Women@Work: In This Burning Season Of Layoffs, These 6 Tips Will Help You Tide Over Stress, Finances

Almost daily, news reports appear of companies doing layoffs and cutting budgets. It’s often said that the most excellent companies are built during the most challenging years, economically speaking. Having said that, this is a time for heightened anxiety and upheaval for employees. Here, too, it plays out worse for working women than men.

Working women were the biggest casualty of this pandemic. We’ve faced the triple whammy — sectors we worked in were worst hit, remote schooling and work from home increased our unpaid burden, and managing the family health added to our mental stress levels disproportionately.

While 20 million women dropped out of the workforce in the last five years, the ones that have remained are now struggling to cope with the newer challenges of a sluggish economy and looming structural changes at their workplaces.

In this column, I am focusing on some practical tips to cope with this anxiety, changes at the workplace, and working through a job loss. I’ve put down six questions that perhaps trouble you with some answers based on my sisterhood of shared experiences.

Q1. Will I get fired?

This depends on both the state of the company (it’s sector) and your relative performance. If your performance rating is below average and the sector too is in turmoil then you do have the reason to be concerned.

If your performance is average or higher, then it’s time to delve deeper into your company’s performance. If you’re in a company that has an open culture, you probably already know something about this. More often than not, there is a select group of people who know financial and operating metrics in big and small companies.

The best recourse here is to have a direct chat with your manager. This may not be your usual style but you will be surprised to see how open your manager could get.

A direct chat may give you advance information about the company and it’s problems or at the very least you can end the chat with a “Is there anything more or different I can do?” which demonstrates your positive intent.

I was a part of a large media organisation undertaking a massive sales team reorganisation. There was a lot of anxiety, everyone felt insecure, and, as I look back, and distill my thoughts around who was retained and who grew, a couple of things stand out. One, those who had direct chats around “here’s what I am good at, this is what I would like to do” were often given meatier roles. Two, those who had honest sessions with the management around wanting to move to a new division were largely accommodated.

Q2. Can I ask for flexibility when everyone’s just holding on to their jobs?

There is a clear ‘stigma’ around ‘flexibility’. There are workplaces where it is acceptable as an option for certain periods of time. We are a long way from normalising flexibility at the workplace. I recently learnt that when flexibility was offered to all employees of a top notch management consulting firm, more men availed for it than women. But the perception remains that the flexibility track is for women and for those who are looking to cut back on their hours.

Honest answer, it’s not a great time to have a flexibility conversation if your company culture is not supportive (policies are one thing, culture is very different). Having said that, if flexibility is what will allow you to stay sane and at work, then absolutely have that chat. You’d do well to do a couple of things. One, frame your need as a good outcome for the company, for example, if you want to work 3 days a week, frame it as a potential saving opportunity. Two, have a tight structure in mind, are you looking for 2 days a week remote and rest in office? Do you want to work fully remote for 3 months? It is easier for employers to grant flexibility if the boundaries are well defined.

Q3. My role just changed, what could this mean?

FMCG companies have this concept of JTBD i.e. jobs to be done. When the task at hand changes, ‘JTBD’ changes. That’s what a role change is. A change in the task list of the company. It’s not necessarily a relegation to the dog house. Ask yourself these questions. Are the responsibilities important to the company? Are you learning a skill that’s valuable to you today? Are you learning competencies that will help you in 2 years? If the answer to two of these questions is yes, the role change is good.

Q4. Can I still ask for a raise?

Yes. Because it’s an ask not a ransom demand. So please yes. A raise is reflective of the demand for professionals, general inflation levels, scope of role and performance of the company amongst other things.

As a start-up founder, I can tell you that it is still a competitive market for good talent. Raises will be moderated but they will not be zero. They will come to those who ask for them. However, there is one nugget of advice. Ask for them as a part of your appraisal cycle, this isn’t the time to hustle for mid-year corrections, you want to be seen as part of the ‘fix it’ team and not a ‘high maintenance cog’ insensitive to the company’s fortunes.

Q5. I’ve been let go, what now?

It’s traumatic. It feels personal. You probably have a lot of anger and resentment. All of this is normal. Share your feelings with your trusted friends and family but not through posts on social media. In fact, this would be a great time to take a break from social media.

A lay-off is a fresh start. A painful one but it can be a great reset button for those who were too comfortable with their roles and were genuinely not growing professionally. Here’s how to reset after one:

One, do a quick financial assessment. How many days of savings do you have? Do you have enough liquidity to tide over 4-6 months? Are there any expenses you can re-engineer to do that? This will make you feel more in control. Some people want to do this on an excel sheet, others want to write it down in a diary, just do it, it’s cathartic.

Two, control the narrative and get your story right. A simple explanation to share so that you’re not stumped in the very beginning of your exploratory chats. Pro tip, practise it with a friend. Your explanation can be as simple as, “My company was acquired and the focus of the company changed. I worked in XYZ which was not core anymore and I think it’s a great time for me to reset myself professionally with all that I’ve learned over 5 years in digital marketing.”

Lastly, cast the net super wide. Now that you will return to the job market think of at least 4-5 sectors and 30-35 companies that you could work in. Take at least 10 days to make this list. Reach out to ex-colleagues, even HR in your previous company as they will be well networked to know where opportunities exist. Finally, rework your resume and make a terrific covering e-mail, which is tailored to the sector based on skills they need.

If you feel you were let go unfairly and because you were a woman then you should be aware that there are statutory safeguards in place in organisations. There is an external ombudsman and a Vishaka Committee who you can connect with. These are typically experts and they are duty bounded to give you unbiased advice or perhaps help you take action if the need arises.

Q6. Is this a sign to just take a career break?

If you’re constantly juggling mom guilt or just feeling plain burnt out, it’s at times perverse and tempting to think this is a good time to really just take a career break. A lay-off is not a sign to take a career break. You may need to pause to re-energise yourself to maybe switch tracks or sectors, do that, but don’t drop out thinking this is a ‘sign’.

A long break after a layoff is likely to make it significantly harder for you to return to mainstream roles. So, my advice would be to remain in the job market and search for roles that allow you to build on your skills at your pace rather than take a long pause.

These may have helped some of you while others will have very specific contexts and these answers may not resonate with your situation. Feel free to DM me your questions or unique challenges and I would be happy to chat.

Simran Khara is a startup founder. She is an alumnus of ISB, Hyderabad, London School of Economics (UK) and Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.

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