For the past year or so, everyone who pays or gets paid has had something to complain about. Whether its downsizing at major companies or the US government’s bail-out schemes, everyone’s got a reason to put a new edge on what was often called one of the worst economic crises to hit the world, including the Great Depression.
After reading reports and analyses as early as from 2007 (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118921622921621367.html), the author of this article was sincerely disturbed to note drastic predictions and prolific doomsday theories that would abound the forthcoming months – not only in the US but all over the world).
And why wouldn’t there be. The dollar slid, oil and gas prices flew sky high, and businesses that were well-established for over decades were crumbling into the heap of breakdowns that were getting frighteningly common. What choice did anyone have but to yell ‘the end is nigh’ and run for its nearest bail-out cover provided by what could hoped would be a government strong enough to sustain bail-outs.
Middle East in general and Dubai in particular faced similar crises. People were getting laid off, by chunks and hotels offered schemes for them to eat free at their tables. A report at popular job site, bayt.com showed that employees in the UAE were among the most worried regarding the securities of their companies (http://www.bayt.com/en/research-report-4221/). The same report showed further staggering numbers that UAE was not only among the countries with the most job cuts with companies keeling over, but it was also one of the highest among the persons witnessing the Ripple Effect (employees witnessing colleagues, friends and family members losing jobs). And while respondents were pretty confident about the turnaround of the economic disaster, they had no idea when that would eventually happen.
And while the crises were as real as global warming, there were nooks and crannies where employers were holding employer satisfaction hostage by way of exclaiming “Economic Apocalypse”.
There were companies that were using economic crises as a powerful excuse to maneuver their possible growths and providing employees with benefits. There’s always a kickback people receive from such situations and ironically enough in a condition where employees were at most risk, these kickbacks were beneficial to only the employers.
A company, let’s call it Company X, would state, echoing the latest economic news bulletin, that its suffering from economic crises and would not be able to raise salaries, provide bonuses or even let its employees enjoy a share of their hard work’s earning. A certain employee, let’s call him Employee A, brings them worthwhile business – but they insist on their chimes and state that they are unable to give him a raise because there’s a global recession.
We get that there’s a recession. But how can you not raise an employee’s salary when he’s defeating the point? When he’s getting you business when no one else can?
Company X, a Cisco Gold partner, was contracted by a major Telecom provider (who shall also remain nameless) to audit their networks. Employee A, on behalf of the Cisco Partner conducted the audit, pointed out a number of deficiencies landed a contract worth 1.7 million USD to improve the networks. The project was to be done in three parts (LAN, WAN, Security) over three quarters. The first two parts completed, employee A has already brought in 1.2 million dollars and rest of five hundred thousand to be paid at the end of third quarter in the time of the much-mentioned economic recession. In a time where companies are losing business, Employee A brings them a hefty big one, which not only helps the company gain a one-time gain of 1.7 million dollars but also an annual support contract of three hundred thousand dollars a year.
A business of around 2 million USD earned by an employee in a global recession has got to warrant some, if not a lot, of praise and maybe even some economic benefits in these rough times. One can sincerely wonder if the company still has the ethical stand to state that it cannot raise the employer’s benefits due to this ‘recession’ and one continues to wonder just how many companies are taking undue, unfair and uneven advantage of these already-desperate situations.
Numbers are picking up; jobs are making their way back in and with the right amount of patience maybe there’s going to be some light at the end of the tunnel.
However, until that time comes, we have to ask ourselves how much of the recession is real to our employers and how much are they glossing over to produce more gains for them. We have to find the balance that must come in situations like these to avoid exploitation of the employee – because he’s probably afraid to quit because he knows he can’t find another job let alone a better one. And the dilemma becomes that the recession remains real for the employee – whereas for the company it seems not only distant, but really quite convenient.
Employee A
CCIE # 220XX
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