The Recession hit me!

Recession! This is the most frightening word for the working class. In the fast pace of economy when the global race is towards building robust nation, jobs for millions of educated, semi-skilled, and skilled persons, and supporting livelihood for the dependent families, takes a halt, all of a sudden. Everything, which was looking rosy, becomes gloomy. A depressed, anxiety filled environment with no certainty of future ambition and career, looms large. The downturn of economy keeps us silent, guessing and waiting for it to revive again. For commoners, it is very difficult to understand as to why does recession hit. However, even if we understand we can not avoid once it hits.

I have been the witness of three recessions in my small working career of 14 years. My own industry’s failure in nineties to sustain further left me to fend for my own to look for the alternative option of livelihood. At the same period, the dotcom bubble burst, threw away thousands of software techies on the roads to look for a fresh start. My own industry’s recession was far less in magnitude than the dotcom failures. We were in thousands whereas the software techies were quite greater in numbers. The techies who had gone to USA on H1B visa in the prospect of earning and making their career successful were denied jobs and came back home with the lost face.

The roads were wide open but neither those techies nor I knew where to go or where those roads end. Most of the occasions, I found myself trying my luck for the same place where even techies were ready to give a try. Knowing clearly well that none of us can be lucky every time and the job we can get is of our choices. We were compromising with our aspirations, aims, and career. It needed lots of self assurance to bounce back again and keep trying. Not many could take up the challenge of the grind. Some of my own colleagues surrender to the fate and kept hoping that something happening for them rather than taking things in their hand and trying. Some of the techies whom I knew went into depression and mental instability. It was really a tough time. But tough time passes off and tough people survive. Yes! All those who fought their battle with tough time, survived and I too survived with a paltry job to make my living in the hope of rising again.

Toiling hard with aim of building my career again I joined the race of techies too in the years to come and became part of the software industry as a writer. Yet, another worst hit recession came as a part and parcel of down turn of the economy in 2008. The hype, the false hope and the greed of achieving higher and faster have failed the principle of economics. The miseries are unimaginable. The present recession of 2008 is continuing. We did not learn the lesson from our past mistakes.

It is going to be the end of 2009 and speculations are high that the industry is reviving and jobs are going to be back again. Yet, clear and visible signs are not to be seen as to how the industry is going to do in the coming year. Amidst the recession monster biting bitterly, the tryst of the employees to save their jobs have been the one and only aim than to be aggressive on their job and perform brilliantly. Tough time has shown that how individual employee behaves in the difficult times. To safeguard their own interest people have gone to the level of betrayal, back biting, snatching working credits and bad mouth. This has been the common phenomena of the working place. Be it the company, which boasts of their great working culture and open door policy or the smaller companies, employees have shown their character alike.

Common professional goal were not the goals of the employee, which could sustain the company and do well even during the recession. The obvious results were that the hard workers got axed and so called smart workers retained due to the cost saving. It hit me and all of those who believes in doing their best by virtue of hard work. This recession have taught many of us that being smart worker is better than hard worker. But, we have also been taught that there is no alternative of hard work. The question is whether to be smart worker, steal some body’s work and take the credit or be the hard worker, take the challenge and perform to the best of our skills. Of course my conscience and morale will not let me fall into the first category of smart worker, but definitely I would strive hard to protect my interest and try to get my due credit at the work place. This recession is not going to change my character and for that sake any recession is not going to change my character. It is because of our character and morale we could face any of the recessions and come out successful.

Recession and the pink slips

My last post was a personal view on the technical communication in India and how would it take a turn in the recent economic recession. I could not really make an inch forward from then to see a clear picture of my profession in which I am employed. The impact of economic downturn became more evident as the time passed by. And it literally made me think about myself, my job, and my career. A kind of uncertainty prevailed which made me docile and prevented me from being creative, analytic and bold enough to face the challenge and see a way through this.

The pink slip saga is a common practice in any economic crises. I have faced a career recession and so I can understand how it feels when you are threatened. When you are threatened you are challenged but you do not know how to win over the challenge. Many a times we feel certainly we lack certain skills because of that we are laid off and we need to sharpen our weak areas to improve upon. But most certainly it is not always true. There might be most deserving people with most appropriate skills losing job somewhere. The fact is their skills and talents are not in demand. The entire human resource requirement to pull up the cart is driven by the business demand. And when the speculation takes over the real scenario in business, uncertainty always looms large. We never know what is going to happen.

The worst part is that there is no mechanism by which we can predict and analyze much before it hits us. There is no way a common person can have some kind of access in the public data or right of information based on which they can prevent certain unwanted situation. However, this can not apply valid to the economic downturn where the entire business philosophy is runs on the wrong machine. When you start showing the profit and losses much beyond reality, sooner or later you land up in a mess.

It’s a big shame when a business leader of reputed excellence turns to be a cheater, a burglar, who steals the public money to fill his coffin. He puts our career, our future on stake for his own benefit. Its shame on the public machinery also which can not detect the fraud. Who knows how many of them might be involved in the episode. At the end numbers of jobless people are on the rolls. So far the number has crossed 4 lack mark and its continuing everyday. Policy is to cut jobs to survive. Blows are on; you never know who is receiving where. Major Job cuts make news that too of public limited companies, the LLC’s laid off never makes any news and that forms even bigger chunk in totality. These LLCs are contractors and subcontractors for Public limited companies. So the indirect impact can be even more severe.

The software and hardware computer industry boomed because of the prospect of serving all walks of business and the negative impact of any business would indirectly hit this industry too. It is related.

Few of my Technical writer friends have lost their job. We all are scared because we do not know our own status in terms of value and the demand at the work place. We are also just speculating about the things and living one day at a time. All said than done, tough people have tough work at hand to save the job if they have. If not, then to get another one. Each passing days is real testing time. We wish to be the survivors but would we. I don’t know. Let the time answer this question.