What to do when you are retrenched?

You don't have to rush!

Since I am experienced, I am here to share with you some tips I learned.

Depending on whether you are prepared or not. Some companies / manager are kind enough to give ample notice (unofficially) so that you are pschologically prepared. These are kind souls we should appreciate. Some managers are lacking in self confident and humanity. They may give you a surprise. My wife's retrenchment was planned over 3-6 months. Her department was to close down. She was initially offered to relocate to another country. There were lots of discussions and payouts were already determined well in advanced. No surprises at all. People get their money and go. No hard feelings. Some peole who were not affected even wanted to join them and asked for early retirement. But they were declined since the company thought the they were still needed. This is good. Open, frank, nothing to hide type of management style. Employees understands the rational and accepts the offer without much resentment. Of course that does not mean that they are not worried about their future.

My was a surprise. I was given one week to clear up my outstanding works and my compensation was also minimal. That is the different between companies or managements with human touch or without. It also reflects the confidence level of the management. Even though they gave me a hit, I was more or less seeing in coming 2 - 3 months before. I told my staff to look for new job because he was new (less than a year) and definitely not able to get any compensation. So, he managed to get out 2 months before I was hit.

Why I had been sitting around for 9 months?

My answer is, there are too many things to try!

Yes, once you are out there, you suddenly realised that there are so many possibilities that you can make a living. So, my advice to you is to stop and

THINK!

The biggest reason that I spent 9 months not doing anything productive (I am using making money as measurement of productivity) was that I jumped into things too quickly. There wasn't enough thinking. I tried too many things without thinking through.

You see, for me, I am not interested to get a job anymore. So, I spend 3-4 months exploring franchising opportunities. I combed various places for shop spaces. I talked to a few master franchisors. I did my spread calculations. I when to various locations to count human traffics at different hours. All these works are for me to do feasibilities study. After few months of hard work, I concluded that none of those opportunities I explored are feasible. Then, I jumped into stock trading full-time. Again that took me another 3 months to realised that it may not be something I love best. Then, I came across Internet Marketing. Something I am very confident and committed. (Please visit http://www.simplemindset.com, http://www.bizgenerator.com & http://dragonation.blogspot.com) I believe that my future is in Internet Marketing. I also started to do work on my old trade (IT Consulting). I teamed up with my University Classmate to work on IT consulting services. (Please visit http://www.probaseconsulting.com).

All these takes time. I spend 9 months of my time doing evaluations etc. See, I used to jump into things quickly. Now, I want to think first before I do anything. Now I am sharing this with you, So, listen up. You can short cut all these processes by simply taking a step back and

THINK! (survival skill number two)

Before you decide what to do next...

Gook Luck!

Survival Skill Number Two: Think Through

First Day at Work after 9 months

If you are feeling squeezed, you are not alone!

30th August 2006. First Day at work after 9 months. What a change! This is a 2-month contract to help a customer to design a new software application.

Nothing spectacular about work to talk about. I'd been in IT industry for almost 20 years. Whatever is there is nothing new. Lots of evolutionary innovations. No quantum leaps.

Over to lunch at a cafeteria at the basement, after finishing my lunch, I noticed someone appearing to be familiar. So, I approach him. True enough, my ex-colleague whom I had not met for over 10+ years. He looked haggard somewhat. So, I asked him, "how are you these day? Are you working aroud here?" "No, I am not working here," he said. "I am looking for a potential client in this building. I am doing my own training business."

We sat down and talked for a while. The outright thing he told me was, "I am struggling to make a living. Life has been very tough over the last 3 years." He is over 50 and he holds a Master in Arts degree. He was a training manager in my previous company. He teaches soft skills.

After lunch, I met yet another ex-colleague who is working in the client that I am servicing. What a small world. He was retrench before and he is accepting this lower position here. He is not in my category. He is just couple of year shy of 45. Life is not as rosy for him as well. But, he has faith. He believes that GOD created him and will not let him live in poverty. If he happy with his life? Not quite but something keeps him going and he has less stress. The conversation with him allows me to confirm one thing that I had been reading about: Have Faith in order to succeed. Regardless of your religious orientation, FAITH is an important factor that keeps people going.

What do you really need to survive after 45?

FAITH! (survival skill number one)

Have Faith, my friend, for without which, nothing is possible. The pot of gold the down there waiting for us to dig it up. We must have faith.

PS. I am not a Christain and I am not preaching Christianity here. When I said FAITH, I am talking about you believing in yourself and your dream.

Survival Skill Number One!