It is not easy being retrenched. The social stigma can sting more than the economic dilemma, especially in a society like ours, which is rooted deep in meritocracy and efficacy.
We judge a person in many ways. From an early age, our children are judged by their grades, their school and their stream. At tertiary level, they are judged by their faculty, their extra curriculum and their class of degree. At work, we are judged by what we do. We know what profession our parents want us to pursue. There is just no point reliving their good-intentional nagging here right?
And you can imagine the stares or squint you get when you tell them you are retrenched. You can scapegoat Covid as the one to blame for your plight, but over time, the sting will eventually bite when you are still unemployed.
The papers today aims to paint a resilient picture of those being retrenched due to covid. It is a commendable effort by our national newspaper to lift spirits. It tries to balance perspectives and encourage hope.
I imagine here a dim-lit room where there are many windows. Some windows face the dark clouds and rain. Other windows show the emerging sun from a distance with clouds clearing. The papers this morning directs our attention to that side of the room, the hopeful side, with windows showing the storm subsiding. That’s hope in printed words.
Take Andy Yap, 40, for example. He was laid off in February. He was a former digital design director. When his company retrenched him, he said he was quite calm. He packed up and left, and “only sunk in the next few days.”
Andy then applied for jobs in all sectors, you name it, supermarkets, hospitals, and cleaning companies. None were successful. He now spends six days a week “zipping around Yishun delivering food on his mountain bike.”
How about 29-yr-old former business analyst Srividhya Ganapathy Sundaram? She is on an employment pass and her husband works as a mechanical engineer with a S-pass. She too was retrenched in May, and was discouraged.
She is still looking for job. But in the meantime, she busy herself with “learning German and Sanskrit, and spent time painting.” She said: “I cannot sit idle at home, so I try to make sure I never have a dull day. I think the important thing is not to let my mind idle.”
Just a heads up, LinkedIn, has “introduced a feature where users can attach a green banner to their profile picture with the words #Opentowork that will let recruiters and those in one’s network know that the person is open to job opportunities.”
Nevertheless, the main woe about our society is that once you are laid off, people tend to see you differently. This comes mainly from the script that is handed to us from young, which is quite fixed. We are still a culturally conservative society, hierarchical and stratified, and tend to benchmark one’s worth against his/her standing in society.
The script expects one to go with the flow. So, after school, you are expected to start work. When you’re working, you give your best to climb up the career ladder. Along the way, you marry and start a family. Then, the children come and you prepare for their future as well as your retirement. You can only pray that things will work out smoothly, no major glitches.
But, for the majority of us, we will face disruption. That is expected. Yet, we are never prepared for the expected, not to mention that which is unexpected.
Another case in point is Raymond Leong as reported. He is 62. He was a former senior sales manager and “used to work for a cruise and events company.” After just 1.5 years of joining the company, he was laid off.
Raymond said: “By the middle of February, client’s started cancelling or postponing events, and activity was more or less dead.”
He added: “When they told me, I didn’t react. In fact, it was my immediate boss who burst into tears, and my colleagues were in shock.”
Raymond recounted that after he packed and left, within 30 mins, “he spent the next month crying himself to sleep once the reality of the situation set in.” He said: “I felt I was treated unfairly, and I kept thinking, “Why me?” It felt personal.””
Raymond is now a Grab driver and he “hits the road every morning at 6:30 am...and usually works a 12-hour shift.”
“It is tough, but I am trying to be positive and open about it,” Raymond said. “You need to come to terms with the reality of retrenchment because Covid-19 has created unprecedented times.”
Lesson? At such times, it is tough to put a gloss over the pain and uncertainty many are going through. You can’t spin much positivity out when many are still groping and hoping.
But still, I felt that the attitude of Andy is deeply encouraging, and hopes to direct our attention to the different window in a dark room.
As a backdrop, when Andy was working in food delivery, he said some of his friends questioned that decision. But he said: “Food delivery is pandemic- and recession-resistant. Everyone still need to eat, so undecided to do this.”
Here is his advice to those going through tough times. “There is a light at the end of the tunnel, just that now the tunnel has got a lot longer. But you have to keep going.”
Three things you have to hold dear to your heart in Andy’s wisdom. It is light, distance and keep going.
Whether you believe it or not, there is always light. It is not about an imagined light, but it’s about a good fight. You see, all trials bow to the overcoming vision of a persevering soul. The latter always outlive the former, because we are a species that is drawn to light, be it for guidance, for growth or for hope.
So, yes, some tunnels are longer than others. But if we keep going, picking ourselves up whenever we are down, we will soon see the light at our own tunnel. For even Covid will soon pass, but the human spirit is simply indefatigable.
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