The last few years have been a roller coaster ride for us. We witnessed a ton of awful events. From complete lockdown to war between Russia-Ukraine, it felt like we’d seen it all. But did we?
During the lockdown, markets fell. The world saw a surge in prices. Price inflation hit the markets.We had to rely on our savings even for basic needs. Many companies went bankrupt and unemployment reached new heights. Times were hard, but we knew itwill pass. It took us some time but we started getting back on track. The markets saw green after a very long phase of red. Prices began getting back to normal. New start-ups were registering themselves daily. Employment rates too began rising.
Everything looked fine until we experienced the second wave of covid-19. The first and second quarters of 2021 felt like a re-visit to last year, but only more severe this time. Although, the market knew how to manage itself this time. Therefore, even though the second wave was way worse than the first in terms of fatality, markets were not that affected. We prevailed.
But the world seemed to have more challenges for us in the box. It was the 24th of Feb, 2022. Russian president declared a full-fledged war on Ukraine. Markets took a nose dive and billions of dollars vanished from markets in a matter of few hours. We were about to experience the worst of the recession. Prices went up, and supply-demand went down. Russia and Ukraine both were very crucial exporting nations. Be it oil or wheat or many such daily used items, many countries were dependent on them for their fulfillment.
All sectors were severely affected. Deep down we all had an instinct that things will only get worse from here if the war doesn’t end soon. And we were very righteous about that. The second quarter of 2022 greeted us with yet another very much anticipated happening. Mass Layoffs.
But what are mass layoffs anyways?
Whenever a company fires almost 1/3rd or at least 500 of its employees within 30 days, a mass layoff is observed. In the last few months, many big MNCs have done the same. Netflix, Meta, Twitter, Snapchat, and Coinbase are some of the big names who’ve sacked a very large portion of their headcount.
The latest of them includes that of Meta. They’ve fired almost 11,000 employees globally, stating they were not fit for carrying out the future goals of the company. This accounts for almost 13% of its workforce.
Twitter too after being acquired by Elon Musk has fired more than 50% of its workforce. It even fired the CEO, Parag Aggarwal. Musk recited that it is being done to meet musk’s vision for “economies of scale”.
Amazon is also planning to carry out something similar in the coming weeks. There is a trend of mass layoffs going on in the market. But why so?
These mass layoffs are not happening all of a sudden. Its foundation was laid as soon as covid started. Since the pandemic started, market volatility has become very fragile. Companies had to re-evaluate their strategies for surviving the new trend that followed post-pandemic. Working from Home became the new normal. Due to this, companies could now carry out much more work from their employees. 1 employee can now carry out the task of 2-3 employees by himself.
This made a very huge impact on the approach with which companies moved forward. They started identifying employees whom they thought were less productive and non-beneficial as per the current market trend. What followed was a disaster for such employees.
Also, with the continuous falling demand, companies saw a drop in revenues. To maintain their profits, they had to axe down salaried headcount. This has always been the harsh reality of the corporate world. There is no proper law for job security anywhere. A company can fire any number of employees without any prior notice or proper reason to manage its profits.
So, what can an employee do at such times? How can they make sure that they won’t be sacked from their job?
We leave that for next time.
Tell us your views about the current market layoffs and how are they going to affect the market.We’d love to hear from your side!!