Hard Times...Harder Truths

Oh Dear... I am posting after a month... Do not know what's keeping me busy off late; my job or my laziness...or both!!! 

I always believed that HR is like a doctor. When a doctor saves somebody’s life, the patient terms him as a God. He becomes the biggest hero of that patient’s life. Just like when an HR offers a job to a needy guy. Neither the doctor nor the HR classifies what is the background of a patient or a candidate before they start their job. Neither they do any favors nor do they take the place of the God. They just do their job. When we see the other side of the coin, it makes the scenario real tough. When a patient dies, then apart from his/her family, the entire mass blames the doctor. As if he deliberately let the patient die. Just like an employee blaming HR and making him/her the biggest villain when they are sacked/laid off. This is just a part of their profile. But a normal person or an employee does not understand this. For them their life or job means everything, rightly so. But why the person sitting other side always has to face the fire? Just because they are doing their duty? What an irony! Tough to understand, tougher to convince. Bu this is life. All the time you cannot keep people happy. That’s why somebody has quite rightly pointed out, if you have kept people around you always happy, then you must sacrificed a lot in your life. It holds true a large extent. Actually, one cannot.

The prime catalyst in igniting this thought in me is the layoff process which I was a part of. Fortunately or thankfully, whatever you say, I was on the other side the fence. But when I put myself in the shoes of employees to whom we break the news that today will be your last day, it feels shocking and it really hurts. The worst part is the after-effects of this. Once you break the news, then you have to face questions to which you do not have an answer. What is the answer, when somebody asks on what basis she/he is laid off, when somebody says I have 3 year old daughter, when somebody breaks down completely, somebody simply says ‘I do not want to go, I love this company’. I did not have the answer to one of these.

But I am doing it, with all the conviction, as a part of my profile, my job & for my organization. Because, when I think from my organization’s standpoint I see a bigger picture. I find that that in order to save 200 employees we need to get rid of those 20 and we made sure that they are the bottom 20 and we also kept other attributes in mind as well. At the same one can also see a larger perspective if he/she goes through the record of layoffs in last 6 months alone in bigger brands. Be it IBM, Jet Airways, Wipro or many others. Their layoff process and pattern is tougher and sometimes humiliating, but they can say that they can afford it. Because they have a big brand name attached to it.

It’s just that, I am just an average guy overloaded with organizational goals and preloaded with emotions. So it becomes tough to find a perfect equilibrium. You know what, I was wrong to think that recruitment was monotonous, it is too far better than saying ‘goodbye’. We all are a part of this corporate culture, sooner we realize & accept it, better for us. This culture has got two sides, but one should take all in the right spirit and come out of it as a winner.

 Just another day at office!!!

[the above views are my personal take on a particular issue, my organization does not represent these opinions]