MR NARAYANAN has put his suit away. He doesn't carry his briefcase anymore either. Instead, under his arm are classified sections of The Straits Times, folded and worn with red ink. In his hand, a Coke bottle re-filled with water.
'It's a hot day,' he said, seated at the canteen of the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) in Redhill Road.
Next to him is his wife, a homemaker. They have been waiting since 10am, although their appointment letter said to come at 2pm. She closes her eyes. They both look like they could use some sleep.
Mr Narayanan, an engineer at an electronics company, was retrenched last month. He is 56 years old. 'Who's going to hire an old man like me?' he asked.
In the last two months, companies have all but stopped hiring. More and more have begun to lay off staff.
In the economic downturn, the spread of fires is striking - not only for the way it is cutting across industries, but also for the way managers have been axed.
The trauma cuts both ways - one manager of a large bank described the day he had to lay off his staff as the 'Night of the Long Knives', after a 1934 Nazi execution of political rivals.
He asked not to be named due to company policy, but said: 'It was long, sad, and not worth what they're paying me.'
In Mr Narayanan's case, he was told at home over the phone, after being asked to 'take a few days off'.
The day he was asked to come in - nearly three weeks later - he was in and out in two hours, minus his laptop, work-pass and self-esteem.
Still, Mr Narayanan is trying to stay upbeat. He declined to give his full name in case his company decides to rehire him.
His three teenage children share his optimism. 'My boys think everything is still okay. So, everything will be okay,' he said.
When Mr Mark Wang, an investment banker, was retrenched last month, the trauma was mitigated in two ways, he said. First, he saw it coming. Second, cash - loads of it.
'It was very obvious,' the 32-year-old told The Straits Times. 'An employee's value to the company is how much money you're bringing in.'
In 2007, Mr Wang brought to his bank over $20 million worth of new business. He took home $1 million. Last year, he brought in zero.
He said: 'Everyone's dry. The market is dead.'
Unlike Mr Narayanan, Mr Wang is going to sit out the job hunt for a bit. He can afford to, with the company's $200,000 severance package.
'It was the first thing I asked for when I was given the news,' he said. 'I told them: 'Don't tell me any grandmother's story. I'm in this business because of the money. Pay me and I'll walk out now.''
They did. The whole episode, conducted over the phone from Hong Kong, was over in five minutes.
'This is an industry for mercenaries,' he said. 'If it weren't about the money, I would have been a bus driver.'
In large companies with hundreds of employees, most retrenchments - like Mr Wang's - are swift, and the first item on the day's agenda.
Retrenched workers are thanked, compensated and given free access to services at counselling centres or job placement agencies. There are forms to fill with dotted lines to sign on.
Some companies allocate time for their employees to say goodbye.
Smaller companies, however, can lack the experience or the resources to support a retrenchment exercise.
'Companies with no experience in recessions, or if they're too small, aren't prepared to help their staff,' said Mr Ron Keaton, a senior manager at a telecommunications company who asked to use a pseudonym as his company has a policy against speaking to reporters.
Training managers in the art of firing can only help to an extent, cautioned Mr Keaton. 'People are complex. You will never really know if you did the right thing, or fired the right person. That can be very traumatic for any manager.
'Some cry, some get depressed, one friend of mine started seeing a therapist,' he said. 'You can't imagine how bad it is when you have to close down a factory and lose hundreds of workers.'
Ms Theresa Wong, a manager at e2i, can. She was in charge of helping the 250 workers retrenched at printer chip manufacturer Avago Technologies in 2007.
She stood next to the manager in the building's canteen as he distributed letters to the workers, mostly labourers and machine operators. 'The mood was solemn,' she said. 'A few workers cried.'
Ms Wong attended the three-day retrenchment exercise as part of coordinated efforts between companies, trade unions and employment centres like e2i to anticipate workers' needs.
In mass retrenchments, the first call is from companies to the workers' unions, usually weeks in advance.
Together, they discuss the retrenchment benefits, and prepare to field questions about support services available to those laid off.
That is when Ms Wong steps in. 'Not everyone is ready to accept the reality, but we want them to know we're here to help,' she said.
Reality finally came - after months of suspicion - for Mr Muhammed Salim, 40, a vice-president of an engineering firm, who was given notice to leave late last year.
Before he was retrenched, he managed hundreds of workers and had shown dozens the door, not always during an economic downturn.
'It's all about the bottom line,' he said. 'You don't always agree with the decision but what can you do? You get on with it.'
Mr Salim requested a pseudonym, too. He was retrenched along with several other managers.
It happened on a weekday mid-afternoon. They were called into an office and, one by one, received and signed three forms: a list of issued items to be returned to the company; a standard letter of termination; and a letter outlining their retrenchment benefits, which in Mr Salim's case was four months' salary.
It was a scene that played out at least twice more after he left. Two weeks later, and again just before Christmas, at least 40 more employees were fired.
He had had a bad feeling for months. He said: 'When you're as senior as I am, you know the books.'
As the economy worsened, his company lost hundreds of millions of dollars in a matter of months. 'The company was bleeding. Something needed to be done,' he said.
'I called my wife, told her the 'hatchet man' had come for me. She was upset, but you know, we'll have to cut down a bit - no more weekend trips to Bali.'
Last year, he spent about $15,000 on vacations with his wife and their seven-year-old daughter.
He has begun looking for a job overseas.
- The Straits Times
No comments:
Post a Comment