[This article concerns temporary skilled workers here on the H-1B visa. Note the lifestyle and sense of entitlement]

Why do pink slips turn red in techie land?

First Published : 20 Dec 2008 10:39:00 AM ISTLast Updated : 20 Dec 2008 11:06:16 AM IST

The pink slip is actually red. Last Wednesday, in the Valley on business, I caught up with a techie family anxiously awaiting news about whether or not the breadÂ*winner of the family still had his job. Two hours into the wait that began at 9 am, the phone rang and the proverbial Damocles sword came crashing down.


Techie Umesh informed his wife he had been pink-slipped. Her composure crumbling, she asked him to drive home carefully. Watching a tense Umesh walk in, I wondered just what protocol the Big Corps followed when laying off employees overnight.

The ashen faced techie revealed that some of his friends at Yahoo who were laid off saw the writing on the wall when they received requests (from seniors) to be in the office by 9 am. Also, if one could not make it, the person was to ensure he or she was available on the cellphones for the next six hours.

Appalling. So if you were unable to come in, or take calls for some calamitous reason, would you be left a voicemail informing you your job no longer existed? Was the four-month or five-month severance package supposed to be the balm for your wounds? Worse still, some firms have gag orders against discussing the “pink slip processâ€