Crisis hits home: Where’s my job?

A few months back Deepa John, 25, was on cloud nine.

The Indian executive had landed a job with Damac Properties, one of Dubai’s premier real estate brands, as a telemarketer and all was well with the world.

She put in her papers at her old employer – telecom firm du – on August 6, and cancelled her visa last month on October 26.

However, she never bargained for what happened next.

On October 28 when she landed at Damac to give her passport, the company informed her that the job was no longer available.

Shocking news

The recruitment officer simply told me they didn’t need my passport and there was a freeze on hiring in the company. I was shocked! Deepa John, Former Damac telemarketer

"The recruitment officer simply told me they didn’t need my passport and there was a freeze on hiring in the company. I was shocked," said Deepa.

"When I asked them ‘What am I supposed to do?’, a member from the human resource department said ‘I know a recruitment agency, they might be able to help you’."

Now, with just six days remaining – from Thursday – of the one-month grace period after cancellation of her old visa, Deepa is in a bind.

"I’m the only breadwinner in the family," said the young executive who hails from Bangalore. "I had a decent job and they asked me to resign ASAP, which I did. Now I just can’t go back to my previous job."

Real estate meltdown

Deepa is among the raft of people who have been hit by the meltdown in the real estate sector, known for its years of stratospheric growth.

Companies, on their part, have resorted to laying off people to tide over the storm.

The Damac Group, which said it would shed 200 jobs (2.5 per cent of global levels of 8,000), announced that it had undertaken a review of staffing levels in response to the continuing current global slowdown.

Damac Properties CEO Peter Riddoch said the tough decision had been inevitable in the light of the severe slowdown in the worldwide property market.

Regretful decision

"We regret we have to lose colleagues, but we believe taking an early decision was the right thing to do," he said. "This continuing global slowdown will inevitably lead all companies to review their staffing levels and recruitment requirements," he added in a statement.

Even master developer Emaar said last week that it was reviewing its 5,000-strong workforce due to a weak property market.

Banks too are wary of lending to real estate people. Emirates NBD recently issued an internal memo telling sales agents not to lend to expatriates working with nine property firms in Dubai.

Meanwhile, heads have also started rolling in the financial services sector. Some executives said the cuts could go deeper.

"There’s no business, so I had to make the tough choice," said Sanjeev Sharma, Chief Executive of Finance Warehouse, a fund management firm with offices in London and Dubai, while confirming that four people from his company are out.

It is the first such admission by a Dubai-based investment house.

Freeze-hire orders

A leading executive recruitment firm said freeze-hire orders cut across banking, finance and property sectors. "Most local and international banks have stopped recruiting," a senior member of the firm said.

However, a Dubai-based senior official from Lehman Brothers, which is under the supervision of PriceWaterhouseCoopers after its mother company in the US went bankrupt, said he hasn’t seen any heads rolling in Dubai or the Middle East.