Is the Fear of Being Laid Off Impacting You?

Did your day start with another layoff announcement? Is this fear impacting your focus on professional and personal life? Layoffs have come as a rude shock for employees who were hoping that professional life would get better in a post-pandemic world. Beginning with just 3 companies firing about 510 employees in January 2022, the count of companies issuing pink slips has gone up to 1227, while the number of layoffs from the year 2022 to 2023 stands at 4,45,151 employees.

With Recession wreaking havoc on the job market, this fiscal year started off with 1,17,300 employees being laid off by 242 companies across the globe. There has also been a steady decline in layoffs in the recent months, with the count going down to 30,608 employees who were laid off by 57 companies.

The layoffs have impacted the global workforce immensely . The list of companies firing employees include Meta, LinkedIn, Disney, Twilio, Ebay, Zoom, Dell, Tinder Owner Match, and Pinterest along with PayPal, IBM Corp., Spotify, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Intel, Twitter, Lyft, Salesforce, Stripe, LiveSpace, Doordash and many others.

Impact of Layoffs among employees

With the number of job seekers going up, the competition for a job has increased. The availability of manpower in huge numbers, rising job seekers or fresh out-of-college graduates, and also the juggle to survive amidst the Recession and the layoff crisis are escalating the competition. Work culture has played a major role and is causing several mental health issues like Anxiety, Depression, etc among employees, as an outcome of the layoffs. These issues are being acknowledged, and awareness is being created through different platforms.

Experts are also sharing a list of tips to cope during this period. Layoffs are very challenging, especially for foreigners, many of whom are in possession of H-1B and L1 visas.

What’s Driving Layoffs?

Let’s dive into the elements driving the job cuts to create a better understanding of what comes next or how to survive this massive challenge.

Economic cycles and unpredictability of consumer demand has caused major technology corporations to lay off up to 120,000 workers last year and into the first quarter of 2023. Technology companies had tremendous growth during the pandemic, and consumer demand initially remained high after lockdown, but it seems to have naturally bottomed out.

With people returning to hospitality venues and offices, tourism and hospitality companies saw a strong jump in revenues, while home entertainment and video conferencing companies saw a leveling off. IT businesses failed to predict the sector correction point, which led to consecutive dismal earnings calls and the current wave of layoffs.

Vigil on Employee Performance

Additionally, the economic downfall has caused companies to put employee performance under scrutiny. As a precautionary measure to survive the financial crisis, companies have cut their expenses by only sticking to their exact requirements and best performing employees. It has brought the process of bulk hiring into the limelight.

A number of organizations have frozen hiring, and some have also mended their ways by moving to a skill-based hiring process. Slowing growth and economic worries are pushing some CEOs to require in-person labor, undoing the pandemic’s flexibility. Besides layoffs, employers pushing people to return to work and that’s causing a stir. Some firms are motivating employees to get back to work by maintaining workplace flexibility and allowances.

Make the Most of Your Job

You can survive the layoff by taking initiatives like keeping a track of the industry trends, understanding and analyzing the companies and elements of the job cuts. Additionally, understanding the trending skills and upgrading yourself will increase your chances of surviving the present job and also make you future-ready. If the job cuts are taking a mental toll, you can seek professional help. Being mindful, knowing your reality (or your market value) during a Recession and working on striking a work life-balance will ease things and help you get a clearer picture of your career.

(Author: Alisha Fernandes is an inquisitive learner & content writer at TechDoQuest)