Jane Ngene

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/24/business/economy/coronavirus-pay-cuts.html?referringSource=articleShare

I support a salary reduction instead of layoff especially at a trying period like the current pandemic. There’s hardly any form of recruitment happening at this period. If staffs asked to go, the probability of them getting any employment offer is near zero. Therefore, I prefer a pay cut in order to keep as many people as possible in employment especially at a time like this. Getting a pay cut is not easy but when viewed from the perspective of helping others retain their jobs, then it doesn’t hurt as much. It is a shared sacrifice.

Again, keeping staffs and reducing salary instead can also be viewed from the perspective of ensuring the readiness of the organization when the economy bounces back. If you lay off your staffs at this time, it will be much more difficult to get them back when you need them (that is if they are still available). My organization learnt this the hard way when they were looking to recruit for a new project. It happened that the only Nigerians with the expertise being sort for were people that have left the organization, many of whom were laid off. My organization had to pay much more with all the stress alongside the recruitment process just to have those people back. At the same time, they couldn’t even get the best hands they laid off because those people were not willing to come back. Now, they are more careful with layoffs. In this pandemic, they have found ways to keep most of the staffs when ordinarily they would have laid off people.