Attachment to a Job

 Read a post by someone on LinkedIn on how Indians in India are emotionally attached to their job, partly because we don't have other interests outside work. Largely true. Oracle's 12,000 layoffs brought this out yesterday, with some employees lamenting their layoff.

What is a job? It's a contract, that can be terminated as per conditions stated in it. That's it. The group you work with is not exactly family, though friendships or relationships can develop during your work life. But the corporate (or family owned) entity has limited uses for any employee-CEO included. One must bear that in mind.

The best way to deal with the downside is to be prepared for a job change at short notice. Update your skills, your CV and network. Don't be under an illusion that your job is forever. Stash some savings to help during a transition. Don't overcommit on expensive stuff, especially long term, unless you have an assurance that you can meet the EMIs. 

Rules of Business and Work

 Work as we know it, consists of a 9 to 5 job in a company or organisation. Unless you are an entrepreneur who works for herself/himself. Then the work hours are undefined. But this is not about work-life balance. It's about the risks involved.

As with everything, there is an upside and a downside to work and to a business. The upside of working is that you have a workplace, and a salary at the end of the month. The downside of course, is that no job is permanent, except a minuscule number of government jobs. So there are chances of getting the sack, for reasons of macroeconomic factors, or mismanagement, or incompetence -yours or somebody else's higher up.

Same goes for businesses. The upside is profits and growth, and so on. The downside risk is that of losses of market share, brand value or just financial losses. No company is permanent. It can transform, get taken over, and so on. 

An intelligent person knows this and moves on to another job, to try his luck. Business owners who are not clingy can also recognise this and sell off (there are many serial entrepreneurs) before the risk gets higher than the potential payoff. Browbeating and blaming does not help (the context is current layoffs in tech including edutech.. no one complained when they were hiring in hordes).

Book Review- Love, Lies and Layoffs

I read mostly non-fiction, unless a Murakami strikes. Or a Wodehouse. But every once in a while (Old Jungle Saying, like in Phantom Comics), I read something that I picked up impulsively at the airport..just because it looks interesting.

This one is a well-written story of an office romance- utterly predictable, between a guy and a girl at a media house. Office politics is the villain, rather than any one person, that hangs like a cloud over the love-birds. The supporting cast is impressive, from bimbettes to well-meaning alcoholics. Sort of 'Na tum jaano na hum' in prose.

The corporate shenanigans instantly brought in thoughts of the ongoing Tata-Mistry saga that's playing out as we speak. This one's smaller in scale, but interesting nevertheless. One identifies with Frieda, the narrator, which is half the battle won for the author in any story.

Nice read, for its style, realism and wit. My first with Usha Narayanan, the author.