The Sunday Mail
The firing spree that summarily followed after the era of enlightenment ushered in by the landmark Supreme Court ruling is quite a remarkable phenomenon.
We are told that not less than 20 000 workers have already had their employment terminated in the firing frenzy.
This number is almost equivalent to the number of people who were retrenched in the three years to 2014.
The retrenched have been left desperate and bereft of means to sustainably meet their needs.
The deputy sheriff might soon be descending on some of these, as they may begin to default on their loans and other debts which they took under the understandable assumption that their jobs were going-concerns.
And it was double jeopardy for the guy who went to find solace in a place he called home after receiving his termination letter, only to find that home crushed to rubble, much to his distress.
The envisaged Labour Act amendment will now take care of things in retrospect, albeit much to the chagrin of employers.
Retrospect… the buzzword of the preceding week whose pronunciation and meaning every employer had to learn, as the “year of learning” continues to unfold.
Which is why it is interesting to note that some employers are reported to be re-hiring the many workers whose employment they recently terminated, to escape the “high” retrenchment costs.
Where will the broke employers, barely managing to raise working capital for their operations, get the money to dish out to the retrenchees?
So, they would rather be stuck with the excess labour, waiting to die another day.
The retrenched workers, too, whose unions are complaining that the compensation offered in the Bill is on the low, will be motivated to come back to work, if recalled, with the hope that the compensation might be increased one day as their unions continue to negotiate.
Whether they will live happily ever after is a discussion for another day. Let’s just wait and see if that kingdom will come.
So, off with that one!
What really moved me last week are reports that some of the retrenched employees are succumbing to stress-induced deaths. Yes, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union told us that the job terminations have resulted in a number of stress-induced deaths amongst those who were retrenched without compensation.
I do not want to quickly dismiss these reports, as this kind of stress is actually affecting even those who are employed.
I remember reading a report published by Industrial Psychology Consultants which said that 43 percent of working Zimbabweans already experience symptoms of distress.
The study further said that 27.2 percent of the population is depressed to the extent of “feeling that things are meaningless, and they would be better if they were dead, they can’t enjoy anything anymore, wishing they were dead”.
Now, what more of someone who has been retrenched without seeing it coming, and without compensation as it were!
However, I really don’t want to understand why someone would mistake a retrenchment letter for a death sentence.
Why think that the loss of a job is the end of the world?
Why this employment syndrome – this mentality that one will always have to work for someone else to earn a living?
Why not look at the job loss as an opportunity?
Trevor Ncube, like or hate him, was fired but went on to build an empire in the same line of business.
He poured it all in his article in the Zimbabwe Independent of November 28, 2003, that: “The Zimbabwe Independent is, in part, a result of my being fired as the editor-in-chief of the Financial Gazette in February 1996.
“While losing my job was painful then, there is no doubt that it was a blessing in disguise… I can now honestly say I am grateful that Elias Rusike fired me in 1996, opening a whole new world for me.”
I remember I was in Form 4 when I read that article.
Folks, we just have to bust this employment syndrome as it is not the only ticket to prosperity.
This does not only apply to the retrenched, but to just about everyone else who is looking for a job right now and has been waiting forever to find one.
Countless doors have been shut right in your face in your relentless quest to find a job.
Piles of job applications have all returned with regrets.
“If only I could land that job” – the motto that fuels your relentless search.
But there is a big entrepreneur inside you that you have neglected for years.
And it is time to unleash him or her. It is time to think outside the box. You have the skills that are just lying idle, just as the country has abundant resources that are lying in the same state.
A fusion of that, with a little bit of capital might transform the way you look at yourself – forever.
I have often heard vendors boasting that they make twice or thrice what teachers earn. I believe that they won’t be trying to spite the teaching profession, but to sincerely demonstrate how being your own boss can be a fruitful endeavour.
Which is why many teachers now have small businesses.
Entrepreneurship is not just a prerogative of the jobless, the employed actually have a better chance. But the unemployed, too, stand an equal chance.
The ample time they have to be idle can actually be utilised to create new ideas and innovate new methods.
Now, imagine how these high unemployment levels should actually translate to high innovation levels. Zimbabwe should essentially be a hotbed for start-ups, like America’s Silicon Valley or Israel’s Tel Aviv or Sweden.
Entrepreneurship has been embedded in our culture since time immemorial.
It was actually colonisation that brought this employment syndrome, when the colonial masters took all the natives’ fertile land and forced them to work for them for next to nothing.
However, as we continue to move past those sad moments and move towards ownership of our resources, let us re-inculcate this vital culture of entrepreneurship.
It starts with how we organise our priorities.
Look at the total bank loans for instance, where individuals are responsible for the bulk of loans uptake.
And what do they buy?
Second hand vehicles!
They are gladly willing to pay the high import duty. And those vehicles have running expenses which eat into their salaries. Yet, for the same amount, they could have imported small machinery to start different value-addition projects in line with Zim-Asset.
Being fired is tantamount to being given a dilemma to choose whether to join the unemployment statistics or the entrepreneurs’ statistics.
It is a blessing in disguise, like Trevor Ncube said.
Take that leap of faith!
