[DueLLeR]

Originally Posted by vivekiny2k

may be somebody realized that the appraisal done was a futile exercise, and they have no way of evaluating who is good and who needs to be sacked. did you see performers across the spectrum (good, bad, ugly ). if everybody received a rating of 10, then quite likely the company wants to see differentiation.

lay offs, well, can happen any time.

Actually, the appraisals were done quiet fairly. The top performers got big hikes and mediocre ones were left satisfied too. However, like any other IT company, my organization is facing the effects of recession too - fewer projects, too many people on the bench, US clients unplugging ongoing projects etc.

So, in such a scenario, organizations tend to reduce costs (read layoff people) to keep their balance sheets in green. The only difference is how they do it. Some blantantly (and without warning) handover pink slips. While some others, systematically cut numbers by retaining the top performers and laying off poor performers and people on the bench, all under the pretext of performance.

Cheers!
DueLLeR

[sudipta]

In my company, appraisal was just moderate. On an average around 5% increment and 12% bonus. The senior folks got almost nothing where as the juniors got moderate. Being an MNC, laid of 800 folks last week in US but no impact in India as of now.

[sammyboy]

Man, we are supposed to get the variable at the end of march and appraisal in Aug. so just waiting and hoping and praying.

[kalpeshc]

My mid-sized product based firm - (one of the best in the industry) - laid off around 30 odd people last week. They are targeting a figure of 70 for this! Everyday around 10-15 people are quietly asked to leave so as not to create any big noise. I was under the impression that my firm had one of the best (read, high integrity) HR policies, but unfortunately that is not the case. The employees are not even being asked for relocation options (we have multiple branches) and a few of them were not even allowed to login when they came and were sent away from the main gate itself, which i find quite disgusting.

I am planning to move away from this company to a much smaller company in entertainment/media hoping that our local entertainment/media will NOT be affected by recession. With Obama riding a 'save USA' bandwagon coupled with the current recession , I am not sure what the future holds for most of the firms dealing with US clients. It's not just your company that you need to worry about but also the health of your client. If your client goes bust and ramps down your team, you'll find yourself on the bench and on the probable list of lay offs! It's just too scary out there now.

[ajmat]

few of them were not even allowed to login when they came and were sent away from the main gate itself, which i find quite disgusting

I find stamping on someone when he is down despicable. It is unfortunate if one has to terminate people but do it humanely. You trusted the person for so long so do it properly. Remember employee's/ ex- employees are one of your best ambassadors.

The same thing happened to me when working for a UK consulting company making in-roads to India. I did my best to ensure their market penetration was limited - either by confronting competitively, advising my clients to look at alternatives or defining terms and conditions (ie the firm in question used to charge UK style fees and body shop Indians on a pittance - i advised th client to ensure that the whole team was sourced from the UK)

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by kalpeshc

a few of them were not even allowed to login when they came

Unfortunately, this can not be avoided specially for support / operations jobs.

A disheartened employee filled with rage over layoff, can wreck systems in just a few keystrokes.

And in financial terms, that would mean HUGE claims from clients.

Originally Posted by kalpeshc

and were sent away from the main gate itself, which i find quite disgusting.

That is really disgusting. Proper procedure would be to make this clinical process as humane as possible in given circumstances.

[kalpeshc]

Originally Posted by ajmat

I find stamping on someone when he is down despicable. It is unfortunate if one has to terminate people but do it humanely. You trusted the person for so long so do it properly. Remember employee's/ ex- employees are one of your best ambassadors.

Absolutely true. And to top it all, this is being done by companies who have good reputation in the market e.g. my company is one of the top offshored product engineering company in India and still they end up doing this! Somehow just a single instance like this dilutes the goody bag of the so-called employee centric policies that they keep on announcing. It comes to naught when you are not humane with the employee and are out there to kill his/her career.

[HellwratH]

Originally Posted by DueLLeR

In my organization, there have been no job cuts so far. In fact, the top management has been sending out mailers that scream how well we're doing. An expensive branding exercise was conducted last month and every employee was made to sit through a 2 hour session to understand "our culture, values, and goals for the immediate future."

Two weeks back, we recieved a mailer for "performance management." Now, each employee has to go through a self-appraisal for the period of January to October 2008, even though appraisal has already been done and salary hikes were given. The side note reads: failure to complete the self-appraisal will give the employee a default rating of 1 - did not meet expectations.

IMO, this is a clever ploy to start sacking people under the pretext of performance. What say?

Dueller,

May be you missed the ET on saturday (Jan 31st 2k9). It does say, 200 people were asked to leave and some of them have been on bench since 8 months!! Also, the appraisal period got extended. Mind you, this appraisal is just to regularize the appraisal from quarterly to yearly..so don't expect hikes..

P.S: The date is extended to 13th March 2k9 and the site is down today. :P

[vasudeva]

The Government has just released the GDP figures for Oct-Dec 2008. Some very gloomy numbers (all in real, ie, constant prices terms, since that is what is used as what you see as GDP growth). Growth is yoy terms (ie Oct-Dec 2008 or Q3FY09 over Oct-Dec 2007 or Q3FY08)
1. Overall growth at 5.3%. Lowest since Jan-Mar 03.
2. Agriculture growth at -2.2%. First negative growth since Oct-Dec 04.
3. Manufacturing growth at -0.2%. First decline in more than a decade.
4. Industrial growth at 0.8%. Again lowest in more than a decade.
5. Construction growth at 6.7%. Lowest since Oct-Dec 01.
6. Trade, hotels, transport, communication growth at 6.8%. Lowest since Jan-Mar 01.
7. community, personal, and social services growth at 17.3%. Highest since July-Sep 99. This is public administration and defence. Concidentally, elections are around the corner. Look at this quarterly figure and you will find extremely high growth in July-Sep 99 (1999 elections), Apr-Jun 04 (2004 elections), and now Oct-Dec 08 (2009 elections). In my opinion, essentially, Government is spending huge (and by definition wastefully) while the economy suffers.

[vivekiny2k]

Originally Posted by kalpeshc

and a few of them were not even allowed to login when they came and were sent away from the main gate itself, which i find quite disgusting.

this is a common practice in west, especially in IT. because it is also commonly known for sabotage by the sacked employees. all they do is to "delete all" important files. Normally the sacked employee is escorted with a security personnel till he leaves the premises.

[cruiser_1982]

I was due for promotion last year and It was put on hold. I am definitely not getting the promotion this year too. Funny part is, with my current Appraisal ratings, I will be due for another promotion this year end. So This is the most upsetting effect of recession on my job,Further comes the salary cut and allowances cut to increase the effect of recession.

[mmmjgm]

Coming to lay offs, nothing is fair. In the USA this is a done thing because the law is fast and speedy, here in India its not the same, enforcement and conviction rates are very very low.

Recession Well the arabs and the oil prices of the last year are to blame, primarily higher and higher (read as historically high prices of any essential commodity) act as a speed breaker for economies, in this case it is oil, very volatile and supply sensitive prices such as US$ 155 per barrel of oil cascaded into lower offtake by consumers in the USA and other countries.

Now very simply put, SUVs, heavy private vehicles and motorhomes consume a lot of fuel, people who have worked in the states would have seen this, essentially the American public needs petrol as much as the Indian public needs soaps on TV.

Now if this consumption dips or stops, any product based on the consumption of this product is drastically impacted, in high oil prices, the SUVs, pickups and heavy private vehicles were hammered at pricing, people lost value by owning these products as their prices had dropped lower than the total EMIs oustanding on them, people who owned these vehicles apart from paying a huge cost on commuting also found that they could not replace these vehicles for higher MPG (miles per gallon) vehicles. Thus the cycle started of decreasing consumption, mind you decreasing consumption has a tumble down effect economically, much like a tsunami. Waves gather momentum, here financial implications gather momentum, lower consumption = lower production = lowered investor confidence.

On a micro level, this translates into lesser savings as gas outgo from a household budget has increased, this leads to cutting corners, missing EMIs, defaults etc etc. You may be aware that an average American is in nett debt due to home payments/rents, credit card debts, EMIs on cars, lease payments on cars etc. Cutting corners translates to a lower consuming economy, so that poor guy supplying the products to these marginal consumer also looses sales as the public on the whole stops consuming what they were consuming sometime ago. This in turn impacts his source of funds or his investors and/or his own funds.

Add to that the prime stupidity of the Sub prime mortgage meltdown, its not only mortgages its also credit card debt, debt extended to people to pay off credit card debts, private loans etc.

The trickle down effect is what we are feeling right now. China/India etc are facing lower sales to the USA, in turn with lower oil prices, the Arab economies are facing the worst downturn in the history of their independence. They may have the money, but its worthless if you cannot invest it to get returns.

Hope this clarifies your doubts.

Cheers
M M

[crn12]

I just received an email from top mngmnt saying that there will be a pay cut of 20% with effective this month...

I'm in IT Sales (Domestic & Intl Market) - Travel Technology

[mmmjgm]

Originally Posted by crn12

I just received an email from top mngmnt saying that there will be a pay cut of 20% with effective this month...

I'm in IT Sales (Domestic & Intl Market) - Travel Technology

Dude look at the bright side, you have a job !

Cheers

[kpbhatt]

i was called by the VP Delivery and asked to start looking outside -- there is a re-org in the company to be announced in March and i might not have my job soon.