Stock markets all over the world have been going up and up defying gravity over the past month.. Analysts and media reporters have started claiming that the worst is over....
it is the business of these people to be optimistic.. they cant paint a gloomy picture to the audience, if they did, they are going to lose them ! would you be interested in a newspaer which tells you to expect more bad news everyday ? or in a TV which scrolls news ticker with all news that ticks you off ?
seriously, there is very little on the field that can make me feel good or positive.. yes, right - the banks have started posting profits-atleast some of them.. but i reserve my judgements till some more time... with all the complicated accounting policies i wouldnt be shocked if it came later that these companies have increased their previous year losses by passing on the current year losses to them thereby substantially increasing today's profit... of course, you would find a note in the financial statement that the company decided to follow accounting policy Axxx instead of Ayyy from this quarter. going by the highlighting it got (or that it didnt get) you would assume that it is not relevant... but it might hv been the biggest lever to the profits....
we havent yet seen any poitive signs - we are only observing lesser negative news than we had in the recent past... to me, that's not enough to say the worst is past us.... tough times are yet to come, be prepared with the hope that the governments all over the world will do something about it.... they cant afford to fail with the current size of the problem.....
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
downturn and companies
companies are cutting costs left. right and center.... jobs are being reduced... people are being asked to work for more than 9 hrs everyday... isnt it surprising that all these is happening in the information technology industry which was the darling of the employees, not so long back ? what i find more surprising is that, it seems to me that the companies have decided themselves that the growth is over... downturn or not...
how else would you explain all the measures that the companies are taking.... rather than asking employees to enhance their skills they prefer employees who are willing to do anything... employees are expected to leave all their preferences in the shoe rack at the entrance....
in times like these, if the companies do really feel that the downturn is temporary, they should be looking to build a relationship with the employees.... so that when the good times return, the employees support you.... in an industry like IT, where the capital is intellectual and not so financial, you need people.... that's why companies with a strong HR practice have done well in this sector...
even biggies are handling this badly.. wipro has given an offer to freshers, (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Wipro-to-honour-job-offers-with-a-rider/articleshow/4393269.cms) to whom they gave campus offers last year, that they will honour their offers but with a rider that they will pay only rs 6k if they aren't placed in billable projects.... first of all, it is a business ethic to honour your commitment even if you are on the losing side... in this case, the company blocked the candidates from applying to other companies (campus recruitment rule in most colleges, if not all). the candidates being placed in billable projects is a result of the managers in the company getting projects- something these freshers have little hand at...
what do you think the guys in bench and getting 6k salary (offered 4-5 times more than this during campus recruitment a year ago) would do ? they wud either prepare themselves for higher studies and hence leave the company after 1 yr (quite a loss for the company which invested in training them) or wait for an opportune moment to strike back......
employee loyalty is going to be a forgotten thing in india just because employers think it is one sided... any loyalty is mutual... from a culture where employer was regarded as one who provides livelihood, we are fast moving to one where any employment is business... one of the fallouts would be that ethical standards would fall down drastically... that would be quite a bad thing to happen to this country........
how else would you explain all the measures that the companies are taking.... rather than asking employees to enhance their skills they prefer employees who are willing to do anything... employees are expected to leave all their preferences in the shoe rack at the entrance....
in times like these, if the companies do really feel that the downturn is temporary, they should be looking to build a relationship with the employees.... so that when the good times return, the employees support you.... in an industry like IT, where the capital is intellectual and not so financial, you need people.... that's why companies with a strong HR practice have done well in this sector...
even biggies are handling this badly.. wipro has given an offer to freshers, (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Wipro-to-honour-job-offers-with-a-rider/articleshow/4393269.cms) to whom they gave campus offers last year, that they will honour their offers but with a rider that they will pay only rs 6k if they aren't placed in billable projects.... first of all, it is a business ethic to honour your commitment even if you are on the losing side... in this case, the company blocked the candidates from applying to other companies (campus recruitment rule in most colleges, if not all). the candidates being placed in billable projects is a result of the managers in the company getting projects- something these freshers have little hand at...
what do you think the guys in bench and getting 6k salary (offered 4-5 times more than this during campus recruitment a year ago) would do ? they wud either prepare themselves for higher studies and hence leave the company after 1 yr (quite a loss for the company which invested in training them) or wait for an opportune moment to strike back......
employee loyalty is going to be a forgotten thing in india just because employers think it is one sided... any loyalty is mutual... from a culture where employer was regarded as one who provides livelihood, we are fast moving to one where any employment is business... one of the fallouts would be that ethical standards would fall down drastically... that would be quite a bad thing to happen to this country........
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