On Tuesday last, Collins Dictionary named Permacrisis as Britain’s word of the year in acceptance of a dismal 2022. Permacrisis in many ways is seen to be the result of a combination of sudden, extenuating and unforeseen factors. Brexit and its fallout, the Covid health crisis, the Ukraine war, internal
political upheaval and the cost-of-living crisis are all quoted to be prime factors resulting in this word and its birth. For the sake of common clarity, this new dictionary-entrant term is defined as an “extended period of instability and insecurity”. And it’s here it seems.
Permacrisis is here then. Not only for Britain, but for every society and economy in the world for sure. The world is flat, as is its economic interdependence and relationship. This term, which will now be
bandied about extensively in every economic debate of the future, in many ways, is the ultimate definition of where we stand today as a society, an economy, a political entity and even a religious society on the morph. If I am to tweak the word a bit in my typical way, I might as well dub it as Permaflux. The world is in a flux. The way it is meant to be.
And that’s the point really. The world is never meant to be static for sure. Everything is meant to be in a flux. In many ways, all creation is a result of the flux that precedes it. And we are all a result of that flux. Resisting this flux or wanting it to be any other way, is really fighting the way of nature.
Let’s look around. The week gone by has been a tumultuous one in itself. Take the realm of jobs. 50% of Twitter employees lost their jobs across the world. In India, the loss of Twitter jobs is said to be as big as 85%, which means the only team left unscathed is Twitter’s basic tech-backbone team. Byju’s let go of thousands. In the US market, which is just about on the precipice of a recession, Lyft laid off 13%, Opendoor 18%, Stripe 14% and for Morgan Stanley, a number is yet to be estimated. Jobs are being shed like leaves in autumn. And this is just winter. Wait for more to come. This sure is a key factor of the Permacrisis we will live in for now.
The shedding of jobs by a corporate is always held in disdain. Criticism is always the stick of choice used to beat a corporate brand. The fact remains that a job loss is a loss of income. At times, this is an income that supports families and an entire ecosystem of consumption that creates the positive turn of the wheels of an economy. And that’s the real human and economic angle that is a tragedy for sure. A job loss, apart from being an economic hit, is a big hit on the morale and psyche of the individual at the receiving end. But then, when you beat Elon Musk (the new owner of Twitter) with this stick of reason, he is quick to revert and say that Twitter was losing $4 million every day, and this is the best (and indeed the worst) he could do. In the case of Twitter, employees were fired in a day and compensated for the notice period. But jobs were lost.
The Permacrisis in our lives needs to be recognised. And accepted. Not resisted. That causes more angst. When it comes to jobs, we need to look at jobs to be the temporary things they are. When life itself is temporary, how can a job be permanent?
The job crisis at hand and what’s ahead must be recognised by all. Jobs are not permanent at all. There are indeed three viewpoints to weigh here—employee, organisational, and societal. The last one is the least important of the three. It is about saying things that are politically correct and standing up for the aggrieved employee in spirit. The more important views are those of the employee and the organisation with a profit mandate. In the current Permacrisis situation, what is good for the goose is not good for the gander.
When it comes to looking for a job, there are different approaches people take. The old adage was that if you wanted job security, you must take up a government job. Not anymore. Even government jobs come in various avatars. There are jobs that come under the Central and State Civil Services modules of relative tenure comfort, just as there are government jobs that are contractual with tenures of three years, renewable at will or not. If you wanted a secure job in the private sector, job-seekers always saw the Tatas in India as beacons of corporate comfort. I still do believe they hold that candle of comfort quite well.
A strong reaction statement to the job Permacrisis is what we witness in the issue of moonlighting in tech jobs. There are folks who work for three companies with three salaries to boot. To an extent, this is the ultimate revenge of the employee, who hitherto has been at the receiving end of it all. If you wish to avoid this negative terrain, it is time to think of equipping yourself with two competencies if not three. A coder in the day is a disc jockey at night. A coder at night is a chef during the day.
The Permacrisis ahead is really not about loss of jobs, loss of livelihoods and loss of morale. It is about much more. Expect a Permacrisis in the realm of money management. There is a limited amount of money chasing goods and services. These are goods and services one has gotten used to in more prosperous times. It is difficult to stop partaking in them in tough times.
And, therefore, one borrows and gets deeper into the Permacrisis of one’s own making. The looming inflation ahead in our lives is one such. The Permacrisis in our lives is all about the businesses that surround us. Small businesses are suffering much more than the bigger ones. The small startups are burning out much faster than the bigger, funded ones. Small entrepreneurships are struggling more. The Permacrisis is equally about social and societal angst on every issue.
Fear is the key here. It is pure fear of the uncertain future that drives debate to dizzying depths of negativity. Just watch some of our television news debates and you will know what I am writing about. Just hang around for a while on social media to see debates that revolve around social issues, politics, religion and gender, and you will see the Permacrisis foundation in all of them. There is a little bit of Permacrisis in the very air we breathe today. And the beauty of it is the fact that it is meant to be that way. Life itself is a Permacrisis. Isn’t it?
And finally, in equally lighter and serious veins, when it comes to jobs (as this is one that touches us all intimately), with the environment of uncertainty being what it is, is it time to look for a job insurance company that will underwrite the tenure of jobs for us with premiums to boot? If we can have a Life Insurance Corporation of India, why not a ‘Job Insurance Corporation of India’ as well? Touché!
Harish Bijoor
Brand Guru and Founder,Harish Bijoor Consults Inc
(harishbijoor@hotmail.com)