404 Career Section

by Nikhil

Welcome back!

Its recession time.Job market is at its recent worst.Companies have started firing.

Purely hypothetical cases of what may happen,god forbid!.Good luck!

Soon company websites will start reflecting this reality.Nothing much that a you or I can do.

Careers section of Flat World Software Systems taken off.There is a blank space instead of Career. Very symbolic.Scroll mouse over and pop up says “Think Flat-Recession is global”. How true.

Sunflower Software Systems‘ Intranet Career Section now has a landing page that says Enter Your Employee Number. Then you Enter the same, click on the Enter button. And the Result page shows

Mr. Bench Chodd, you have been a wonderful employee with us. 10 October 2008 is your last day at work.You may settle your accounts later when we get back to you. Good luck job hunting!

Click on Career Section on Data Consultancy Services‘ website and dang!

404 Not Found! Aren’t you reading papers? Why would we repeat mistakes?

SweetYam has a Career section that says, Shhh.. do not disturb, we are firing.

This image, which you may have seen only in old movies, may now be seen on one of these pages.

No Vacancy

Image 1: Istockphoto, Image 2: Corbis,photoshopped

Indirect reference to companies at my own risk

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Tags: career, firing, hiring, job market, jobless, melt down, recession

48 comments

1 gazal { 10.10.08 at 10:56 pm }: hey nikhil,

great meeting you too.

god forbid..is all i can say
2 Praveen { 10.10.08 at 11:33 pm }: haloo chetto..
kandathil santhosham..
njan ivdeyokke thanne kaanum:D
3 Praveen { 10.10.08 at 11:37 pm }: coming to the post..
hope I dont have to see such things in my company’s site;)
if that happens..am pichachatti:d
4 scorpiogenius { 10.11.08 at 2:10 am }: eeek! you scare me…

Many have sleepless nights now, seriously. And things aren’t getting better.. So what you’ve said as a joke might just be a bleak reality for many!

all the best, to you and me…:)
5 prats { 10.11.08 at 7:53 am }: Hey….it was nice meeting you too…
And I really hope the ‘supposed to be working’ dialogue never happens.
All the best
6 Tia { 10.11.08 at 10:12 pm }: Hey Nikhil, Great meeting you too! Keep in touch…
7 Usha { 10.11.08 at 10:21 pm }: Am not any kind of a financial person, lol, but this does give one the chills….
It may perhaps come to this too! Reminds me of a movie [an old one ] that I saw recently, called “Office Space”. On sort of the same theme of cutbacks on human resource. What a way to put that across.

But I guess, the fears are really real, this time round. And in this day and age. Well, I hope everyone here gets to keep their jobs. and progress too.

Thanks for dropping by at my blog:)
8 maddy { 10.11.08 at 10:33 pm }: the number ofpink slips are increasing – but what the hell, thats life. so dont ponder too much about those kind of things. you do good and life will ‘eventually’ be good to you..
9 Nikhil { 10.11.08 at 11:07 pm }: @gazal
Thanks for dropping by.
Ya,hope things get back on track soon.

@Praveen
Namaskaaram
Orappalle, namukk kaanaam.
Dey! Kalips aanu, onnum parayanda ippol.Enthum sambhavikkam.

@scorpiogenious
I was not making fun of the situation.
Infact, I put the pink slip date in the post to 10th Oct 2008 ‘coz I did not want to be jinxed giving a later date.You never know na.

@prats
hey hey!
shhh…boss listening. Thanks

@Tia
Thanks,sure.

@Usha P
Thanks for dropping by. Fears are real.No kidding there.Uncertainity seems to be the only certain thing.

@maddy
Ya, we can’t do a thing,then why worry. True, maddy!
Thanks for the comment
10 GWBE { 10.13.08 at 12:59 pm }: I hope you don’t find yourselves in one of these scenarios in real life!
While reading your post, BBC news reader was reading out about the inevitable recession that is just around the corner. Brrrrrrr scary!
11 | Balu | { 10.14.08 at 1:38 pm }: I just read the last ‘circuit’ post and then read this one.. chetto be carefull ketta.. (attempted tiruvananthapuram accent) chettanum kittum oru pink slip
12 Nikhil Narayanan { 10.14.08 at 1:41 pm }: @GWBE
Pedipikkale saare. Touchwood.

@Balu
Yem bee ye edukkandi vannath veruthe aano
13 kochuthresiamma p j { 10.14.08 at 2:22 pm }: must b quite scary for youngsters, eh?
teacher
P. S. wonder if i still sound like i am teaching
14 Nikhil { 10.14.08 at 2:32 pm }: @kochuthresiamma p j
Yups, yups
Teacher-that is pretty evident in every line. Headmistress style alle
15 Prats { 10.14.08 at 7:39 pm }: Awesome… and scary at the same time…
16 Nikhil { 10.14.08 at 11:15 pm }: @Prats
I know man! Bad times.
17 XKCD { 10.14.08 at 11:18 pm }: Aah! It’s good to be jobless!
18 A Cynic in Wonderland { 10.15.08 at 11:39 am }: too close for comfort this is aiyo.
19 Nikhil { 10.15.08 at 12:06 pm }: @XKCD
Ya, when you have all your money in stocks,and in the sinking banks

@ACinW
We don’t have a choice.
20 Salil { 10.15.08 at 12:10 pm }: I guess I will never be fired. Who will do ALL the DIRTY jobs then, eh??!!
Good one as usual. Keep them coming.
21 Nikhil { 10.15.08 at 1:12 pm }: @Salil
Thanks Salil.
This is my hope too.
22 aNoop aka --xh-- { 10.15.08 at 3:40 pm }: hm.. athe.. ‘pani’ kittathirunna baagyam…

(comment notification works… kollam kollam)
23 Nikhil { 10.15.08 at 6:03 pm }: @-xh-
LOL! Thadi kedavathe nadanno. Tnx.
24 rashmi { 10.15.08 at 6:19 pm }: DAMN!!!!!
25 Seema { 10.16.08 at 3:40 am }: Funny, I never expected this to happen in our firm but the internal opportunity section was actually missing from intranet site the whole day today ( turned out to be an IT issue though)
Enikkum kodukkanam aarkenkilum okke oru pink slip!
26 Nikhil { 10.16.08 at 12:48 pm }: @rashmi
Thanks for dropping by. Too many cynics around na? Good luck to all of us.
@Seema
I am sure that was not an IT glitch. Sadist you are!
27 Tia { 10.16.08 at 7:40 pm }: Shouldn’t the blog be called al-avalathi?? rotfl!
28 Tia { 10.16.08 at 7:45 pm }: Why do you have Bellandur lake as your header image?? Strike two *wink*
29 maddy { 10.16.08 at 8:36 pm }: from what i hear – even the yellow post it is outdated.
now you get an SMS or an email in the in box..apparently they have a pink slip here in usa..but other than the term itself, i have not heard of anybody actually getting one of those or seen it!!
30 Jatkesha { 10.16.08 at 9:49 pm }: Very funny!

Placements in December 2008. I hope this global financial crunch doesn’t hit the oil markets hard.
31 Nikhil { 10.16.08 at 9:57 pm }: @Tia
He he, ya ya. You guessed it.Headers are all Kerala images, lady!
@maddy
You scare me now!
@Jatkesha
Thanks for the visit.Like, we have a part to play in this.Sigh! Good luck Jatkesha.
32 Divkiran { 10.16.08 at 11:44 pm }: this is gettin scarry, feels like tht no vaccancy board is runnin aftet me too…. gode save my job!!!
33 Nikhil { 10.17.08 at 10:49 am }: @Divkiran
It is.What say, thinking of doing a PhD ?
34 Macadamia The Nut { 10.19.08 at 7:07 pm }: Sorry but I had to laugh reading this
Pinne serious aavam… coz this was one hell of a funny post
35 Nikhil { 10.19.08 at 7:18 pm }: @MTN
Sigh! You wont understand
Avidunnunn Obama ungle chavitty purath aakumbol ingu varule? bwwaahaaaa. appol pakkalaaams!!!
36 Cris { 10.19.08 at 8:26 pm }: That bad eh? I can expect company then!
37 Nikhil { 10.19.08 at 8:29 pm }: @Cris
I am an optimist.Now go figure!
38 gazal { 10.19.08 at 11:37 pm }: YOU ARE TAGGED…take it up
39 Jayson { 10.20.08 at 12:32 am }: Interesting post
But jokes apart, things can be pretty scary, especially to those who has huge loans…
40 Hari Shanker { 10.20.08 at 1:50 am }: Ente ammachiye!!

You rock, sire.
41 Sree Pillai { 10.22.08 at 11:12 pm }: I wish all of you 301 permanent redirect than 404 not found.
42 Nikhil { 10.24.08 at 8:10 pm }: @gazal
Thats scary!
@Jayson
True.
@hari
Thanks dey!
@Sree
Entammoooo, enne koll!! Enthoru chalu
43 Iya { 11.06.08 at 8:47 pm }: ok..now this is scary in a humorous way..
44 Nikhil { 11.06.08 at 8:51 pm }: @Iya
Trust me,its really bad.
45 Nimmy { 11.12.08 at 10:26 pm }: Hi ..

Thatz a really bad phase when you go to office everyday in fear of getting kicked out..Lets hope all this will settle soon..

I have come across your thoughts in Cris blog I guess..Came here through Amrutha’s blog Hope to read more..

Good day..
46 Nikhil { 11.18.08 at 11:16 pm }: @Nimmy
Thanks for visiting.Hope things settle down.

-Nikhil
47 Swaram { 12.03.08 at 2:11 pm }: Oh man! I had this live experience of a lay-off right in my office about a month back; People hu were in office in the morning were told it was their last day; Had to pinch myself to see if it was all real. Office looks so different ever since!
48 Sanghamitra { 12.13.08 at 9:29 pm }: Humourously written Nikhil but I hope our names don’t figure in the severance list!!!