WE ARE FORCED TO CHANGE IN A CHANGING WORLD!

2 years ago, we acted for a foreign-invested company to settle a labor dispute with more than 300 employees. It is an enterprise that invested in Vietnam in the late 90s, and had many successful years of business when it was always on the top 3 in its industry in Vietnam, before falling into a difficult situation, and gradually loosing market share to its competitors. In response to this situation, the company was forced to narrow their production and business activities, and at the same time reduce their employees, from thousands of employees at the beginning, to just over 300 employees. Many of the employees forced to leave the company had been working for the company since its inception, i.e up to 30 years in service.

Last year, a foreign-invested manufacturer also consulted with us before deciding to lay off nearly 100 employees due to Covid-19 epidemic. It is a Japanese-owned company, specializing in the production of aircraft wings. When Covid-19 epidemic happened, aviation activities stopped, supporting industries for the aviation industry were also difficult.

Also last year, we participated in a competitive bidding to assist an airline in Vietnam to lay off 1,800 employees due to the suspension of aviation activities, causing accumulated losses for this airline up to billion USD, and they decided to cut business costs, including labor costs.

Earlier this year, we advised another Japanese-invested company in applying E-contract for their business in Vietnam. It is a wholly subsidiary of a giant Japanese retail group, investing in Vietnam more than 10 years ago. Before applying the E-Contract, the company had more than 1,000 employees. Majority of them worked at retail shops of the Mobile World (The Gioi Di Dong), Honda, Yamaha, Nguyen Kim or other electronics supermarkets to advise and guide the shoppers with installment purchases. After applying the E-Contract, the number of employees working for the company was reduced to just over 300 people, and nearly 1,000 employees working at the above retail shops were all laid off.

The above cases are different, but have one thing in common: employees losing their jobs. The world is changing, and businesses are forced to change to get adapted to. So what about the employees? Are they forced to change themselves?

I still remember that most of our early 8x generation, after university graduation, found it very easy to get jobs. However, after nearly 20 years, thing changes when more and more graduates can't find their own jobs, or have got very simple jobs, which are not appropriate to their training level, and many of them have to study another major, in the hope that they can find jobs in that major after graduation.?

From another perspective, many people select to rest, surf the web, watch movies after office hours. For them, 8 office hours per day are enough, and they need to enjoy their life, but there are also many people, choosing to take online courses or participate in online seminars/ workshops after the office hours or in the weekends, to sharpen and improve their professional knowledge and skills, because only then will they have the opportunity for their future and career. We all have the same 8 - 10 office hours, but the difference is in how we take advantage and use the remaining time after leaving the office.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is changing all aspects of our life. To adapt, we must constantly learn, to acquire new knowledge and skill, and not to fall behind. We are forced to change in a changing world.