Can Nathan Avoid Being Downsized (2)

by Naseem Mariam

   Nathan could not believe what he was hearing. He shook his

head from side to side to clear his head and throw away this

news. All he could think of was that his young wife of 5

years was at last pregnant. Just yesterday they had

celebrated this with a bang. And now this ...

Why? Why did God have to be so cruel? Did He have to send

bad tidings every time He gave you something good? After 5

years of married life finally his wife had conceived and

they had not even informed anyone about it. Should he tell

his family the good news or this news first?

Now they would be forced to return to the ancestral house

and live with his parents. And he hated the loss of

independence more than anything else. The loss of privacy

and the new-found togetherness be a great pain.

His boss was nice and calm and supporting about the whole

thing. She seemed more upset than he was. She was raving and

ranting and scolding the management for not giving him

another chance. Another chance - when he had not yet enjoyed

the fruits of this job: it was ironic!

Anyhow it had really been a struggle for him to keep up with

this company. The frequent changes in domain areas, the

constant re-learning had been tough. Every six months there

was a make and break of projects. Always back to college.

That too without proper teachers. This self-learning stuff

was surely over-rated. Constantly having to learn new things

was taxing him too much.

So maybe God really did know what was better for him. His

boss was explaining: The company is going through rough

times. As you are aware many of our customers have aborted

their projects due to the dot com burst. So Puneet Software

Systems has decided to layoff a few staff to remain

competitive by cutting costs.

I know that you have been

improving a lot especially in the last month after your

Performance Appraisal. However your past cannot be washed

away. Perception of you in the minds of the Top Management

is what is deciding who stays and who leaves today.

Nathan wanted to scream back at her: "Why did the company

not have the courtesy to inform him earlier?" Just 2 months

ago he had been offered a job in Bangalore and he had

declined. "Or at least now why can they not give 3 months

notice?" Asking him to resign with immediate notice was what

hurt him the most.

Thank Heavens he had not yet taken out a house loan - the

shame of giving up the new house would have been too much to

bear! It was so indecent. What could he say to his younger

brother who was earning less because he had not concentrated

on his studies. Now that he had lost his job. That too in

the aftermath of the dot com burst getting a job would be

more difficult.

Being downsized in the midst of an industry downslide is an

awful thing to happen. Especially when you are looking

forward eagerly to being a new father.

What was that about ‘perception’ the boss was talking about?

He was good. He had been a top ranking student and had got

good grades throughout his school and college life. It was

his younger brother who was the wastrel and lazy-bones in

his family. Naresh was the black sheep of the family. He had

put in minimum effort and now all he had was his own

business.

His grades were so low that he had not got past the

competition. Therefore his parents and grand-parents had

shelled out some money and set him up with a STD/ISD booth

in Salem. That was 2 years ago. Now Naresh was getting a

steady income from his business. And that too he took home a

greater percentage of his earnings. That was the advantage

of having your own business - less taxes.

Enough of thinking about Naresh: now lets come back to

seeing what best Nathan could do to salvage the situation.

What should he do to ensure that in the next company he went

to he would not get the royal kick once more? He must learn

more about these concepts of ‘Being perceived as a valuable

asset by Top Management’. He must remember to ask his boss

Mitchelle more about it.

Nathan asks Mitchelle: "Can you please help me with this

‘being valuable’ and ‘being perceived as valuable’ fundas?

Life is so confusing to me and I feel numb in one part of my

brain. However the other part of me says that there is a

lesson I must learn from this incident in my life".

Mitchelle was very patient and explained the following

clearly and concisely. Read what Mitchelle had to say:

5 Steps to escape being downsized

Nathan had more questions and doubts than ever. Could

Mitchelle give a few concrete examples, please?

1. Being valuable

=======

Nathan had moved from his low-paying government job as a

Junior Programmer to join the high-profile private firm

Puneet Software Systems. Nathan did realize that Puneet was

predominantly into IP-related products and his experience

was more in the Telecom area.

However the HR Manager of

Puneet had assured him that Puneet was looking to expand its

domain of expertise into telecom areas. Nathan was being

specially recruited to fill in the vacuum of

telecommunications domain expertise that Puneet currently

had.

Nathan had not taken any steps after joining Puneet to

rectify this gap in his expertise and that of the projects

that the company usually handled. Moreover with the dot com

burst affecting all major telecommunications giants, Nathan

felt his legs slipping on quick sand. In order to become

valuable in your company you should find out where the

majority of the projects are being handled, in which domain

areas the most lucrative on-site placements occur, what are

the skills and knowledge expected by the company of those

who can fill these lucrative on-site positions.

In order to become more valuable to his present company

Michelle explained Nathan should have spent a few hours

every week attending the in-house training sessions in the

new areas. Nathan should henceforth get himself involved in

self-learning groups with his peers and exchange knowledge

and acquire and re-train himself in areas that the company

valued.
 

2. Feel valuable

=======

During his past 2 projects Nathan had taken a back seat and

allowed youngsters to take over control and command of the

projects. Nathan was good. It is true he knew the stuff but

he lacked communication skills - both written and oral. He

would have a great many ideas but he never voiced them out

during the meetings.

He would later on discuss his ideas

with his friends many of whom would then run over to the

boss and narrate the solutions. Now the boss had no way of

knowing that the solution had originated from Nathan’s

brain. Recognition and praise thus went to the wrong person.

The youngsters started growing too big for their boots and

Nathan started getting sidelined. The team members would

often consult Nathan when they faced trouble in the work

assigned to them. Nathan would spend a great deal of time

sorting out their problems. As a consequence Nathan’s own

work would often get delayed.

Nathan often would have self-doubts and lack of confidence.

In such times he should practise the techniques of positive

thinking and self-motivation outlined in "Project Serenity -

How to gain happiness and peace".
 

3. Perceived as valuable

============

Michelle advised Nathan that henceforth he should refer his

peers to his boss, get permission to help them and then

spend time solving his friends’ problems. In this manner the

boss will be in a better position to give the credit where

it is due.

Whenever Nathan solved a particularly tough

problem, he could request his boss to call for a meeting.

Nathan could then describe the problem and the solution to

the whole team ...maybe even to the whole company. This

would help in giving Nathan the image of an ‘expert’ and he

would start being perceived as being valuable.
 

4. Acknowledged as valuable

===============

Nathan should with the permission of his boss, gather around

him a few peers and discuss the current topics that the

company deals with.

A note of caution is required here Nathan: In your anxiety

to be perceived and acknowledged as valuable, do ensure that

you project your boss in a similar light. At all points in

time get your boss’ concurrence and support.

Nathan could also volunteer to provide information for the

Technical Home Page on the company’s intranet, maybe even

author a page of new synopsis of what is happening in the

market / technology areas that the company is interested in.

These market, technology, competitor trends analysis would

require an in-depth analysis and research. Refer to "10

Steps to Research or Google a Topic" to learn how to do

research quickly and effectively.
 

5. Clear ROI

Nathan, many of these techniques are very hazy and do not

give a clear return on investment (ROI) of your talents and

suitability for being employed by the company. To ensure

that you display clear ROI, you should earn the respect and

esteem of your customer.

One good report from the customer does a lot more to

increase your perceived and acknowledged value within your

company. Often while Nathan was onsite he had performed many

commendable actions. The customer also had praised Nathan a

lot. However Nathan had not asked the customer to forward a

small mail to his own company. Thus it happened that though

the customer valued Nathan, his own company largely remained

unaware of his talents. Michelle counseled Nathan that

henceforth he should remember to strike when the iron was

hot: ask the customer to write a small note of his

appreciation to Nathan’s boss in his parent company.

Nathan had made the greatest blunder of his life when he

allowed differences of opinion with a staff member at the

customer’s organization to escalate into a love-hate

relationship. This staff member did write a few negative

lines and faithfully copied it to his boss (Nathan’s

customer) and also to Nathan’s boss in the vendor’s company.

This was largely the one blemish that is very difficult to

be erased. When the dot come burst came immediately on the

heels of this incident, it was no wonder that Nathan found

himself with a yellow ticket. Love your customer and serve

him faithfully ... else you will suddenly find yourself

being dispensed with.

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