Workers being fired, a scary reality for University Students

For the past two weeks l have been following stories about workers being fired that have been making headlines in almost every newspaper in the country. It all started with the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case involving Zuva Petroleum and two former managers. In which the court ruled that the employer had the power to fire employees without giving them either a reason or exit package. The only thing that the employer has to do is to give three months notice to the employee. So far within two week of that court ruling, so many people have been fired and the other day Newsday reported that 1000 people have been fired within a single day.

Honestly that statistics shocked me and everyone else who read the story. I have also been following stories about economic situation of the country and in as much as l thought it was bad, that statistics of 1000 people fired in a day, just proved to me that it was really bad. If 1000 people were fired in just one day, what does it really mean? I’m sure many people will support me on the view that people are being fired because companies have no money to pay them. If the retrenchment process wasn’t as difficult as it seems to be, these companies could have retrenched a long time ago. The ruling was like a green light to most companies giving them the go ahead to just get rid of their workers they have for long wished to dismiss.

This is a scary reality to me any many other students at college and universities studying different programmes. Now we all wonder what we will do after finishing our degrees. Instead of us being excited with acquiring knowledge, we are terrified of the reality that awaits us. I just completed my eight months of attachment and in as much as l loved the company l worked for, not being paid for all the work l was doing didn’t feel so good. There were moments when l could get really frustrated by the fact that l was not getting paid yet l patiently continued because l knew l'm just a student learning so that l get a paying job soon after completing my degree.

Now that l am about to complete my degree, people are being fired like this and l wonder what l will do, where l will get employment. I hope the government takes action before this thing gets serious and out of hand. Employees need and deserve job security. These days people work in fear of being fired anytime and it is so not right #ThinkingOutLoud

Load-shedding, brings families together

Was just observing the other day when we spent almost the whole day without electricity, (as we all know there is continuous load shedding in the country). Everyone’s phone, laptop, tablet etc was off and all we could do was seat and talk to each other. The television was also off so the only entertainment we had was each other. It just got me thinking of our daily routine which l believe is the same to many other households of this century.

We do almost similar things day after day. We wake up in the morning (of which l wake up late and find everyone gone) go to work/school, spend three quarters of our day there. Then come back home in the evening around 5-6pm. When we get home, we do the usual 2mins “Evening! Evening how was your day” conversation then after that each and every one of us has his/her eyes on his/her phone, tablet, laptop etc with earphones/headphones plugged in our ears. We only remove those earphones/headphones when it’s time for our favorite series Isidingo, Generations/Muvhango etc. still these series ain’t everyone’s favorite so those who do not like them, maintain their earphones/headphones and they do not even hear a word you say when trying to speak to them.

Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) are good yes, with them life has become much easier but it has taken away one aspect which used to be so key to our society. It has taken away family interactions. In as much as we communicate and stay in touch with people in faraway places, we forget to interact with those close to us because all we think of is our gadgets. I know how boring it gets if your phone is off just for an hour but that particular day, l realised that l was missing out on a lot of things that were happening within my family while l was busy with my phone.

In as much as l hate load shedding, l appreciate it for keeping families together and giving us time to catch up a bit. #ThinkingOutLoud……..