Is recession the right time for us to develop our multiple skills?

Layoffs mean cost cutting method employed by a company as a foresight to avert disaster. Every year after the financial year ending budgets are set for all the departments of the company. Now the scenario changes if the Sales targets are achieved or crossed; If not the scenario changes or does a volte face!!

In case of targets not achieved: Lay offs are justified, cost cutting in department spend are also justified.

In case of targets met: Lay offs as foresight may still be justified as the management can then effectively spread the budget in the areas of EMPLOYEE development!! trainings, conferences, seminars etc become the order of the day and yes, the employee gets the message that 'I am being looked after'!! Multiple skill development becomes a necessary package of ones life!

due to recession, most of the companies lay off their employees..

in this situation they only focus to finish the product with current employees.So the employees should take care about the multiple skills .then only its possible..

Does recession only mean you will be sacked out of job ?, Well for me its not, its a great opportunity for all those who wanted to learn or improve their skills.

Since during recession you might have laid off( hopefully u didn't) you might be wondering what to do ?? Should I search for a job ? Hmmmm I would recommend improve your skill sets so that when the economy starts booming, you have a greater and wonderful opportunity than anyone else out there.

Just imagine, you had multiple skills and the company need to lay off certain number of employee. Do you think you will be one among them ? I don't think so, you will be given more importance than any one else out there.

I Like the way with which matthew has explained his arguments but i feel that Now is the best time to hone your skills. Upgrade your skill sets and make yourself more relevant to the job market.Adding supplementary skills will facilitate your return to the same or better salary and job-designation level that you were at before the slump. Remember that the rough times are not permanent and whenever the tide improves, your newly acquired skills will become a trump card for you in the job market. For instance, those who are in sales could pursue an MBA in finance and strategy and thus become employable for bigger roles. So i firmly believe that if you want to survive in these tough times you need to upgrade yourself.

certainly one can utilise the crisis time by involving in knowledge sharing sessions, 5S activities and this is the right time to practise / implement lean management methods, one can make effective FMEA's for all their processes.

recessionis the best time to develop multiple skills as the resources are made to do multi tasking and thus have opportunity to develop skills

During recession, thousands and thousands of people have lost their job, and for them it is the right time to enhance their skills so that they won't face similar situation in the future. Also its a good time for those who wanted to do higher education and wasn't able to as the economy was booming.

Now that economy has slowdown, we will see very few promotions or no promotions happening. This is another reason which this recession is the right time to develop multi skills by doing some kind of skill enhancement course or MBA (higher studies)