All of a sudden, the future of thousands of Indian youth became uncertain. Most of them are employees of technology institutes. Tech firms and startups across the globe have experienced massive layoffs. Many of these young people who lost their jobs have now opened their mouths, even though they were depressed in the beginning. Looking for a way to respond.
BBC has published a report about some such people. Last October, Ravi (pseudonym) realized that he and several of his colleagues were losing their jobs at one of India's largest educational technology companies. Soon after, he opened a group to exchange private messages.
Ravi and his colleagues began voicing their fears openly in the group. They started discussing among themselves how to deal with the management authorities. Discussed labor laws and labor rights.
Indian workers have been under pressure in the past few months at various privately owned firms, especially in the technology sector. Education technology firms Baidu and An Academy have made hundreds of layoffs. Social media giant Twitter has laid off more than half of its Indian workforce. Facebook parent company Meta has laid off 13 percent of its 87,000 workforce. Indians are among the affected people
Openness on social media
There has been a storm of criticism on social media based on such layoffs. Many have chosen this medium to express their dissatisfaction and anger.
Indians who were laid off took to Twitter to express their anger. They are looking for jobs on LinkedIn, messaging media on WhatsApp and Slack. He is planning to hold a rally with his colleagues to demand their rights.
Hundreds of thousands of Indian workers are still associated with labor unions. However, labor unions have not been very active for several years. Trade unions have been weakened by private sector jobs, labor reforms and the rise of contract work.
Indian School of Business Professor Chandrasekhar Sripada said that communication with employers is now easy. Social media is also being used as a platform to voice the grievances of workers. For these reasons, there is no need for trade unions to mediate separately.
Baidu announced last October that 2,500 workers will be laid off to maintain profits. After that, many employees of the company spoke to the media. Many have opened up about the culture and workload of the organization, without revealing their names.
Workers who lost their jobs on Twitter expressed their frustration on social media. One former Twitter employee pointed to Musk's tweets, saying, "Always a joke, never a tweet." Another employee tweeted that he was fired without any kind of e-mail.
Just as it is true that layoffs are increasing, so is the job market. Pitta Outta, a professional in the management and development sector, says that employees are now more confident about their skills. They do not shy away from speaking about their rights.
There are also benefits to having such an open discussion on social media. Employers have been forced to apologize for insensitively firing employees or for poor workplace culture.
But Pritha Outta is not very optimistic about this. He says, many are still afraid to open their mouths. They think that it will be difficult to get a job with the future.
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