Call it third sense or something, but I felt uneasy the whole weekend into Monday. It was a feeling as if you may get fired or something terrible may happen. We have been seeing senior heads being taken out with a 4 pm Friday email every week for the last 3 weeks. My new job looks a bit wobbly, given that the boss that hired me had his role made redundant 2 months after I started. And it is almost 2 months after that episode…
Late Monday afternoon, the only person that reports to me directly asked for a one on one meeting. He has decided to quit. Mid-level positions are in hot demand as banks look to cut expenses, taking out seniors (MD, D) that have experience and replacing them with cheaper staff (AVP, VP). They figured that experience is overrated and with machines taking over, they just need to get more junior staff to do the same work.
The signs are all there : machines don’t complain, don’t ask for bonuses and work 24 x 7. Even sales staff can be replaced with more efficient Algos that can analyze big data and spot trends faster. Facebook already sends you ads that you want to see, based on your views. Management of people? Uber already does that with sharp analytical accuracy, without emotions.
Where does that leave us? New jobs are being created at a faster pace than ever before in our digitized world. We just need to learn to catch up to make ourselves relevant. We must maintain the hunger to strive for more and have a can-do spirit, else we will be left behind pretty soon. It’s hard but I guess we need to be very disciplined and continue to stay focused. I constantly need to remind myself of this, though it is hard sometimes and moments of doubt and despair creeps in.
Anyway, we tried to counter offer the staff with a similar role he wanted but after a few days, he decided to go. It is now a mad scramble to look for a new person to fill the role and meanwhile, I would have to take up the extra load…
Stay focused, my friend. Tomorrow will get better. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Take a step back and think big picture. Chill and de-stress with friends and activities over the weekend… Sous Vide the Tomahock steak and go for your midnight Sundown half marathon run. Things will ALWAYS get better 🙂
Leave a Reply