This article discusses the issue of lay-offs all over the world. Strategies to overcome anxiety and depression due to pink slips have also been suggested. Positive attitude, motivation and looking for new opportunities can really help in this downturn. Improving competence and updating knowledge and skills has become necessary for ensuring greater job security.

An increasing number of youth is suffering from anxiety and depression due to large number of pink slips and lay-offs in recent times as a result of recession in India and all across the world. This is leading to depression and psychological problems among the youth. Those who were happy with their job and earning well are now sitting idle at home. This reminds me news of a young boy from Kolkata, who was very happy with his career success when he got a job at the age of 22 after completing his Engineering. In 2008, he married his dream girl and she also joined a bank. This Double Income, No Kids (DINK) couple enjoyed a good lifestyle by purchasing a car and apartment on loan. But due to events in 2008, he lost everything when the IT company where the boy was working handed over pink slip to him and his wife also lost her job after two weeks. Now the couple is suffering from depression. A question that arises is whether anxiety and depression is the only outcome that we can expect in such a difficult situation or there can be some other alternatives to face such a difficult situation?

Let us first understand the meaning of pink slip. The term pink slip refers to the notice of that an employee is being laid off from his/her job. Recently, this term has become a nightmare for employees all across the world and can be frequently seen in the magazines and newspapers. As a result of economic turmoil, lots of pink slips have been issued to the employees. This is not a single story but organizations worldwide are in the same boat.

The following figures from Wall Street Journal clearly shows that 28 major companies had laid off around 1,50,000 employees in America.

The figure clearly shows that a large number of employees have lost their jobs and this was unexpected. According to US Department Report, due to fall of economy job loss in October and November in US economy is 4,03,000 and 5,33,000 respectively. The unemployment rate has reached 6.7%. This downturn has influenced big economies, like India also. Yahoo is sacking 40-60% of its employees in India. Japan's Sony Corp., is cutting 16,000 jobs. This is the largest reduction announced by an Asian company in the current crisis. 8,000 regular employees and 8,000 temporary staff will be asked to leave. The initial decision of Jet Airways to lay off 800 employees created a sense of job insecurity among all the employees across India. TCS has terminated the services of around 500 employees and almost 700 employees in IBM were fired. The pink slips given to employees have caused psychological problems, stress and anxiety.

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