An economic recession, beginning in one of the most powerful economies and snowballing into almost a catastrophe has already eaten into many of the dependent industries. As this continues, and there is an inevitable exercise of ‘laying off’ employees to cut costs, being carried out all over the place, one wonders if there is any other way out of this mess at all? Other than for a few million losing jobs in the US, to a few thousands may be now in INDIA.

The primary focus of this article is to draw attention to the fact, the ‘lay off ‘factor is being grossly misused as can be clearly seen from a recent incident (wherein the employee has lodged a complaint, with the police –post being made to resign from the company) in an organization of high repute and huge employee strength as well.

When an employee loses a job, for some it may only be a while before he or she lands a new job or recovers from the loss of the job. But for many it may not be the same. The plain truth is that, when there are lay-offs happening all around (in so many companies), there are definitely going to be more candidates who would be competing for lesser number of positions. This would increase the pressure on the existing workforce. And in the worst situation, loss of life has also been witnessed. It’s time the various heads of all major IT & non-IT companies come together to repair the situation before it is too late.

When an employee is laid off, how is this employee chosen? Is there an international / national policy in this regard? If all employees in a particular grade are laid off, then expertise in this particular range of experience would be lost – whether this be at the junior-most – fresher level, between 3-6 yrs, where mostly IT employees would fit in as Senior developers or Analysts, Technical Architects, DBAs, etc. And the next level would have the Team Leads, and from then on we move to the managers. So definitely, all employees at a certain level or grade of occupation – cannot all be laid off. This would not be logical and would wipe out a layer from the Organization – impossible! What then is the guideline followed to lay off employees during a recession or cost-cutting exercise in an organization to ensure that the best potential is being retained in the workforce?

When an employee or many of them are chosen to be laid off, on what basis is the choice made? Is this based on the employee’s past performance, (in the current company or his performance history), or employees placed in bench ,( which is because they have completed work and are only awaiting the next project assignment) or is it merely all those employees who can be asked to leave on one pretext or the other for having served the company in right earnest??? How is this ruled out is the question? Is the system robust enough to come back with appropriate answers to all these questions? Or, are there as many loop-holes as in a government-run team often plagued by bureaucracy as we prefer to call it, in corporate parlance ? Lets begin the clean-up now...before we lose too many precious lives – and yes the youth of the nation deserve much better than this.

Coming back to the question of whether at all there is any other way OUT of this mess? One wonders if all the bosses use their thinking caps at all, and what the Risk Mitigation, Crisis Management Teams do, all along.

Given the gravity of the situation, there was recently an article wherein a company (not citing name), has decided to lay-off 300 employees approximately. Now here goes an alternative – which is definitely a practical and more humane / logical and beneficial solution to ANY organization in the long run. The percentage of employees laid off is 0.18 of the entire workforce. But the costs estimated to be saved were a whopping 250 million dollars.

The alternative proposed herein is the PAY-CUT for ALL. (all employees share in the grief now- when its fair-play – hope we have no arguments on this one atleast).

1. Calculate what would be the costs saved, by laying off as many employees ( figure should be readily available though)

2. Now calculate, what would be the necessary PAY-CUTS, ACROSS THE RUNGS IN the company beginning from the CEO, if need be – to demonstrate the severity of the losses the concern may be facing.

3. Work on the PAY-CUTS, could be a band-driven one - which could work out this way – HIGHER the pay package (higher the percentage of PAY CUT!) or higher the grade – then a higher rate of PAY CUT and as we move further down, decrease the percentage and reach it to a minimum at the entry level, so they are the least hit by the recession.

4. This would ensure, that the costs that the company is trying to SAVE by leaving out employees is instead done by RETAINING ALL, but with as MINIMUM a DAMAGE as possible to EACH ONE’s PAY-SLIP – which would include everyone from the Security at the gatepost to the Director or the Senior Level management themselves.

5. PAY CUTS for all, would mean the burden of recession is being shared by ALL the employees of the company.

6. And definitely such an exercise would have to be well-explained to the entire workforce – with details as to from when and until when would the employees have to go on pay-cuts ( an approximate period atleast) and yes, the rationale behind the percentage of the PAY cuts for the different layers in the organization and when the company plans to return to the original pay packages.

7. It would mean, a minority does not SUFFER silently for hardly any valuable reason, but for a stroke of bad luck of being in bench or landing a poor performance rating in as many years.

8. It would also mean, that the company stands UNITED in fighting the BAD times as well, just as the company stays united while enjoying the Profits, Bonuses and Incentives during the GOOD times of GROWTH & PROFIT.

9. Now, how practical is this solution – can be debated upon – by giving the pros and cons of implementing such a solution in however big an organisation may be – and yes- come to think of it – the LARGER the organization, the PAY-CUT percentages would drastically reduce and become minimal I guess – spreading the PAY CUT across 10,000 or 1 lakh employees should be as easier ask, by any measure / math / logic?!! ( compared to laying off a few 100)

10. The MAJOR LONG-TERM BENEFITS of this exercise are that

a. the best potential which has been recruited by the company in good times, and has served the organization for however long or short the duration may be , is RETAINED and the BURDEN OF RECESSION IS BORNE BY ALL INSTEAD OF A FEW who are made scapegoats literally, although this may not have been intentional in any which way.

b. The organization will recover from the recession with all the employees intact and can choose to lay off employees if genuinely required, once the worst phase has been tided over and things are clearer for all to see.

Now , it is time for all the think tanks to begin work on analyzing this solution thread bare, so it can be refined and then clarity emerges on whether or not it is a FEASIBLE, JUST, and FAIR solution to ALL.

So, go on what are you waiting for..BLOG on if you have a BETTER SOLUTION, it might help SAVE the YOUTH if not anything LESS.