Friday, May 15, 2009

Worst is yet to come!!!

Could it get any worse than this? It took me almost a month to digest the fact that the current global financial crisis has sent such a strong kick in my ass that I literally flew all the way from UK, back to India. And subsequently, the company for which I work, after carrying out thorough analysis and wide range of surveys among all strata of its employees, came to the conclusion that in these bad times, the best way out is to employ the law – Employ the laws on employees, wherever possible. Or in other words - To maintain profitability, reduce workability. And hence, the company cut down on the following key parameters:
1. Employees Promotion
2. Employees Salary
3. Employees Lunch break and leisure time
4. Employees Toilet Paper usage quota
5. Employees
So, the promotion I was expecting got delayed till time indefinite, and I got a negative salary hike this year. Also, due to the upper limit imposed on usage of toilet paper, my productivity and creativity reduced drastically, as I now get to spend lesser time in the “innovation room”.
I thought this is the worst that could ever have happened to me. But how wrong I was? I got a call on my mobile the other morning that resulted in a conversation compared to which, all of my professional hassles stand zilch. It was the landlord of the flat I stay in Pune. Here is a brief of that conversation:
LL: Hi Vaibhav! This is the landlord of the flat that you have currently rented in Pune.
VM: Oh hello sir! How are you?
LL: Listen! You have to pay 500 bucks extra for rent starting this month.
VM: But sir, property prices are going down everywhere these days. What forces drive you to increase the rent?
LL: Look Vaibhav! You are new in Pune, and you perhaps do not know about the property market here. In gist, rent of a property always rises in Pune at a rate calculated by the following formula:
Incr in rent (%) = |Incr in IT employee strength in city| / |Incr in property prices everywhere| x 100%
where |a| = a, if a is greater than or equal to 0
and |a| = -a, if a is less than 0
This great insight into the dynamics of property prices and rents helped me understand why rent always keeps rising in the city of Pune, and how property dealers maintain profitability even in recession times. My company should organize a training session for its Board of Directors, and invite these landlords as trainers.
So this sharp hike of Rs 500 in my flat rent has left me speechless now and pennyless in foresight. And I thought those were the Worst Days Ever???

1 comment:

Dilip Gautam said...

Very well said ... Plunge that we all are facing.
I too wanna add here..."Inflation at its lowest" that our standing Gov is talking about, then where is the price reduction for populace, be it a rent or commodity prices. Surely Dealers/Wholesalers are getting benefitted from this whole exercise.

Till date no such regulatory body to curb the rents as far as my knowledge goes.

Rent in Delhi NCR region is also shooting like anything (simply a 3000 Rs hike for 2 BHK), may be a toll to make-up their downturned incomes during recession.

Still Hoping for the best and Being Ready for the Worst !!