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Coronavirus: Spare a thought for the employer

Dubai - Many of us employees are also mini-employers even though we do not realise it.

There is always sympathy for the employees. Gallons of it. And it is easy to make a case for them. Whether expats and migrant workers, blue-collared squads, white-collared professionals and office goers, they get the empathy. And with it the empathy to boot.

The employer gets short shrift and is painted as this unfeeling monster who is being exploitative and hurtful. There is an irony here in that many of us employees are also mini-employers even though we do not realise it. You may have a small side business, a couple of domestic helpers, a gardener or a few workers on your little acre at home, a guard outside your gate, maybe an orderly or nurse for a fragile relative, a dozen hirings directly connected to you. And you are now feeling the pinch. As your cloth shrinks you are cutting your overheads.

My tycoon friend (yes, I have one) is miserable and into free fall. He has 400 employees and he cannot pay them this month, not because he does not want to, but because he hasn't been paid. He tells me it is so easy to go from success to insolvency in one easy step. You think I like to delay payment.

Sell your property, sell one of your buildings or land.

And he laughs dryly and says, I would, I would, get me a buyer. Truth is no one is buying.

And the truth also is that if the employer falls then as sure as bears hibernate the employee tumbles too. Remember that when you tell your household help that you cannot afford them any more.

Yes, you are an employer.