Retrenchment In Singapore

[Retrench SG]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

It has to do with expectations. A lot of companies like to BS about valuing employee as assets, happy family, engaging workforce, we look after your career development etc.

Most people will treat all this as standard HR rubbish just like sales brochure bird talk, but some especially those long serving one will believe it literally, so when the axe come this kind are usually the one that get angry, cry, shout, hurl vulgarities or sink into silent shock depression. It will affect their whole attitude to job search and cause them to present themself poorly and reduce chance of getting job which further cause negative attitude like vicious cycle.

You just look at the letters and comments in unemployment websites and you can guess why they cant get a job. Many have a very negative, bitter and angry attitude. Sometimes I read online already tell myself I will never hire them so not surprising many cannot find a proper job after many years.

Ya I agree with you to a certain extent, I know its the ultimate betrayal when you had trusted the company your whole entire life spend ur golden years with them often doing more than what u are supposed to do etc for low pay sometimes....yup its a shitty feeling

But well we cant really tell them not to act like everythings fine after such a betrayal...I guess we can only advice them or lend them our listening ear...

However my question is did they ever know that one day they could end up being retrenched? If yes, even though they can kpkb for all the world they want, have they ever thought about picking up new skills to be retrench proof to a certain extent? If no, then I got nothing to say

Originally Posted by Retrench SG

Ya I agree with you to a certain extent, I know its the ultimate betrayal when you had trusted the company your whole entire life spend ur golden years with them often doing more than what u are supposed to do etc for low pay sometimes....yup its a shitty feeling

But well we cant really tell them not to act like everythings fine after such a betrayal...I guess we can only advice them or lend them our listening ear...

However my question is did they ever know that one day they could end up being retrenched? If yes, even though they can kpkb for all the world they want, have they ever thought about picking up new skills to be retrench proof to a certain extent? If no, then I got nothing to say

You are naive. You don't go picking up new skills not related to your work when you are still employed. You want to be good at your current job, to give value to your company. You upgrade, you attend courses that you think will help contribute to the present employer not one in the future. Your company is happy with you, promotes you and increases your salary. All is going well. Then one day, your company is taken over and they tell you there is only one place for your position and it is given to the guy from the other company. You have to go albeit with a little compensation. You suddenly realised youre in your mid forties, and you still have 15 yrs of mortgage on your condo. Your kids are still in school, and your parents are dependent on you. Worse your neighbor just bought a new car for the wife, and they are going to Europe for holiday.

You sent out a few job applications at first, then it goes up to tens. Some interviews, but most lead to no where. You begin to see/hear for youself the worse reasons employers/HR can give; "sorry, I think you are over qualified", "but your boss is younger than you, it would be awkward", "we need someone who is proficient in Malay and Mandarin", "we wanted someone younger"

You tell yourself you control your own destiny and that nobody owes you a living. With this, you go out and try and change profession. You try out insurance, property agent only to find out that your expenses are higher than your income (if any). You steel youself up to explore new fields like nursing, teaching only to see that your competitors are people in their early 20s and salaries are only for yourself not to bring up a family.

All this while, the clock is ticking relentlessly. What's worse, funds are depleting by the day. You try and avoid the neighbors. You stay home more. With no friends to confide in, confidence sapping by the day, you start to feel helpless. You start to feel resentment especially when you cannot provide for your loved ones.

But wait, you have backup plan. You convinced the missus to downgrade and stay in HDB, promising her and family that you will bring them to condo living when you get a job. Then before you know it, 4 years went by and you hit 50-"no change left". You now consider yourself retired, and the missus is the one working and bringing home the bacon.

Life goes on.

[Retrench SG]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You are naive. You don't go picking up new skills not related to your work when you are still employed. You want to be good at your current job, to give value to your company. You upgrade, you attend courses that you think will help contribute to the present employer not one in the future. Your company is happy with you, promotes you and increases your salary. All is going well. Then one day, your company is taken over and they tell you there is only one place for your position and it is given to the guy from the other company. You have to go albeit with a little compensation. You suddenly realised youre in your mid forties, and you still have 15 yrs of mortgage on your condo. Your kids are still in school, and your parents are dependent on you. Worse your neighbor just bought a new car for the wife, and they are going to Europe for holiday.

You sent out a few job applications at first, then it goes up to tens. Some interviews, but most lead to no where. You begin to see/hear for youself the worse reasons employers/HR can give; "sorry, I think you are over qualified", "but your boss is younger than you, it would be awkward", "we need someone who is proficient in Malay and Mandarin", "we wanted someone younger"

You tell yourself you control your own destiny and that nobody owes you a living. With this, you go out and try and change profession. You try out insurance, property agent only to find out that your expenses are higher than your income (if any). You steel youself up to explore new fields like nursing, teaching only to see that your competitors are people in their early 20s and salaries are only for yourself not to bring up a family.

All this while, the clock is ticking relentlessly. What's worse, funds are depleting by the day. You try and avoid the neighbors. You stay home more. With no friends to confide in, confidence sapping by the day, you start to feel helpless. You start to feel resentment especially when you cannot provide for your loved ones.

But wait, you have backup plan. You convinced the missus to downgrade and stay in HDB, promising her and family that you will bring them to condo living when you get a job. Then before you know it, 4 years went by and you hit 50-"no change left". You now consider yourself retired, and the missus is the one working and bringing home the bacon.

Life goes on.

Oh wow u sure sounds negative to me...so have you been thru the retrenchment route before? If yes could you share some experiences? Good to share u know and not just provide some negative comments...anyway thats ok also, a negative comment is better that no comment at all haha

BTW if you read carefully (if you ever bother to do so) I never ever mention not picking up skills that are not relevant to your occupation...I only mention picking up skills so that you can be retrenchment proof which means skills which can be related to your current occupation or depending on how you interpret it.

Originally Posted by Retrench SG

Wow glad to know you are a strong minded person hahaha we need more ppl like you (no punts intended)

Mind if I check with you during those times when you were retrenched how did you cope ? What measures did you take eg cut down on expenses, took up new skills etc? Do you mind sharing coz its very helpful to others interested to know out there eg me

Can I say that a supporting family helps in this case for u?

I wouldn't call myself strong minded, my personal take is that most people who get retrenched are OK and move on with life. The problem is that those who cannot keep making loud noise all over the place resulting in general perception that retrenchment is a very big thing. Out of those retrenched in 2003 with me, probably 80% eventually move on within 6 months.

As for personal lifestyle definitely need to cut down to basic and not splurge on luxury items. My family was supportive, we lived frugally for a short while, but by and large they took it as just a temporary down phase.

The most important thing to me is to believe in yourself and tell yourself getting rejected is part and parcel of life. Even a salesman on the street gets rejected 95% of the time. Never portray an air of desperation in job seeking by lowering salaries to absurd amounts or tell interviewers nonsense like a 40+ yr old guy is willing to do some manual hard labor. It will just scare off employers since they will just assume you suck therefore you are desperate and now making wild promises that you have no intention of keeping and will run off once new opportunity come.

The important thing is never mix around with negative attitude people and whiners. These groups start off very comforting to each other, but sooner or later they will suck out the zest in you and make you feel crappy and before you know it, will end up like one of them, i.e. complain about FT, PAP, company, useless boss, jealous with others who have done better etc. I think you can also see some of that bad attitude in some of the retrenched forumers here. Ask yourself if you are the boss running a company, will you hire any of them?

[Retrench SG]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I wouldn't call myself strong minded, my personal take is that most people who get retrenched are OK and move on with life. The problem is that those who cannot keep making loud noise all over the place resulting in general perception that retrenchment is a very big thing. Out of those retrenched in 2003 with me, probably 80% eventually move on within 6 months.

As for personal lifestyle definitely need to cut down to basic and not splurge on luxury items. My family was supportive, we lived frugally for a short while, but by and large they took it as just a temporary down phase.

The most important thing to me is to believe in yourself and tell yourself getting rejected is part and parcel of life. Even a salesman on the street gets rejected 95% of the time. Never portray an air of desperation in job seeking by lowering salaries to absurd amounts or tell interviewers nonsense like a 40+ yr old guy is willing to do some manual hard labor. It will just scare off employers since they will just assume you suck therefore you are desperate and now making wild promises that you have no intention of keeping and will run off once new opportunity come.

The important thing is never mix around with negative attitude people and whiners. These groups start off very comforting to each other, but sooner or later they will suck out the zest in you and make you feel crappy and before you know it, will end up like one of them, i.e. complain about FT, PAP, company, useless boss, jealous with others who have done better etc. I think you can also see some of that bad attitude in some of the retrenched forumers here. Ask yourself if you are the boss running a company, will you hire any of them?

Hi thank you for sharing your thoughts. I agree with you that we shouldnt mix with negative attitude ppl who really sucks the zest out of you and also hiring them

I really like your comment about that part that we should be desperate to the extent that we undercut ourselves coz it really turns employers off

Nonetheless I do believe that not really all move on within the next 6 months or so...coz I came across cases where they got stuck due to the irrelevance of their skillsets as its a sunset industry....so most of the time either they need to shape up or they get ship out by the society...

I am from the software industry, we have no one over 30years of age; i am 28. The seniors just get passed with projects that are impossible to meet the dateline and they resign by themselves . meanwhile new blood ( fresh grads ) keeps coming in. most of them dun last over 6 months.

My boss ask me to help preview the resume, I guess so that he can show me that a NUS fresh grad is asking 800 less than me (diploma) I think I am the next to go....

The boss always tell us, there is no difference in hiring someone with 20years software experience in C/C++ to do new languages/framework such as android/prototype/dart/etc...

Not sure if I should sabo them big time before i go

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I am from the software industry, we have no one over 30years of age; i am 28. The seniors just get passed with projects that are impossible to meet the dateline and they resign by themselves . meanwhile new blood ( fresh grads ) keeps coming in. most of them dun last over 6 months.

My boss ask me to help preview the resume, I guess so that he can show me that a NUS fresh grad is asking 800 less than me (diploma) I think I am the next to go....

The boss always tell us, there is no difference in hiring someone with 20years software experience in C/C++ to do new languages/framework such as android/prototype/dart/etc...

Not sure if I should sabo them big time before i go

Learn from your boss. Sack him and be your own boss.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I wouldn't call myself strong minded, my personal take is that most people who get retrenched are OK and move on with life. The problem is that those who cannot keep making loud noise all over the place resulting in general perception that retrenchment is a very big thing. Out of those retrenched in 2003 with me, probably 80% eventually move on within 6 months.

As for personal lifestyle definitely need to cut down to basic and not splurge on luxury items. My family was supportive, we lived frugally for a short while, but by and large they took it as just a temporary down phase.

The most important thing to me is to believe in yourself and tell yourself getting rejected is part and parcel of life. Even a salesman on the street gets rejected 95% of the time. Never portray an air of desperation in job seeking by lowering salaries to absurd amounts or tell interviewers nonsense like a 40+ yr old guy is willing to do some manual hard labor. It will just scare off employers since they will just assume you suck therefore you are desperate and now making wild promises that you have no intention of keeping and will run off once new opportunity come.

The important thing is never mix around with negative attitude people and whiners. These groups start off very comforting to each other, but sooner or later they will suck out the zest in you and make you feel crappy and before you know it, will end up like one of them, i.e. complain about FT, PAP, company, useless boss, jealous with others who have done better etc. I think you can also see some of that bad attitude in some of the retrenched forumers here. Ask yourself if you are the boss running a company, will you hire any of them?

u dun talk big act lao jiao lah. companies are all blood sucking as a result of failed policy of the current greedy government that open the gates to forgein thrash. try get retrench and fight for jobs with a indian or china man asking half of ur pay. positive also no use everywhere is about $$$$$$$

Originally Posted by Retrench SG

Hi thank you for sharing your thoughts. I agree with you that we shouldnt mix with negative attitude ppl who really sucks the zest out of you and also hiring them

I really like your comment about that part that we should be desperate to the extent that we undercut ourselves coz it really turns employers off

Nonetheless I do believe that not really all move on within the next 6 months or so...coz I came across cases where they got stuck due to the irrelevance of their skillsets as its a sunset industry....so most of the time either they need to shape up or they get ship out by the society...

talking to ur own clone har. even if u have the skillset and the FT ask for less pay, the companies will take the easy way and choose the cheaper option. u think so easy to learn new skill when old and do all those shiitty job out there

Originally Posted by Retrench SG

Hi thank you for sharing your thoughts. I agree with you that we shouldnt mix with negative attitude ppl who really sucks the zest out of you and also hiring them

I really like your comment about that part that we should be desperate to the extent that we undercut ourselves coz it really turns employers off

Nonetheless I do believe that not really all move on within the next 6 months or so...coz I came across cases where they got stuck due to the irrelevance of their skillsets as its a sunset industry....so most of the time either they need to shape up or they get ship out by the society...

You sound very immature. Are you a sec school student doing a school project?