SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Four days after a lavish holiday party, it is now time for the sword of Damocles to fall on nearly 1500 Yahoo employees, say reports.

Though the Internet giant had announced 10 per cent job cut in October, and had announced that the layoffs would occur by year's end, it had not declared when that was going to happen.

However, sources close to Yahoo say that the company that is passing through a phase of struggle, will give "normal separation period" to the employees targeted, which means they would be asked to leave the office immediately and enter the market of the jobless.

Unconfirmed reports say that the number may even cross 2000, at a later stage.

According to a report in allthingsd.com, the layoffs would be mostly across the board. But general, human resources and finance are likely to take a bigger hit, since the expenses are cost-based and most of their costs are staff.

While announcing the layoff decision in October, Yahoo had said that it would cut its workforce in high-cost markets and hire aggressively in lower-cost locales such as Eastern Europe, India and Southeast Asia.

Since the announcement is a long-anticipated one, Yahoo executive are not expecting any serious problems.

Do you justify the move on the part of the corporates to issue pink slip without notice? What is your suggestion to fight slowdown without laying off employees?