In times of economic recession, staff freezing is the order of the day. People are the most important and valuable assets in a business organization. Hence, it makes sense for the management to cut employees overhead first before cutting costs elsewhere. Obviously, this sends a wrong signal down the organization. Consequently, people lose their self-confidence and morale. Layoffs might be an opportunity to take a pause or pursue other possibilities. In some years, people will not consider layoffs `soiled' anymore, and take these in their stride as a part of their working life. Subsequently, the working people will be prepared to face any such consequences in the scenario. This article discusses staff freezing during economic recession, presents a comparison between Product Life Cycle (PLC) and Employee Life Cycle (ELC), consequences of pink slip, and the role of human resource department during this phase.

Like a product, an employee is also going through different stages in his/her employee life in an organization. One can see many resemblances or similarities between the stages of Product Life Cycle (PLC) and Employee Life Cycle (ELC). But an employee can strategize his activities according to the need of the situation, which a product cannot.

In any organization, an employee goes through the stages of induction, orientation, growth, maturity, and retirement or retrenchment. Organizations plan to get maximum returns from the employees, and, in the same way, employees also plan to derive maximum benefit from the organization for their life. But retirement/retrenchment stage is the most crucial for employees, for which they either plan inadequately or do so unsuccessfully.

In PLC, organizations implement various strategies like creative advertisement, attractive pricing, promotional schemes and mass publicity to introduce a new product in the market, with sustained and tireless efforts. Organizations ensure the vertical growth of the product in a cut-throat competitive market. During the maturity stage, companies will think of modifications and alterations to survive and stay in the market. Finally, the decline stage is tackled with product diversification and product withdrawal.

HRM Review, Economic Recession, Product Life Cycle, PLC, Employee Life Cycle, ELC, Employee Engagement, Financial Crisis, Economic Turbulence, Information Technology, IT, Economic Downturn, Pink Slip Management, Retention Strategy.