The advent of the COVID-19 has impacted all kinds of businesses no matter how big or small in all parts of the world. However, it is mostly the startups who are seemingly going through the worst of this pandemic situation. This, in turn, is now making them let go of their employees in huge droves.
Top venture capitalists, founders and many investors are now repeatedly warning that over the next 6-8 months, technology startups will probably cut hundreds of jobs. This is because they need to sustain the losses that they are making right now because of COVID-19.
Anand Lunia who is the founding partner at India Quotient, in a statement, said that we are more likely to see a wave of continuous layoffs for the next 12 months straight.
As of now, most internet business such as OYO, BlackBuck, Treebo, Acko, Fab Hotels, Meesho, Shuttl, Capillary, Niki.ai, Swiggy and Fareportal have already cut a major portion of their workforce by furloughs and layoffs. Many others such as Ola, Zomato, Zoomcar, MakeMyTrip, Chai point, Cashify and Livspace have opted to drastically cut the salaries by 30% to 50%.
Rutvik Dosh who is the Managing Director of Inventus Capital India said that startups will most likely have to merge or either fold up completely as there are rarely any other options left in this scenario.
The maximum job cuts are being mostly observed in the retail, hospitality, travel, mobility and financial services industries as they have been the worst affected by the pandemic.
According to Big Jobs which is a job portal reported that over a whopping 600 businesses have downsized their employees and other temporary staff members in the past one month itself.
But, the damages to startups and their employees are not just limited to India alone. Most of the startup employees in the US are going through a similar situation. In the last one month, 280 startups have laid off 21,609 employees.
In fact, the situation is only becoming worse with each passing week. In the 3rd week of April alone 3,765 startups employees were asked to leave. This was 21.1% higher than the number of employees laid off in the previous week.
From the time Coronavirus was declared as a pandemic to 31 March 2020, 9302 employees were laid off by 113 startups in the US. The figure increased to 15,655 by the end of first week of April.
Pay Cuts And Layoffs: How To Navigate?
Let’s be clear, the fight for the survival of the fittest is on now.
If you are someone who has been working at a startup for quite long, then you are probably aware of how shaky the grounds are when it comes to keeping your job. However, if you still haven’t yet been handed a pink slip or been furloughed, there’s a lot that you can do to ensure you will land on the safer side of things.Â
You need to be able to clearly communicate with your team during this entire ‘work from home’ situation. Equip yourself with the knowledge of how to efficiently work remotely and make sure your efforts are being noticed. Also, as these are testing times, reach out to your managers or team leaders and ask them how can you help out in additional ways. Don’t hesitate to go for an extra mile. This will definitely earn you extra brownie points and help safeguard your job to a big extent.
Now for all those who have been already let go, you can use this time judiciously instead of frantically trying to search for the next job right away. Until things get better, try and pick up new skills which will help give a huge boost to your resume. It will also give you an additional edge over all other candidates who will also be applying for jobs as soon as this pandemic gets over. Alongside, pick up a few freelancing assignments to meet your commitments. Companies are out in the market with hundreds of gigs to avoid hiring full-time employees.
