First of all let us find out as to what is a Pink Slip? According to Wikipedia, Pink Slip is an American term referring to being fired from one's job & the person being fired is said to be Pink Slipped. What are the possible reasons of one getting fired from a job – or getting a Pink Slip? There are just three reasons or circumstances of one getting fired from a company, which are described below. Situation No. 1: Lack of competence in the employee: Every individual is fully aware of his own strengths & weaknesses more than anyone else. A poor performer with lack of professional competence in his designated areas of operation will not have many regrets in getting a Pink Slip. Situation No. 2: Operation against company objectives: No company will ever tolerate an employee functioning against its corporate objectives. This may include espionage, indulgence in corrupt practices, leaking of company secrets / confidential data and in-discipline etc. Such an employee knows very well of getting a pink slip immediately on getting exposed and thus have no reasons to regret in getting a Pink Slip. Situation No. 3: Company is sinking financially: If the company is sinking, may be due to any reason & is unable to foot the bill of the employees. In such events the companies try every means to cut down the expenses by curtailing its manpower, cutting down the company overheads & many other expenses, without having major impact on its operations. If someone can suggest a reason other than the three described above, please share with me for inclusion in this article. Why the monster of Job Firing is born all of a sudden? Due to continuous decline of economy all across the globe, there is hardly anyone, whether an individual or corporate, that are passing through nervous moments for last couple of months. Thus the present situation is more appropriate with situation No. 3 described above Financial sector is shaken badly due to steep fall in disposable income and liquidity crunch, stock markets are tumbling, sales all over are declining causing great uncertainty everywhere. Every company, whether big or small, is unable to bear the financial crunch & planning to cut down the costs by downsizing the manpower to the barest minimum. Consumers are also not left behind in this race and are cutting down expenses on essential commodities even the food products. Manufacturing companies are also cutting down their expenses in every corner. Who are the people most affected by the present Global Crisis? Serving class of people is the worst affected and is forced to live in an environment brimming with fear of losing the job. Even the supposedly safer High -Technology areas like IT sector, which had been on its blasting boom till a couple of years ago, is now passing through rough weathers & great turbulence. No one is certain as to when such situation will come to an end. In industry, low performing staffs are found to be most vulnerable to layoffs. After laying-off the low performers, companies tend to cut down the costs across the areas not directly affecting the operations of the company, such as HR, Marketing, Publicity, Communications etc. Remember that in most of the layoffs (especially in the IT Sector), aimed at reducing the head count; long experience & corresponding high salary is likely to make you a vulnerable target for pink slipping. Where do you stand among the present moments of crisis? If you are one among a band of such IT guys, who either has already got the pink slip or got a hint from the HR personnel of the company; there is no reason to get panicky or getting depressed & staying under the constant apprehension of getting a pink slip anytime. Remember that tough time comes to test our mettle & never stays forever, thus there is no reason to lose hope. If you happen to be in IT sector, you can adopt several means of being gainfully employed even after getting a pink slip, and easing out your tension and migrate to plenty of new opportunities waiting for you. Following suggestions shall be helpful in effectively tackling the devastating monster of Pink Slip approaching closer day by day. Complete article can be read at
if you get fired you just go look for another job, and perhaps accept a lower wage then before. Try job sites like It Job Hunt. Either that or look for some freelancing work on rent a coder (unfortunately there you are going to compete with eastern europe or indian programmers that charge almost nothing)
Your three reasons are the only ones they're allowed to use to justify a firing, but I can guarantee you they're more often the excuse rather than the reason. Personality mismatch - often between the terminated employee and his/her boss, but can be with colleagues as well. It's important to keep the morale and motivation of a team high or productivity plummets, so people that don't fit in don't get to stay. That, and the fact that you spend more time around your workmates than your family... Fear/ambition - sometimes management have real issues with overperforming employees. If they aren't self-confident enough to work with them, they'll undermine them and find any way to get them out. I've seen this one way too often to be happy with it. Takeovers - a new company owns yours. They already have someone doing your job, someone they know, trust and like. Guess who's more likely to go? no doubt there's lots of others, but I think the bottom line is: no job is EVER secure. Even the greatest job situations can and have turned 180 degrees into nightmares when one senior employee goes and gets replaced.