The mess that is 2008

The hottest topic over tea at work has been the financial crisis that has overthrown millions of jobs and the sanity of perfectly capable people all over the world.One opens the paper to discover that yet another company or bank has sunk and thousands of employees have been asked to leave.Companies have asked their employees to go on sabbaticals,divisions have been shut down without warning with no scope of redeployment for the unsuspecting souls that have worked hard and all they got back in return was money but no loyalty from the company toward them.
This crisis has not just affected the bottom layer of the employee structure, but even directors and top brass who are not affordable anymore.No one talks about the weather or about project worries,now the topics are only ranging from cost cuts to ‘Do I still have a job here?’ Its worrying when you hear about thousands of Indians packing up their houses in the US and returning to India.Hordes of Indians who drove around in snazzy cars have been forced to leave, their American dream never having been fully realiazed by a crisis that was not expected.Whats worse..Indians abroad,stripped of their pride,have been ending their lives unable to take the stress that this is causing them.It creeped up one fine Monday as I recall and the next thing you know, every economy around the globe has collapsed!
I was listening to Bangalore’s favorite radio channel and they were actually putting people on air with the question ‘What would your backup option be if you were laid off?’ I couldnt believe my ears,the state of panic has reached such a point that ironically all they can do is to accept the situation and come up with backup plans.And while millions place their hopes on the economy crash to lift by early next year,analysts have been grim about their forecasts, its mid 2010 no less.