Employees move to online platforms to discuss lay off concerns

“What does it feel like to be laid off with a huge housing loan and a family to feed as the sole breadwinner?” reads a question on an online platform Quora, question-and-answer site. Another user wrote ‘Is it better to resign yourself or to get laid off?’

Such questions reflect the swelling anxiety among the Indian employees due to the rising job cuts. At online mental health care clinic, ePsyClinic.com, majority of the clients are asking questions related to the fear of losing job. Often their spouses also connect to the forum to seek advice and guidance about how to handle mood swings and temper issues as a fallout of stress. “About 80% of such queries come from IT employees and their spouses,” said Shipra Dawar, founder of ePsyClinic.com.

The modes preferred by such clients is mostly chat and call with session fees ranging between Rs 600 to Rs 1500. “The sessions have spiked up a lot in the last 3 months and the uncertainty in job market has definitely taken a big toll on people's health.”

At other online platforms such as comments on media reports and discussion forums, employees want to know that ‘how a person should face his parents and society after losing the job, how does being fired impacts the career even if the retrenchment was a strategic decision by company and was not based on individual merits.’

A user a Quora, Prashant Pandya replied to these queries saying, “In today’s business world, living with job insecurity is a reality for many. But it doesn’t have to be stressful and negative.” Pandya, at the platform, claims have over two decades of experience as a software consultant.

“Take control by ensuring that your company knows how great you are, and invest time in keeping your skills up to date.” His reply had 6.2 lakh views.

Reportedly, the hiring process for 2017 is expected to be slow on the back of majority of IT majors expected to slash the workforce amid various concerns due to protectionism and changing technologies. IT sector veteran and former director of Infosys, Mohandas Pai, in December last year, had said that 20 crore middle-class youth would have no jobs or less jobs by 2025 due to increasing automation and improvement in technology. Though IT majors such as Cognizant, Infosys and Wipro haven’t disclosed that how many IT jobs they have cut, but it appears that IT is going through one of the largest retrenchments in its history.

However, it is not just IT industry which is in firing mode. Tata Motors last week announced that it has reduced its managerial workforce by up to 1,500 people domestically as part of an organisational restructuring exercise. Since the start of this year, Snapdeal, the country’s third largest e-commerce firm, has sacked close to 500 to 600 employees. This firing was followed by StayZilla. Yepme, a fashion e-tailer, also sacked 30 employees after outsourcing its warehousing and quality control. Another fashion e-tailer, Craftsvilla, sacked 100 people from its merchandise and technology department.