Infosys, Lay-off, and Generation-P!

Mass Layoff is a warning for employee, HR, and society!

Infosys had “Mass layoff”. Numbers range from 300 to 700.

WhatsApp groups of HR folks are buzzing with debates and forwards.

Off-course WhatsApp is not the medium to deliberate, hence this post.

I have three comments, first for freshers (I mentor this age-group), Second for HR folks, and third for Business/HR leaders, policy-makers, and educators.

For Freshers:

Dear Freshers, lay-off is not a question on your ability, learning, or competency!

You were just at the wrong place, at the wrong time!

And brace for this upcoming onslaught on the jobs in the coming days.

There will be more layoffs and an acute job-crunch. Signs are there.

The Indian IT industry has thrived on the cheaper labor source to the west.

Its main source of revenue is Uncle Sam (You can read Mr. Trump).

And Uncle Sam has tightened the belt!

A second big factor is AI Juggernaut.

Automation with AI is massive.

The IT industry used to hire freshers in large numbers for these jobs.

And these jobs are just disappearing!

Even mid-career professionals are feeling the heat. They are forgetting promotions, and are now concerned about survival itself! (My most coaching requests often come with this preface).

These job-loss factors are beyond your control.

This is even beyond the control of many IT companies. Don’t blame them!

However, the world is not going to be dark!.

Indian IT folks have seen Y2K (in 2000) followed by 2001 twin tower attacks (caused heavy job losses), financial industry crisis (in 2008), Trump’s earlier term, and then Covid (2020).

And Mr. Trump’s new term is terribly bad news for Indian Industry.

IT folks suffered, but survived.

Generally those who learn, unlearn old-skills, and re-learn new skills survive.

Stop reading the news. News is rarely optimistic.

Stop those Instagram reels and YouTube influencer feeds, and invest in reskilling.

Remember, AI will divide the best from the rest, so focus on being best, being competent.

That will have better pay off.

What to learn, what skills will be more in demand and how to go about it. Turn to some decent career coach, mentor, or guide. (This is a subject of another post, sometime later).

Second point is for HR folks.

As a HR you were doing your job. But it can be done a little better.

HR is a business supporting function. HR survives if business survives. That’s true.

But support needs to be really on a strong foundation.

Infosys is reputed top brand and industry leader.

Leadership shall be visible in such a crisis situation.

As a HR professional OB (Organization Behavior) is a critical subject (And often undermined and ignored as a soft subject), OB talks about Justice and equity theory in motivation.

It talks about equity and fairness in the workplace.

(Image Source: and you can read here, if you have already disposed the book)

The mainstream news (Assuming it is unbiased), shows that this is lacking.

You can’t have the same test, same syllabus for two different trainees within the same campus! It’s like some lazy professor teaching the same content to BBA, MBA, and executives in the same campus! You are violating distribution.

And you can’t change the evaluation/assessment in the middle. You need to be transparent about changes. That disturbs procedural justice. Imagine you need to explain to a Sales employee within a month that his reward structure is changed!

Lastly, generally employees will resent, but adjust/adapt with procedural and distributive justice.

But they won’t accept “interactional justice” violation. As Maya Anglou said, “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”.

Memories of distribution and process are easy to erase, but not the feelings. Feeling of unfairness is going to stay long!

Layoff is one of the most critical and scary things HR do. A popular Hollywood movie “Up In the Air” highlights the difficulty of layoffs and resizing. You need to do it better, and ensure the exit is smooth and painless with the clinical precision of the surgeon. (That may be the topic for another post). It’s not what you delegate to juniors.

Third is the most important, in my opinion.

Educators, business leaders, policy makers, and HR leaders need to really take a pause.

We all need a longer and bigger perspective.

Infosys is not a startup, and has robust campus recruitment practices in place.

if these freshers have not been able to sustain the assessment or evaluation, not only Infosys but all of us need to take a pause and think. (Even with impending tough future business).

These freshers are most likely faced a Covid/lock-down and extended isolation. (I assume from the news article).

They are different. They are certainly different compared to the time in which your processes are established! The Covid and Isolation experience has changed them!

Academics have started recognizing this. They have coined the term p-generation (pandemic generation). I have seen in classes, they simply shun many things that earlier batches easily faced. That strive, that competitive edge is not that sharp!.

But business, particularly in the international market will require that sharp edge.

Spirit and competitive behavior business requires is thin in this young workforce.

HR/Educators, do you remember one leading Indian bank said in a job advertisement, that 2021 passouts shall not apply! They backtracked after backlash. The problem that was pushed under the carpet is surfacing now.

Business and society will have to work with these freshers. Young minds are fragile. And need to be “Handle with care”. If we are blunt, abrupt. They will shatter. India is a young country with a large number of youths. Lots of shattered young minds will make society and workplaces dangerous and scary!

Business realities are there, cut-throat competition is here to stay, Job-crunch is here, and layoffs will be here too. But we can’t ignore our own. This is an open ended question for everyone concerned. And this Infosys layoff brought it to the front-page.

(I love OB and hence HR, do subscribe Substack for unique perspective from Career perspective.)