Nothing could be as painful, as losing one’s job especially in these tough times of global economic turmoil. Skip hopping from one job to the other is no more easy. I mean there might have been times when someone lost their jobs today and got new jobs in the next couple of days have been given various names. Of course we can’t say they were times of jobs for the asking. But however difficult, however trying, seldom were they as they are now to a multitude of issues. So you can’t help feeling a little blue every time you hear someone lost their jobs because you know the search for a new one is a whole lot of a different world.
Being fired from work have been given various ‘politically correct’ names over the years though they do little or nothing to ease the pain and lessen the subsequent suffering. With fewer dishes on the dinner table, the surge of monthly bills shaking the households’ economic status, and the cost of living moving like a train which jumped its rails and was crushing through every structure in its way creating chaos and destruction. Believe me, especially these days the reverberations losing one’s job impact not only the victim but a lot of people near and far and especially the family which already were in an economic straightjacket. Almost every other person on earth being in hard times losing one’s job is for some could come as shockingly as a death warrant.
You don’t even want to hear about someone losing their job because you know that this would be a very hard life to lose. From the household lives behind the walls to the greater open social interaction the aftershocks might not die down anytime soon.
Amidst all this it doesn’t mean all dismissals unfair and gross injustice. Some probably get because it might be the only way to make them come back to their senses the boot because they should get the boot! In every place of employment there are rules and there are rules! It’s as simple as that. At times you hear people who have lost their jobs say they have been downsized for absolutely no reason at all. It is only human to try to play down the reasons for which you’ve been shown the door especially if those reasons are real tough. “Oh it was absolutely for nothing. Even a verbal warning would have been too much. And frankly speaking sometimes here could be dismissal for reasons which have absolutely nothing to do with the actual work one is assigned to. And the way in which the unfortunates are informed of the decision could be humiliating.
“Are you saying they served you the dismissal paper?”
“They haven’t yet served me any dismissal paper yet.”
“What do you mean? Then how do you know you’ve really been kicked out of your job?
“I was told verbally.”
“You mean you were told you’ve been kicked out verbally and just collected your things and walked out after so many years of serving them?
“That’s what happened.”
More or less that is a story which we heard sometimes back. But a couple of questions blew the ‘absolutely no reason’ wall apart. This guy’s case was personal with one of the brass. “One of those things…” you might say. But this guy happened to date a young lady who was outdoors girlfriend of one married heavyweight. Not even a top brass himself he somehow managed to get this guy kicked out, and verbally too! That is how the story goes. The crux of the story was the dismissed fellow was warned that his flirtations with the particular young would not go well with the heavyweight whose affair was public knowledge even, as the rumors contend, to his own wife! Good stuff for another TV serial, wouldn’t you say?
That isn’t the end of the story. There was the issue of the dismissal paper, which when it came landed with a big bang. The fellow was accused of indiscipline about which he got repeated verbal warnings which he failed to heed; that he was also spreading false rumors among the staff attacking the management. Now even those who hate him say the accusations were false but who cares! He touched the untouchables and got himself in searing hot waters. But what has flirting with a married heavyweight’s girlfriend has to do with actual work performance? Search me.
So there could be a hundred one reasons for being kicked out ninety of them probably have nothing to do with actual work performance. These days when talk of downsizing staff comes there are lots of stories making the rounds. Not that you believe all stories you hear. In fact just to be fair enough eighty percent or more could be intentionally created and edited to serve their purpose, which most of the time is about character assassination. Stories of flirtations among the wrong people are a dozen a dime; then there are stories of favoritism based on identity, beliefs and the like. Hearing such stories you wonder of we’ve overplayed the maxim “Birds of a feather fly together.” It might work for the good old birds up there looking down on us and probably wondering “What the hell is happening with these human beings?” But when we try to customize it for humans well it’d probably end up a story which is wrong in its every aspect.
“I heard they kicked out that finance department guy.”
“Yes, they did.”
What did he do? Don’t tell me he sent his hands into the coffers of this always in-the-red office!”
“No, no that. They say he clashed with the general manger not connected with work.”
“And, what was that?”
“I don’t know the whole story. But I suspect it has to do about heaven and hell.”
“Ha! Ha! That was a real Tyson Fury uppercut, wasn’t it?”
“If you say so…”
So conventional wisdom about job losses at that, you wish no one lost their jobs for the wrong reason! By the way about this heaven and hell thing, probably all places of employment must have their own Heaven and Hell; the only thing is that in some places you might be the worst sinner walking upright on planet Earth and do not have to worry of ending up purgatory; or the only things you lack for being an angel could be two wings and still you might end up knocking the doors of hell! Bad, ineffective, abusive management could be that bad!
The Ethiopian Herald June 9/2024