Dear Sir,

The letter “Need to embrace career changes” (Gulf Times, August 8 ) gives food for thought. As a human resources (HR) professional with more than a decade of experience in Qatar, I feel that organisational changes are inevitable throughout the globe and Qatar is no exception. But  career changes triggered by organisational restructuring need careful study and scrutiny before being embraced, in the overall interest of the establishment as well as its employees.
One can “embrace” a change in career, subject to the fact that the person doing that has got some background, knowledge, experience and inclination to perform the new function he or she is deputed to do.
A person who has all along been involved in site execution activities cannot be assigned, all of sudden, to the contract department as the level of thinking, understanding and comprehensive abilities differs altogether from his or her previous line of work. Several  examples can be cited to support this point.
As a matter of abundant caution, it is always advisable for the human resources department to consider impartially and in an unbiased manner, and propose to the management that for any career change, the job assigned should be related one way or another to the one that has been carried out by the employee earlier. This will ensure harmony and success to both the employer and employee.
Also, I would like to point out that the concept of job rotation has not been popular in this part of the world. When there has been a high demand and expectation all around, it is always advisable to position persons of competence, ability, efficiency to tap the desired results. Compromises bring no tangible results to anyone.
While the idea and concept of career change is welcome, this needs to be exercised with utmost caution, foresight and thoughtfulness on the part of HR.

V Kalyanaraman
ghe7799@gmail.com

The importance of emergency procedure

Dear Sir,

The evacuation from Dubai Emirates Flight 521, moments after the Boeing 777 crash-landed in Dubai recently, makes clear that people in general have realised the importance of emergency procedures. The safety briefings to passengers on flights do help passengers to cope with such extreme situations. But I have seen many regular passengers not paying much attention to safety announcements and tips given in the introductory briefings after boarding as they have become quite routine to them.
The evacuation procedure followed in Dubai was a great achievement for the airport rescue team and the Emirates airline. Still the unfortunate incident claimed a firefighter’s life. It demonstrates his commitment to his duties and responsibilities.
The Dubai incident calls for people to understand the value of travel insurance and how it could help them in unforeseen circumstances. People lamenting about their baggage destroyed in the fire aboard must realise how lucky they were to escape from a near-disaster, as everything they have possessed can be regained but life, once lost, is lost forever.

Ramachandran Nair
(e-mail address supplied)