The global economy is witnessing a free fall and Indian companies are also being hit by this phenomenon. Companies across sectors are resorting to cost-cutting by offering pink slips to the non-performers. The day of equilibrium is a thing of the past. Global economies are witnessing topsy-turvy changes within short spans owing to factors like global inflation due to skyrocketing oil prices, shortage of food stuffs, subprime crisis of the US and a host of other geo-political reasons. This article discusses how the organization and employees collectively can handle such challenges in the overall interest of all the stakeholders.

Global economy is witnessing wild swings and India is no exception. Moreover, as the common saying goes when America sneezes, India catches cold is apt in the present circumstances, with the marginal difference that it is not only America but the global economy as a whole, which is suffering from downward syndrome. The subprime crisis was the starting point and now the global downturn is having a cascading effect on many economies, notably on the emerging economies like India and China. Indian companies across sectors are feeling the heat, which in turn is culminating in employees being given pink slips. This is one phase which employees never think of during normal circumstances, that is when the going is smooth and the economy is immune from a free fall. The sensible employees understand the importance of business cycle existing in all the sectors and therefore prepare for the downturn by performing uniformly during the boom, burst and moderate stages. This in turn ensures employer confidence on such employees and the chance for retention is high in those cases.

The global slowdown along with the Indian economy's experience in high inflation rate, rising rate of interest and southward moving stock market has made many a company jittery. Although the tremors are being felt across all the sectors, the impact is more on the knowledge sectors like information technology, information technology-enabled services, biotechnology, and pharmaceuticals. These sectors are trying to fight out the challenges by slimming their workforce, mainly the non-performers as flab affects the overall bottom line in the long run. The moment the top management decides to prune the workforce and asks an employee to leave at a short notice, the employee feels he or she has been made a victim of discrimination. It might sound true to an extent (thanks to the impotent labor laws in India). However, the fact remains that in a world where dogs eat dog, there is simply no place for the non-performers. Just imagine for a while even under the most trying circumstances, would a company ask their top performers to leave the organization? Opines Raju Saxena HR manager with a mid-sized Pune-based IT player, "We never shy away from calling a spade a spade especially when the times are tough; however, we ensure only the non-performers are shown the door."

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