours a day, hell they’ve even worked for 19 STRAIGHT hours! There’s no logic to the way they’ve selected people for laying off, no consideration for dependencies [remember that the project is STILL ongoing, and we have a deadline approaching soon]. So what was a 50-strong team is now reduced to about 10, with an impending delivery soon, what’s left of the team is now under tremendous pressure – one from the managers to hit the deadlines and also from the HR.

Nobody’s safe, there’s EXTREMELY high insecurity wrt job, and with this kind of charged environment there’s neither motivation nor the incentive[why the FUCK should I work when my position isn’t certain, why should I slog when they can tell me to fuck off anytime] to work.

Quite a few people keep telling me – you’re safe, you’re off to US soon, but hey, it can be cancelled ANY moment right[“cost cutting”, remember]. SO why should I feel safe?

Yesterday was “phase 1” of axe swinging, today was “phase 2” – about 50 people from my dept have been layed off already. From what I’ve heard, another 43-46 are going to be layed off. Whether that’ll happen tomorrow, or next week, that’s uncertain.

Whether I will be layed off – that’s another thing which I’m uncertain. For now, every phone call to my extension, my mobile phone, everytime I see a “new mail” icon in systray causes my heart to skip a beat.

For all I know it might say – “Please meet us at ground floor”. Then you know the ritual.

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Tags: 3i, Chennai, fired, firing, job, layoff, Life, sacked, work

Yup, the scenario has become very bad these days… I think the time has come where you guys should take something in written about the guarantee of the job period. Coz it simply does not make any sense to slog for 12 – 15 hours a day just to find out, you have been laid off…

It simply sucks.. it’s like.. you do the hard work.. we don’t care.. we will kick you whenever we feel like..

Lovingly written by Deep Ganatra on 17/10/2008

It is pretty sad that such such things happen, what’s even more sadder is the way in which they did it, that was totally not warrented, in-fact I suggest you tell your colleagues to file a case against the HR department for unlawful sacking.

But on that cue, I would also like to put this thought, that no one’s job is safe today, you can cling on the chair saying “Hey no one is going to fire me”, you can never know who comes next and to make it even more harder is the fact that jobs are much more harder to find now, so lets cling on to whatever support we have with our current job and just pray that our day never comes and the good time returns back. Amen.

Lovingly written by Keith Dsouza on 17/10/2008

Shit! this sucks… yeah everyone has been talking about cost cutting out here too… i had seen layoffs in my prev job that too a week after i joined and yes there was no rationale or reasons given…

Lovingly written by Kunal on 17/10/2008

It is sad.It shows indians work too hard and most of the times they are not rewarded for it. I just hope they were paid for the over time .I look at this way when you are on your death bed and you look back at your life ,you should have no regrets and working with no returns is regrets. Just my views. Best of luck .Keep the faith…

Lovingly written by Paul on 17/10/2008

I can imagine the tension in the air.

Hope everything goes fine. And just in-case, I can help with referral at i-flex (now Oracle Financial Services) anytime who are in need. If the candidate has PL/SQL, Java expertise, the interview will be a breeze.

Lovingly written by Ashwin S on 21/10/2008

@Deep, The situation in my organization more or less has been that, we slog, it all goes in vain.

@Keith The HR never states “you have been layed off”, instead, they ask the guys to resign. Since there’s no proof of unlawful termination (evident from the resignation letter) a case cannot be filed. I suppose I needn’t remind you about the swiftness of the judiciary system of India.

@Kunal That’s horrible

@Paul Thanks for kind word. Appreciate it

@Ashwin Thanks a lot. Will drop a mail if needed.

Lovingly written by Sathya on 22/10/2008

Ohh… thats scary. No further updates on the issue so i assume everything is okay till now and i hope all goes well in future too.
BTW PM said India should be prepared for a temporary recession.
Good luck to you though. Kepp your fingers crossed!

Lovingly written by Mayank on 22/10/2008

Jebus! I have no words except BRRR.
Spooky stuff.

Lovingly written by Vimal George on 31/10/2008