Rightsizing - a necessary business pain
Lay-offs can affect the working culture of a company. It is time to make it an integral part of a business strategy
Economists argue that while complete recovery will be slow, it will be more sustainable and more solidly founded on the principles of classical economics
Organizations need to realize that they need the trust of the employees for the long term and if they are not authentic in the way they deal with such issues, they can lose the trust of their teams, which nobody can afford
In March 2008, Praveen (name changed) made his way to Mumbai, the City of Dreams, after he had been recruited by financial services firm Lehman Brothers to work as a senior developer and analyst. Everything was hunky dory until September 15, 2008, when the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the largest bankruptcy filing in the US history with Lehman holding over $600 billion in assets. News trickled down slowly to the Indian office. Soon, it was confirmed that there would be lay-offs. He was allowed to stay until April 2009. Initially depressed, he was confused about what to do. As no job opportunities came his way, he resolved to make good use of his time. He cleared GMAT and enrolled for an MBA at Purdue University in Germany. Today, he is a senior analyst at Amazon.com.
Circa 2013: Ricky (name changed) had been working with CNN-IBN, a news broadcasting company, for three years. Independence Day had just passed and he came in to work as usual on August 16. As he wal...
