“In lieu of” a scary word which gave an unconventional advantage to employers over employees in the present industry. Whenever I read this word ‘in lieu of’ on any offer letter, I get the worst nightmares of the companies which often experiment new ventures with their employees as guinea pigs. When things won’t go, as pre-planned, always they have the mantras “down sizing”, “lay off” etc., just like the ‘Abraca dabra” spell in Harry Potter books/movies.
All these special previlize is provided to the employer only due to the words ” notice period or salary in lieu of the notice period”. Management can wash off their hands by spraying out the severance packages on employees’ face. But, what about the mental/psychological trauma it creates on the employees mind? Just imagine on one fine day when an employee is busy with some critical project, he is called up in a conference room and compelled to sign the voluntary resignation letter and handed off the severance pay and sent off. Not allowed to even touch his computer or to talk to his colleagues, all he is allowed is to collect all his personal belongings from his work place and make a move immediately. This was dopne not for his misbehaviour or poor performance, where he was a star performer and most respected in his team. Only because, the project on which he was working on was withdrawn by the client due to some personal reasons and the employee can’t be put on any other present project in the company. But this xan affect the employee’s confidence level to very extreme extents, leading to some other psychological problems.
Now it’s time for legal bodies governing the companies act to wake up. Employees should be laid off with out any prior notice, only in the cases of misbehaviour, unethical conducts etc. The management should give atleast a week’s notice period in the cases of “lay off”, “down sizing”.
