City’s new mantra: You’re fired

As several corporates in the City lay off staff, lives are thrown out of gear and employees struggle to come to terms with the situation

Three years after recession struck and people across the world dealt with the blow of losing their jobs, the nightmare is back — albeit for unknown reasons. As companies across the City go on a sacking spree, employees who have been laid off grapple with the situation as their lives are thrown out of gear.

Take for instance Shailendra’s case. A few days ago he was a mute spectator to his colleagues being laid off by the company management. One by one he bid goodbye to many of his senior colleagues, middle level managers and even his own manager, who had been his mentor and the one person who he looked up at for guidance.

In the last two days, HSBC axed nearly 200 employees from their Hyderabad branch. From middle level managers, assistant managers to even vice presidents, most of them were asked to choose between a termination or resignation. And the sacking was abrupt — the employees were asked to pack their bags and collect all their stuff within 10 minutes and were escorted from the premises by guards.

This unexpected lay off came as a shock to many. “I recently got engaged and I was just talking to my fiance about our future plans and the house that I recently bought in Allwyn Colony in Kukatpally. In fact, I was expecting my appraisal letter this week, but within a few minutes of my conversation I was asked to sign my resignation letter that stated that I was leaving the organisation on personal grounds,” said, Praveen Kumar (name changed) a middle level manager in HSBC.

He adds, “I am still shocked. How cou­ld this happen to me? I was performing so well and word in the company was that I would get a good appraisal. Now I don’t know how to deal with my home loan. Getting a job is also not easy,” he adds.

Real Page India too adopted a similar approach when asking its employees to leave. “It was a regular day at work when suddenly my boss called me into his cabin and asked me to either resign from my post or accept the termination letter. I had no option but to resign. Fortunately, I didn’t let it affect me and three days later landed a new and much better paying job,” said, Ramachander J, a former employee of the company.

But not everybody is as fortunate as jobs are not easy to come by. For those who have hefty EMIs and loans to repay losing a job is a nightmare.

“Being unemployed is a curse especially when you know that it’s not what you deserve. There are so many feelings that I am dealing with right now and one of them is fear. I wonder how am I going to make ends meet. The future seems so uncertain. Half my salary used to go towards paying EMIs, my wife is pregnant and I don’t know how I am going to manage things now. The problem is that once the news of layoff spreads in the market other companies will offer us lower salaries since we are desperate for a job,” said Prashant Iyer (name changed), a quality analyst.

Several IT firms are in the process of laying off employees and the reasons for doing so are not yet clear. “On Thursday I worked late into the night as my company is going to lay off 180 employees. Being in the HR department I feel bad for the employees. The layoffs will be declared in an appraisal review meeting on Monday. It affects me so intensely because I know I’m going to hurt somebody. I have worked with these individuals for years and now I have to tell them that their services are no longer required. It’s a huge pressure,” said Ashrita S, HR manager at a leading corporate firm.

Tags: cost cutting, featured, full-image, lay off, resignation, sacking, termination

Category: City, City News