Breaking news, confidential resources has confirmed – much hyped and overrated RECESSION (which almost ended way back but was being kept alive by our so called reputed corporate organisations) is on the verge of its ending and would no longer exist.
Here the topic “Recession over; Race session starts” is to compare about the situations faced in the past and future waiting ahead. It would not be a surprise for anyone of us (referring to all the software engineers/employees hit by recession) thinking to switch our jobs, thus I’ve used the terminology ‘Race Session’.
Obviously, the recession has pushed our career 2 years back both professionally and economically and I’m sure no one would be able to forget the trauma, fatigue and jeopardised career that one may have gone through this period of time.
During this phase when we were facing tough times, there most of organisations were seeking this period as a time of opportunity and tried (but actually) made the most of it. At one hand when they were busy in FIRING its employees/slashing their salaries there at the same time on another hand we all were always bothering how to retain our jobs.
Every day on new channels we used to hear, so and so organisation fired their number of x no. of employees. The process that came out for laying out were also quite interesting, as in some organisations the employees were told in advance to search another job in next couple of months while some organisations simply mailed it’s employees to submit their access/identity card straight to the admin dept. and collect their re-leaving letter.
I remember in my younger days, i.e., when I was in 10th and 12th standard, I used to hear about “Software Engineers” – they have good package (packages varying from 25 to 30 lacs per annum), they carry good life style, they often go to abroad on the company’s expenses (the same vague information aspired me to become a Software Engineer else I would have been a Doctor at least). But it’s a truth of life - what you always plan may not be actually what you are destined for in real life, as just see the irony - in this recession period, the highly paid employees were among the most endangered species and were close to extinct.
But with one point everyone would agree, basically all the engineers are quite high in their spirits (24X7) as even in this situation we’ll find a way out to cheer ourselves. Emails in between the colleagues within the organisation and across different organisations started to float for finding alternative solution if job is lost, some suggesting to open a tea stall in front of the office, some showing that our own project manager has started a bakery shop, some showing our Tech. Lead has already started the Pan Masala shop in front of the office gate (innovation is not a restraint for Engineers at least).
One day I remember one of my friends (one of the endangered species) called me and asked me if there is an opening going on in my company. Not with much of surprise and amazement I asked why? What happened in his company? He told me, there are only few highly paid people in his organisation; all of them have already been laid off. And yesterday itself his BOSS was also been fired and while going his BOSS has told him “ALL THE BEST”. (Intelligent man I must say, he got the hint).
This could be quite funny I must say but its seriousness could only be understood by a person who has gone through its enigma. I take myself, working in my first organisations HCL Technologies Ltd - I never feared of being fired as there was no terminology existed before recession started. An employee was only being terminated or asked to leave in extreme situations (for e.g., Integrity issue, Discipline issue etc.), I never feared of fighting with my Managers or Team Leads in front of anyone if I’ve to.
But in my current organisations this perspective was totally changed. Soon after I joined my current organisation I saw that in batches employees were being asked to leave the organisation. It was first time when the fear of being laid off cropped up in my heart also; employees were laid off regardless of their performance and tenure within the organisation.
Here, one of the most important fact (may or may not be noticed by you guys) that all this slow/melt down also impacted marriage aspects, as for every parents; Software Engineers were the most lucrative and preferred product (son in law) for their daughters (because high salaries, good life style and bonus points if he is on site abroad or already settled there). Just to reiterate that here just the highly paid Engineers were the preferred ones.
But we always forget, “Change is the order of Nature” and this time Recession brought this change. All the happening going across the globe changed the mindset of parents/guardians also, as they started considering the Engineers with medium salaries as one of the good product for their daughters. They were forced to do so because the highly paid Engineers were no longer available and those were there in the market they were already married 3 or 5 yrs back.
Anyways back to our IT Industry, amid all these proceedings - eventually started lots of gossiping among all of us, I used to gossip a lot among our colleagues/friends about the spread sheets. I used to throw rumours, ‘I’ve seen the HR spreadsheets and tell them that their names are in it’– indirectly telling our colleagues they are being fired, I make them to speculate who would be the next.
I used to enjoy in spreading the rumours and let other to speculate but one day we all received an email by our Group Head, it was sent to HR and cc’ed to us (incidentally our names was not taken off from CC tab), this email contained a xls sheet for the overall performance review of all us.
I opened the sheet, there were three colour codes mentioned: Green, White and Red. Few people names were appearing in Green, few were in White and few (including mine) were in Red. Seeing this made my mind totally blank – I got absolutely sure that in the next batch I would be the one to get out. Suddenly one of my friends came in to discuss about the sheet and started to congratulate me, I thought he is properly taking a nice revenge for what I’ve done to him. I asked him seriously not to do this idiotic anymore as I’m not in a good mood. I think he realised why I’m upset and asked me to see the xls sheet properly once again. When I saw the sheet again I came to know why he was congratulating me, as the names appearing in Red were for the excellent performers, names appearing in White are the average performers and the names appearing in Green are for the non-performers.
This was a sigh of relief for me but also a point of realisation - the distress probably I’ve caused to others. May be a joke could be an entertainment factor for me and for others but the person who is targeted is distressed and from here I stopped making joke or spreading rumours for anyone.
AT LAST, now finally as the year 2009 has ended the so called recession has ended – statistically is already proven and the year 2010 would bring the peace of mind for all of us and also it is expected that IT/ITES would grow up to 15% to 20% altogether.
Definitely, everything contains good and bad in it. This recession brought a storm in all of our life which is bad but the good about is that it has brought learning for us. We now know better how to survive in adverse situation/conditions. Before recession, we lived the life expecting that the coming days would be even better than today but never gave a thought what if it is not the situation. This phase has compelled us to think and plan better.
In the New Year, my advice would not to be to again start a race of switching and changing organisations but would be to grab the opportunities (no matter if it gets in the same organisation or in a different organisation) with both hands. Bring back the respect and honour of an Engineer which is somewhere lost and definitely if an organisation fails to deliver this please switch/change as soon as possible. From now on rather than following a casual approach we need to plan ourselves better and give our life and career new meaning and a new edge – people smiling/laughing at us had to shut their mouth and indeed for all the parent/guardian Software Engineers would still remain a lucrative product.
With lots of love…..
Upendra
Here the topic “Recession over; Race session starts” is to compare about the situations faced in the past and future waiting ahead. It would not be a surprise for anyone of us (referring to all the software engineers/employees hit by recession) thinking to switch our jobs, thus I’ve used the terminology ‘Race Session’.
Obviously, the recession has pushed our career 2 years back both professionally and economically and I’m sure no one would be able to forget the trauma, fatigue and jeopardised career that one may have gone through this period of time.
During this phase when we were facing tough times, there most of organisations were seeking this period as a time of opportunity and tried (but actually) made the most of it. At one hand when they were busy in FIRING its employees/slashing their salaries there at the same time on another hand we all were always bothering how to retain our jobs.
Every day on new channels we used to hear, so and so organisation fired their number of x no. of employees. The process that came out for laying out were also quite interesting, as in some organisations the employees were told in advance to search another job in next couple of months while some organisations simply mailed it’s employees to submit their access/identity card straight to the admin dept. and collect their re-leaving letter.
I remember in my younger days, i.e., when I was in 10th and 12th standard, I used to hear about “Software Engineers” – they have good package (packages varying from 25 to 30 lacs per annum), they carry good life style, they often go to abroad on the company’s expenses (the same vague information aspired me to become a Software Engineer else I would have been a Doctor at least). But it’s a truth of life - what you always plan may not be actually what you are destined for in real life, as just see the irony - in this recession period, the highly paid employees were among the most endangered species and were close to extinct.
But with one point everyone would agree, basically all the engineers are quite high in their spirits (24X7) as even in this situation we’ll find a way out to cheer ourselves. Emails in between the colleagues within the organisation and across different organisations started to float for finding alternative solution if job is lost, some suggesting to open a tea stall in front of the office, some showing that our own project manager has started a bakery shop, some showing our Tech. Lead has already started the Pan Masala shop in front of the office gate (innovation is not a restraint for Engineers at least).
One day I remember one of my friends (one of the endangered species) called me and asked me if there is an opening going on in my company. Not with much of surprise and amazement I asked why? What happened in his company? He told me, there are only few highly paid people in his organisation; all of them have already been laid off. And yesterday itself his BOSS was also been fired and while going his BOSS has told him “ALL THE BEST”. (Intelligent man I must say, he got the hint).
This could be quite funny I must say but its seriousness could only be understood by a person who has gone through its enigma. I take myself, working in my first organisations HCL Technologies Ltd - I never feared of being fired as there was no terminology existed before recession started. An employee was only being terminated or asked to leave in extreme situations (for e.g., Integrity issue, Discipline issue etc.), I never feared of fighting with my Managers or Team Leads in front of anyone if I’ve to.
But in my current organisations this perspective was totally changed. Soon after I joined my current organisation I saw that in batches employees were being asked to leave the organisation. It was first time when the fear of being laid off cropped up in my heart also; employees were laid off regardless of their performance and tenure within the organisation.
Here, one of the most important fact (may or may not be noticed by you guys) that all this slow/melt down also impacted marriage aspects, as for every parents; Software Engineers were the most lucrative and preferred product (son in law) for their daughters (because high salaries, good life style and bonus points if he is on site abroad or already settled there). Just to reiterate that here just the highly paid Engineers were the preferred ones.
But we always forget, “Change is the order of Nature” and this time Recession brought this change. All the happening going across the globe changed the mindset of parents/guardians also, as they started considering the Engineers with medium salaries as one of the good product for their daughters. They were forced to do so because the highly paid Engineers were no longer available and those were there in the market they were already married 3 or 5 yrs back.
Anyways back to our IT Industry, amid all these proceedings - eventually started lots of gossiping among all of us, I used to gossip a lot among our colleagues/friends about the spread sheets. I used to throw rumours, ‘I’ve seen the HR spreadsheets and tell them that their names are in it’– indirectly telling our colleagues they are being fired, I make them to speculate who would be the next.
I used to enjoy in spreading the rumours and let other to speculate but one day we all received an email by our Group Head, it was sent to HR and cc’ed to us (incidentally our names was not taken off from CC tab), this email contained a xls sheet for the overall performance review of all us.
I opened the sheet, there were three colour codes mentioned: Green, White and Red. Few people names were appearing in Green, few were in White and few (including mine) were in Red. Seeing this made my mind totally blank – I got absolutely sure that in the next batch I would be the one to get out. Suddenly one of my friends came in to discuss about the sheet and started to congratulate me, I thought he is properly taking a nice revenge for what I’ve done to him. I asked him seriously not to do this idiotic anymore as I’m not in a good mood. I think he realised why I’m upset and asked me to see the xls sheet properly once again. When I saw the sheet again I came to know why he was congratulating me, as the names appearing in Red were for the excellent performers, names appearing in White are the average performers and the names appearing in Green are for the non-performers.
This was a sigh of relief for me but also a point of realisation - the distress probably I’ve caused to others. May be a joke could be an entertainment factor for me and for others but the person who is targeted is distressed and from here I stopped making joke or spreading rumours for anyone.
AT LAST, now finally as the year 2009 has ended the so called recession has ended – statistically is already proven and the year 2010 would bring the peace of mind for all of us and also it is expected that IT/ITES would grow up to 15% to 20% altogether.
Definitely, everything contains good and bad in it. This recession brought a storm in all of our life which is bad but the good about is that it has brought learning for us. We now know better how to survive in adverse situation/conditions. Before recession, we lived the life expecting that the coming days would be even better than today but never gave a thought what if it is not the situation. This phase has compelled us to think and plan better.
In the New Year, my advice would not to be to again start a race of switching and changing organisations but would be to grab the opportunities (no matter if it gets in the same organisation or in a different organisation) with both hands. Bring back the respect and honour of an Engineer which is somewhere lost and definitely if an organisation fails to deliver this please switch/change as soon as possible. From now on rather than following a casual approach we need to plan ourselves better and give our life and career new meaning and a new edge – people smiling/laughing at us had to shut their mouth and indeed for all the parent/guardian Software Engineers would still remain a lucrative product.
With lots of love…..
Upendra
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Well Said!
Amazing friend!!!
First of all your writing skill is amazing, the articulation is great.
May be you could be the next Chetan Bhagat, whay don't you think of writing a book. Just give it a try at least once :)
Amazing though my friend, you've done a great job. After reading your article I think we should be friends. I've mailed you for this also – please call me whenever you get a time.
Again Upendra, it's Sam and I'm astonished with your writing skill!!!!
Amazing upendra, what a thought you've put forward. Yeah I agree that SW Eng. would always remain lucurative product for all.
:) got your thoughts man!!!! I'll keep following your articles!!!
Jai