Losing Your Job

This is perhaps one of the most topical and worrisome subjects at the moment. With such volatility in the worldwide job market today, losing a job may become a reality for you or someone you know. It can be one of the most traumatic experiences in your life, especially if you are responsible for feeding a family, maintaining the mortgage repayments and keeping the bills paid.

In whatever form -- whether you are asked to leave, made redundant or you leave on your own accord -- it can be an extremely perplexing time. However, it needn’t be the end of the world if you can deal with it correctly. In one form or another many people have been in this situation and they have been without a job at some point in their lives. Losing one’s job happens all the time and throughout the world.

What you have to do is turn this negative time into a positive experience and realise that you are not unusual or a failure. Instead, you are simply human and going through a bad patch in your life that can be rectified -- but only if you are prepared to remain positive.

Here are some real-life examples of people who have coped successfully with job losses.

Turning a negative into a positive
In the early 90’s Toby Lee worked as a recruitment consultant. When the recession hit the world numerous companies folded, people lost their jobs and recruitment consultancy was rarely required.

“It was awful, there simply weren’t any jobs in the market; people were not employing and unemployment was on the increase. It wasn’t even a case of asking your friends for contacts as many of my friends had been made redundant or were holding onto their jobs for dear lives.”

Luckily, Toby did not have others relying on him at that time and apart from paying his rent, he did not have any other financial commitments. However, from receiving a hefty salary, driving a Porsche and simply living a stylish lifestyle he soon realised that life was going to be a little different.

“I had to sell my car at a loss and get a lodger in to help pay the rent. I used to have about three holidays a year and that soon went out the window.” But Toby was no defeatist and he realised that he would have to do something to pay the bills. He decided to do anything and had a look at the jobs available in the newspapers.

“Cleaners, cleaners and more cleaners. Oh boy, I thought, is this what life has come to,” said Toby. But not proud Toby took a job as a cleaner to make ends meet. He did the job for six months, although it was far from ideal, he realised that this was the only way until something cropped up again.

Remaining positive, Toby saw flaws in the cleaning company -- from the treatment of staff, the cleaning equipment used, to the time it took to clean. This started his mind ticking and overnight, he decided to start his own cleaning company to see if he could do any better. It was most certainly a struggle at first and for the first few months he fell into debt. However, after six months, he had a small team of five people, a handful of decent contracts, a good reputation and money in the bank. Ten years later the company has 264
employees and is thriving, all due to the power of foresight and being positive. ‘I knew the cleaning job wasn’t forever, and I also knew I would make something good come out of this low ebb in my life.’ Toby added.

Utilise the Experience
Wee Chen Yen used to have her own business importing and exporting wine in
Singapore. Unfortunately after five years of slogging away her business fell into
bankruptcy and she had to realise that there was no demand for wine at that time in Asia.

She had not worked for anyone else before and did not like the thought of working for someone else. However she had little choice and eventually secured a job as a senior buyer for an international wine exporting company.

After two and a half years Chen Yen had some excellent contacts and good experience. She never lost sight of her business dream and eventually resigned to see if she could do it again. This time with the experience she had gained, she saw the flaws she had made before and changed her business concept and project. Her business acumen had been increased due to the experience gained in the international company and she changed the approach to her own business. She targeted a completely different market and her business became successful.

Changing Path
There is nothing stranger than having time on your hands after years of your time being given to your job and career. When you are jobless this can often be the time to reevaluate the path you have taken and perhaps take this experience as a time to start something new or even change careers.

Michael Davis ran his own computing business but again after three years of working, the business fell and he had to give it up. Michael was devastated and became terribly depressed. He was unable to provide for his family and spent too much time at home thinking and pondering over his failure.

However, whilst at home his son had a problem with computer studies at school and was falling behind the other pupils in his class. He asked his dad for help and his dad was able to show him simply and steadily how to use the computer. This continued and his son’s teachers were amazed by the progress his son had made in such a short space of time.

They soon discovered it was Michael who was the reason for the success and asked him to meet with them. Michael was offered a job as a computer teacher in his son’s school.

He enjoyed teaching the subject so much that he decided to go back to university and become a qualified computer teacher. Michael is now the Head of the Computing Department at an International School in Singapore.

Being Sacked!
Losing your job can be a terrible blow, but being asked to leave is something one never wants to go through. This however is again an experience that can be rectified and put to good use.

Genevieve Wee graduated from University in 1995 with a media studies and sports degree. She secured her first job as the receptionist of a local newspaper. She knew that this would not be forever and decided to look into a course in Public Relations and then apply for positions in this field.

She asked her manager at the newspaper if she could definitely leave the office every Thursday at 6.30pm at the latest. Even though her hours were only till 5pm, she wanted to make sure that if she enrolled for the course which cost S$2,500 she would be able to attend all the lectures, especially as the course leader had explained that if she missed more than three lectures she would fail the course. Her boss agreed and Genevieve used her savings for the course.
Everything was going well and she was very much in the swing of her working life and her studies balancing them both equally. Her course was for six months but after three months the problems began. Her boss who had previously agreed to her participation in the course told her that she had to stay behind on two Thursdays for work reasons.

Genevieve agreed without any hesitation. However, another Thursday arrived and again she was asked to miss her course to work and again she agreed.

But Genevieve got a little confused why she was being made to stay behind on another Thursday, especially when she did not have any work to do and the office was closed. It happened again on another Thursday and she knew that if she missed her course she would fail. She took a decision to go to the course even though she knew that there would be repercussions. The next day she was called at home in the morning and asked not to go to work. The day after she went to work and was put on a final written warning for ‘Disobeying Management Instructions’.

She was horrified and tried to explain, but the manageress would not listen. Eventually after a heated debate she was asked to leave the company. Genevieve was dismayed. She knew that she had been unfairly dismissed and was not prepared to accept defeat. She ploughed her anger into her course, passed with flying colours and secured a job as a PR executive for an international financing company. Three years later she was promoted as
the PR Director and was in total charge.

***
These are just some examples of individuals who turned their dire positions into
opportunities. Whatever the situation you find yourself in, the answer is to remain positive, draw on your skills and keep going. Don’t lose hope and remember you are not alone. This happens to many people at some point in their lives and there is always light at the end of the tunnel.

by Rosalie Garrett