It's Recession time!!!!

Recession……I am tired of this word now. You hear it everywhere around. Be it in the team meetings where the project manager scares you in the name of recession asking you to be aligned more than ever to the organisation's goals or be it in the coffee with your friends who are scared due to the dearth of projects and the rumours of pink slips around……..You switch on the TV and this word comes to bug you even there with the news anchors blowing it out of proportions with all their pessimism. It has been months now and nobody really knows when we can actually see some light. What started out with the sub prime crisis in the US hitting the financial sector has eventually affected many industries and traumatized the entire world. It has taken the shape of an all powerful job gobbling monster and nobody knows how to stop it. Individuals, organizations are trying out different ways to beat the recession…trying to adjust to the changed environment. As the demand seems to be shrinking, individuals are focusing on reskilling and upscaling. There was a time in the software industry, when people used to just love being on bench. “On bench”, if you are not aware of this term, means being in a company without a project…….that means no work and all pay. The bench people would swipe in and go off to dormitory for sleeping or simply go out of the campus itself and spend the entire day outside..the studious few would actually utilize the time for preparing for exams like CAT, GRE and stuff like that. With the profit margin on the decline and the organizations unwilling to entertain non performers, “bench” is certainly the biggest scare now. The once carefree and happy people on bench are the most frightened ones now and the competition to get into projects is simply at its peak. Technology, project, location, pay packages which used to get dictated by the employee once are at present being thrust upon by the employer and people can hardly complain. The software industry, as is known to all, primarily thrives on the work outsourced by the American companies and with the U.S deep in recession and the Obama regime hard on outsourcing, the IT sector is up against the toughest of times. With the customers cutting heavily on their IT budget, the pipeline tells no stories of hope. As a result of all these, organization is upbeat devising new ways and means to atleast minimize the effects of this menace. Thankfully, in Indian companies, till date there has been no random firing of employees but we can certainly see a increased drive on reducing the operational cost so as to maintain the profit margin even in this challenging scenario. Be it in the stopping of the free bournvita, badam milk etc in the pantry or the reduction of number of reams of papers for the printer, be it in the drive to switch off the unnecessary lights after the normal working hours or the reduction of the number of tissue rolls in the restrooms……..you can see the cost control measures almost everywhere around you. And if this means saving somebody’s job, we should actually welcome all these steps in the right spirits. It’s time, instead of getting scared and spreading negativity around, we help our organizations and in turn our own selves by being sensitive to the situation and sensible in what we do. Trust in our abilities and the mindset to keep honing our skills is certainly the need of the hour. I certainly am no pundit to give you tips on fighting recession but I would like to share with all of you a nice thought I heard somewhere which I feel is just appropriate in this troubled weather. Many times, we see a small bird sitting atop a delicate and slender plant. With the wind moving the plant to and fro, the birdie enjoys the swing least bothered that a small gush of wind would actually bring the plant down. Its fearlessness comes from the trust it has on its wings…..the bird knows it fully well that even if the plant falls down, it can easily fly off. So also in our case, recession or no recession, in a big company or a small concern, if we have trust on our own wing, we can definitely enjoy the swing.