Job insecurity or a change in lifestyle?

Is that a choice? The economic uncertainty has certainly seen stress levels rise in all of us. Projections say by 2011 it may better. That is another goddamn 2 yrs or more!

The slowdown first touched me when I was in London. The family of 5, I was staying with had already lost 2 jobs. The youngest son was trying hard to get employed. Women in the family were juggling both emotional and financial support. They ran a laundry. Work never ended till late evening when actually London stops work at 5!

Not knowing what the ‘credit crunch’ had in store for India, I convinced dad to invest in an exclusive property in South Bangalore. But exactly 6 months later we started to hear about job losses, salary cuts and the price cuts.

On my quick trip to Singapore to handle management issues I heard from every cab driver what a struggle it was and no one knew how they would emerge out of this. They were frustrated and their anger was fierce. I didn’t think that I might not visit Singapore for a while, post that trip. The clients had tightened their purse strings and the tourism business by itself had crumpled. When I spoke to an insider in the Singapore Tourism Board, he mentioned how they were trying to promote education and no more ‘destination tourism’ was their key focus.

Marketing strategies changed. Business propositions were tweaked. Offerings were more focused with keeping the downturn in mind. Plenty of advices from industry leaders on how to survive the slow down started to trickle in.

Greeting people starts with ‘Has the downturn touched you’? ‘Have you cut down on your traveling?’ ‘Oh yes, its definitely stopped me from thinking about getting married!’ was something. I haven’t met anyone who has smiled it away or even didn’t worry about it in the near future.

A Malyali in office working away form home decided to look for a match. His folks back home obviously insisted the girl be from their village in Kerala. After a long search for over 3 yrs he approved of a girl.
Within 2 months of the engagement he got a frantic call from the girls side with a zillions questions on their mind. ‘Can you support the girl with the current economic scenario?’ ‘We need to talk to someone who can take responsibility and be responsible for the wedding?’ I couldn’t stop laughing. Poor he. They eventually got married though.

Did this bring about a lifestyle change? I have seen friends; the big spenders watch every move of theirs. Late night dinners in star hotels, afternoon brunches every Sunday or even simply catching up over a drink every evening after work -not happening anymore!

But really, it is a reality check. If not for this period the gap between segments of people would have widened and there would be no end to expectation. This period gave each one of us time to sit back, realize and plan. The fear of when its going to end and the worse that can happen stays on.