A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A
depression is when you lose yours. Depression has hit me. I
have just been retrenched.
For many, retrenchment is not just economic depression. It is also
emotional depression, self-worth depression and a humiliating
depression. For me personally, it is even more embarrassing because
I have been known to bring work home and reject invitations to go
out and play over the weekend. Perhaps some people are having their
last laughs now.
Retrenchment leaves a person with plenty of time to think. Don't
waste the experience. He needs to be brutally honest with himself.
In my case, I cannot honestly say it was mainly my fault. It was
the free market at work, fair and square. I work in the Electronics
industry in Singapore. Although electronic gadgets(iPhones,
e-books, smartphones) are still changing our lives for the better,
fellow Singaporeans who work in the same industry will know that
electronics has been on the decline for more than a decade. The big
companies (foreign MNCs) are moving out, there are no big local
companies to take their place and the smaller companies which
usually service the big ones are dying away. It is not just high
labor cost. Land (especially land), transport and energy costs also
make us uncompetitive. These are infrastructural costs which the
government can do their part to keep low. If these infrastructural
costs are kept low, then our wages can have more room to move up
without hitting our competitiveness.
If the company cannot grow, my immediate supervisor cannot be
promoted. If he cannot be promoted, how can I be promoted? This
time round, everyone lost their jobs including my boss. One
consolation was that I got a "diligent and honest worker" in my
appraisal before the retrenchment. Hopefully, this is not just a
parting gift just to be nice.
I am tempted to lament on how unfair life is. However, this is
useless to me and readers who could not care less until the same
thing happens to them. Rather, it is more useful to think about the
practical measures to cope with retrenchment.
The first thing that comes to mind is to cut down on all
unnecessary expenses. Unnecessary expenses refer to expenses
incurred beyond keeping one alive. Eat the simplest, cheapest food.
As long as it fills your stomach, it is good food. Try to eat at
home. Don't eat out. The rental cost in Singapore is so high, why
pay for them by eating at expensive restaurants?
Entertainment expenses should be cut mercilessly. I do not
subscribe to the theory that good things must come with a price. A
lot of good things in life can be very cheap or even free of
charge. A person can go to the library and borrow wonderful books
free of charge. Get entertained and be educated free of charge.
There are plenty of quality documentaries on Youtube. Again, one
can get entertained and be educated free of charge. Use the spare
time for learning at low or no cost.
There are certain expenses which must not be cut. This is allowance
to parents and parents-in-law. The first response from parents is
to cut or stop their allowance upon learning of their children's
retrenchment. I have never heard of parents stop providing for
their children when they are out of a job. Therefore, why should
children stop providing for their parents when they become jobless?
People who stop their parents' allowance are making a gross
miscalculation. Their own children will do the same thing to them
when they grow up. They will not feel a pang of guilt because their
own parents did the same thing to their own parents. Setting a good
model example to the children is the most effective and yet, least
time-consuming way to educate them. Much better than spending so
much time giving them tuition yourself and yelling at them. They
either end up resenting you or hating the subject.
The standard advice from government help bodies is to get
retraining or some educational certificate to make your resume look
good. While these people have good intentions, take their advice
with a pinch of salt because you know your personal situation
better than them. Is your personality suitable for the type of job
you are retraining for? Will employers be willing to hire you even
after you have earned a certificate because of certain
discriminatory practices? (Age, hire their own kind)
I am not willing to invest in higher education to make the resume
look good because the education fees is too high today and the
investment returns do not look good. Too many people with higher
education but are there enough jobs requiring such higher
education? In fact, after spending a bomb for that piece of paper,
a person may even get discriminated during job interviews because
he is overqualified or the interviewer feels threatened.
Finding a job is not the only option. One can think about his
personal strengths. Think about his hobbies. Can he turn them into
useful products/services to sell to people? If one can successfully
do this, he can be a very happy person instead of slaving for
people whom he has been yearning to say "fuck off".
Quite a number of retrenched people will be thinking of investing
in the financial markets to make a living. On the surface, it looks
like an easy way out. Psychology plays a very important role in
successful investing. Retrenched people should be
self-aware of their own weakened psychology as
market participants. Given the heightened volatility in the
financial markets today, weak psychology can lead to bad decisions
because it is easier to be tricked by the high volatility to buy
high and sell low given the weaker state of mind. Investing is a
fun game for me and I am reasonably good at controlling my losses
in terrible times. But, I have to take my own advice and be
self-aware of my new deficiency from now on.
