DailyPost 2347
THE LAY OFFS
Business companies have an uncanny knack of taking care of their company’s human resources or so it was believed. IT sector was even better. The principles of good living with wholesome existence were being talked about all over, albeit with outstanding professional expertise, which no one could possibly crib of. They deserved to recruit the best and keep them in the best possible manner. The IT honeymoon went for decades and it seemed it would last forever. COVID-19 provided a crisis which they could cross over with innovativeness and digital ingenuity and could keep their HR flock together to their satisfaction.
While the businesses were crumbling because of the health emergency the world was facing, IT industry took care of itself, its HR across the world and supported every other industry. It saw a boom time during this crisis. The management’s war cries of diversity, inclusion, work life balance, me time, fun environment, social activities online or offline, counselling etc. were visibly seemed to happening and playing magic on the human resources. The stress and strain of jobs got confounded the loner work environment of COVID-19. There is no denying the fact that the IT companies did all that it takes to keep their human resources going in the worst possible circumstances of the century.
It so happens that crisis brings the best of human elements together and in business companies too. Normal times can turn out to pretty disengaging as it happening now. Cool and calculated becomes the name of the game. Whatever does not fit the new design and the likely vision, which might or might not be realized, but you can be shown the door. Given the posts coming on the social media, neither number of years or performance is coming in way of being shown the pink slip. Adding ignominy to the whole exercise, the relations are sapped cutting the digital umbilical cord.
Business crisis is a different story. It hits at the cash registers. Might be in the ensuing ML/AI world the direction was wrong. The flab for whatever reasons needs to shed. It might be because of increased IT requirements in COVID times, or for a variety of other reasons which have all of a sudden come into intense play. Somebody, has to the price. Even with parameters unknown and severance quite different from the human resource management principles espoused it has to happen. It is happening across board and has vitiated the work environment of IT industry globally. Principles and human values are looked and treated differently in difficult financial times. Resources who have been recruited with so much of effort, care and precision, all of sudden start looking like liability.
THE IT INDUSTRY NEEDS TO LOOK FOR A DIFFERENT HR MODEL.
Sanjay Sahay