Coping with the pink-slip phase

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: ahead. “I would not like lay-offs, but reality is reality, if there is no market for a company’s products, lay-offs become inevitable.”

Though most organisations swear employees are their most important asset, they also point out that sustainability, productivity and growth now take precedence over employees.

But Manish Sabharwal, chairman of TeamLease Staffing Solutions, a top job agency, believes companies do have to take their share of blame for the current situation. “Businesses operate on a simple premise, which is that revenues must exceed costs. The last five years in India saw some wild optimism; some justified and some unjustified. The rising tide lifted many leaky boats and many people and companies confused luck with skill. If you build capacity ahead of demand and the demand shrivels, there is no other choice but to rationalise all costs. We must never forget that companies don’t pay employee salaries but their customers do,” he says.

Industry players believe that employees need to understand that the organisation’s existence itself is at stake if it continues to ignore wasteful practices.

Still facing lay-off is the toughest moment of truth for any organisation and the employees. “Losing your job is a tragedy. In the current scenario, we don’t have many options to choose from, and it will probably be a compromise on both salary and the job we want to do,” says a recent victim of lay-offs at Lehman Brothers.

Sabharwal feels, “Job cuts in the organised sector will continue till revenue and costs get back in balance or demand picks up. But we must keep things in perspective; job or salary cuts only affect 4% of India’s labour force. 96% of India’s labour force works in the unorganised sector and for them job security, workplace security and social security are anyway a distant dream.”

But how should these 4% labour force cope up with the situation. What should an HR manager do in such a situation where he or she has to say to an employee that his services are terminated?

Dealing with layoffs