CORONA AND WORK – HAVE WE ACCEPTED REALITY?

CORONA AND WORK – HAVE WE ACCEPTED REALITY?

No shortage of articles on ‘post-Covid’ changes in business which I simply put as ‘hindsight-gyan’ is harmful if you do not take ‘continuity’ as the major factor. Continuity from Jan 2020 to date. Key word? EFFICIENCY.

In this article:

Continuity

Blunt question to those ‘Laid Off”

Blunt question to ‘Employees’

Blunt question to ‘Founders’ & ‘Owners’

2020 is the worst year of our lives. Really? Has it changed your market, clients, budgets, funding, manpower resources, products etc.? Practically, other than lay-offs everything is continuing in business and work.

KEY lies in how you do, the same work you did earlier, more efficiently, economically and scale up DESPITE Corona Virus. This is the challenge. I have written about strong partnerships, multi-tasking, multi-skilling, drastically reduced travelling, upscaling the skill set of management, owners etc. as the key pillars around which the post-Covid business will revolve.

The consulting work I do from last 14 years precisely focussed on these aspects and the companies with whom we have worked seem to be totally at ease. Audit by an outside agency on 360 deg aspects of your business is a mandatory requirement to position your business to new realities. Do not waste time on cosmetic changes of new arrangement of seats and sanitizers at entrance etc. This is bullshit. FOCUS on continuity.

That’s where the crux is. Continuity.

Blunt question to those ‘Laid Off”

Blunt question to the people who have been laid off. What was the reason for your being laid off? While your colleagues were retained you were not? Has the world come to an end? May be the best thing that happened to you was being laid off. It isn’t bad. There were shortcomings in you that the employer found you easy to do without. He retained the others. Is he wrong? He may not be. It’s the employer and the employee who come together just for one reason. MONEY. Remove this word and no two people will be together. THIS is the reality. It always boils down to optimisation of the workforce. An employer wants to employ the least number of people and earn maximum money. The employee does not want to work at all but wants more salary, perks. Both are right at their places. In order to see that both win, compromises are made. The employee works a bit, employer releases a bit. The question is, in this tug-of-war you were laid off. Had there been compelling reasons for the employer to retain you, would he lay you off? Also, did you perform and get the skill set that would force the employer NOT to lay you off? No employer wants to loose people and or become an employee’s ATM. So why don’t both understand each other? They do. Hence the layoff.

Where did YOU go wrong? Interact with me on the blog.

Blunt question to ‘Employees’

Blunt question to the ‘President’ to ‘Assistant Manager’. Corona or no corona, things haven’t changed much for you. Either you are still continuing or have been laid off. How much time have you spent thinking the reasons for your colleagues who were laid off? So many would have been laid off on your recommendations too. Right? What tells you that YOU will not be laid off after a while? How much investment had you done in the people laid off? How much skill set did you ensure those people increase? Do not run away from realities. It’s all about MONEY. The owner, founder, management, don’t want to lose further, the retained employee will do anything to continue and the laid off will have long face. Each is concerned about MONEY. And MONEY is not a dirty word. This post is for ‘retained’ employees. What should you be doing to ensure you are not laid off? I will be writing more on it. How many of us really think through this? I do. Keep reading and posting your queries on the blog. There is an answer for ALL. Let’s get together and ‘plan’ and make money without malice.

Blunt question to ‘Founders’ and ‘Owners’

Corona or no corona, how well equipped you were, are and will be in supervising your different verticals? Why I ask this is because in my last 14 years in industry, I have worked first hand in every vertical, I can sit with clerks in a road side ‘tapri’ and meet Director Generals and Chiefs in their offices, stay on Oyo Rooms and enjoy Five Star hotels. I can drink Rum and am a connoisseur of Single Malts. I can go to post offices to dispatch couriers and meet MDs for meetings. I plan 10 years ahead, accurately predict market, make strategy, write and follow my vision and mission. I can make my Head BD, Head Marketing, Head Sales sweat, HR, Govt E Market Place, E Procurement, Research and Devp, develop my products and have mastered administration. Have you? I write this post to generate that confidence in Owners that YOU CAN DO IT too. Have you ever introspected? At most places the ‘ego’ takes over and does not let us accept the fact that behind the facade there is a very under confident person. We bully our way through. We use our position to silence. We don’t accept our shortcomings. Why should you be like that? This is the place where I help people in their competencies. Write to me on my blog.

This is neither a promotional nor a commercial activity. Its to share my personal experience in the markets, both national and international.

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