Aluminate - May 2012 - University of Edinburgh Business School

special feature
AS the greek economy groans under the weight
of its debts, unemployment is high and its people
suffer, including Business school alumni. For many,
hope for the future is fast running out
These are
dark days
for Greece
The Greek economic tragedy continues.
Ever since 2008, when Greece admitted
it had been living beyond its means,
its economy has gone from bad to worse.
Greece became the pariah of the bond
market, forcing an international multi-billion
euro bailout, and the establishment of a
‘technocrat’ government which launched a
severe austerity budget bringing misery
to its citizens.
Protests have been held, riots have broken
out and the mounting social crisis
has even resulted in its first
martyr: 71-year-old Dimitris
Christoulas, a retired
dentist who shot himself
in front of the Greek
parliament leaving
a suicide note that
stated he preferred
to end his life with
dignity rather than end
up “scavenging through
garbage looking for food”.
Despite another €130
billion rescue package from
the European Commission, European
Central Bank and the International Monetary
Fund – known as the “troika” – the Greek
economy is still in a precarious situation. The
austerity measures implemented to bring
down government spending as part of bailout
conditions are hitting Greek people hard.
Unemployment is more than 20 per cent and
it is estimated that half the country’s young
people are now without a job – the first time
in Greece’s post war history.
20 | aluminate | may 2012
Eri Leftherioti
is finding the
situation in
Greece difficult
For Eri Leftherioti (MBA Class of 1997),
the situation is very difficult. She’s without
a job and surviving on her dwindling
family savings.
Eri had worked for INTRACOM SA,
Greece’s largest telecoms company, since
1994 and for six years had worked as a Bids
and Contracts Manager. That was until
she was made redundant in February 2011
because there was very little work to bid for
and literally hardly any contracts to negotiate.
She explained: ‘In the good
years, the company relied on
winning more business in
the domestic market but
a change of government
and political allegiances
meant it got harder
to win contracts.
INTRACOM was too
late in getting into the
international market to
make a real impact. In
the last two years we were
bidding for contracts in the
Middle East and Asia but by then
the competition was fierce.’
For the past 12 months, Eri has been
applying for hundreds of jobs, many of which
she was overqualified for.
She’s frustrated by the situation: ‘You
need someone on the inside to get a job in
this country. By the time a job is advertised,
someone has already got it. It’s just the way
in Greece.’
Eri’s now looking for jobs overseas, and
has used the international alumni network,
Like Greece’s historic ruins,
the country’s economy, and
job market, is crumbling
but other European countries have economic
problems of their own. She’s even taking
German lessons to enhance her skills as she
used to speak the language when she worked in
Switzerland for three years in the early 1990s.
‘Germany’s economy is still strong and I’d
rather work in a department store than be
unemployed here,’ said Eri.
She’s not the only one seeking to leave
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