Hello there...

You go to a Mall; a party or a gathering; One thing you constantly hear people discussing is "Recession".

We are all affected in one way or the other. Would you feel slightly better if you have your voices heard?

Or rather see how your experience can motivate others in distress, may be help them too . So folks, please blog your thoughts, experiences, opinions and any news that you want others to know.

Shanky

When do you think the economy will recover?

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Coping with Recession...

It’s no grandma stories anymore and the fact remains its getting from bad to worse. I live here in Dubai and every 3rd person I meet has got a story, “ lost my job”, “ salary deduction” , “ relocating to home country” and so on… It’s quite depressing to hear all the time and it reminds me of an AD “MERA NUMBER KABH AIYEGA “. Personally I don’t try to worry too much I get on with life as usual though I was not a great spender I continue to maintain my lifestyle. There is plenty of news about recession in TV, emails, friends but I try to pick the positives in the each topic. One such thing was to ensure you have some saving for the rainy days and incase you are laid off use the time valuably to do all those things you wanted to do and kept procrastinating saying “I don’t have time” while you were on your job. It could be having a 6 pack, doing a fancy course, learning to play some instrument, reading… the list is endless. Guys it is difficult but not end of the world there are a million things we can do if we start thinking out of the boxxx.

-Sunil Kumar, UAE.

Layoffs in IT sector inevitable

Source: India Times.

BANGALORE: An information technology sector veteran has strongly defended job cuts, saying it's natural in times of recession to stay the course and remain afloat."When there is no business, companies have to react; otherwise no body will survive. Either you have to reduce everybody's salary, or you have to let some people go and move on with that,” the former IT Secretary of Karnataka, Vivek Kulkarni said.

"Because, if you do not have labour flexibility, you can't do business well,” added Kulkarni, who has more than 25 years of experience in business and government, and is currently Chairman and CEO of knowledge process outsourcing firm, Brickwork India.

He admitted that IT companies have resorted to various ways to layoff their staff. Some companies are forcing their managers to give a "lower-rate" to their employees so that they can be removed, citing "non-performance.”Kulkarni knows a company which lost an account of 6,000 people (staff working on an outsourcing contract).

"What will you do (when that happens). So, there will be temporary dislocation; no permanent harm.”In times of recession, layoffs are quite natural. He said companies which have lost big accounts and are operating from huge facilities after signing multi-year lease contract, are reducing and rationalising staff.

Kulkarni said the year 2009 is going to be challenging for freshers in the IT sector and it would be tough for them to get jobs, but expressed confidence that hiring would restart in the first quarter of financial year 2010-2011. On the impact of US recession on the Indian IT companies, he said while large players such as Citi Bank and Goldman Sachs "who have received government money (bailout package) will behave based on government directions,” there are other US companies who would be keen to outsource to India for the first time.

"For what I am finding is that for the rest of the companies (US companies who have not received Government aid) to survive, they have to do business (they would benefit if they outsource to India),” he said.According to him, Indian IT companies are increasingly looking at the domestic market. "Because our economy is big our companies can, instead of doing it for Citi Bank, they can do it for SBI. So, we can do work for our companies and that's picking up.

I see that Indian IT companies now focus on domestic sector a lot.”"We are a country...we are big enough. We may not need help from foreign countries (outsourcing) all the time to grow.”Kulkarni said, "If we have the right government, if they are able to come up with some policies, we should be okay by September/October of this year.”