Opinion | What expensive workers in their 50s need to do
The job massacre has begun. Across sectors and industries worst hit by the pandemic, cost cutting reduced salaries as a first step. But as reality bites that there is at least a two-year road ahead of economic downturn, and a real threat of global recession, the gravity of keeping the business viable is deepening. Those businesses directly hit for revenue have taken early steps to stop the bleed and others will take this route down the road.
If you are in your 50s, the pandemic and its ripple effect on health and wealth will hit you double hard. Hypertension, diabetes, heart conditions have been a part of the take-home package in the Indian workplace, putting you at a greater risk than a person with better underlying health conditions. Zooming instead of lounge-hopping, self-isolating and working from home could keep the disease six feet away, but this pre-retirement age cohort can’t escape from the downward swathe of the job cut knife because of its peculiar situation of a person who is ageing, entrenched and expensive.