The weak Singapore job market starts to hit me

I work as an analyst for a US multinational corporation. Business conditions have been poor because of the weak commodities market affecting our major clients. Several rounds of layoffs have occured globally, including in Singapore. Thus, it was a great worry two days ago when my senior manager sent out an email at 10pm to attend a conference call held at 11pm the same night. Of course I missed out on the conference call. I was busy catching up on my sleep.

It was definitely not positive news because the next day, I received multiple meeting invites from various managers - I work in a company with a very complicated structure. Turns out that the company was going to freeze promotions as well as pay for the coming year. The upside we were told by the team leader, was that our jobs would remain secure until end-2016 and that the our incentive would still be paid out. The team broke out in laughter.

The reality of retrenchments and the importance of emergency funds

There were several rounds of lay off going through the America-based company I am working at. This is because our major clients are hit by the slump in commodities prices. At the same time, there has been an emphasis at controlling costs and so there is the usual reorganisation and where work that can be sent to be done in lower-cost countries are being sent that way. As a result, about 8 people were retrenched in the past two months.

Fortunately, I was not laid off this time, although the spectre does loom. But if I did get laid off, I would be in some trouble. Firstly, I do no have an emergency fund built up. While I have no mortgage to pay off as I am not yet married, if my parents were to suddenly fall ill, my finances will be strained tremendously. Plans for marriage would also have to be scaled down, if not postponed till I find a new job. I would also be in deep human waste if I were already married and had to pay the mortgage.

Bad things tend to happen together. As you are aware, I am fully exposed to stocks. If I were to liquidate my stock holdings to be used as funds, I will be in the red. Retrenchment exercises tend to occur around the same time the stock market slumps.

Therefore, do no underestimate the importance of having emergency funds. Conventional wisdom suggests that they should be 6-12 times your monthly liabilities. These include your normal living expenses, mortgage instalments and even some creature comforts. The reason is that you do not want to be at your wits' end when you are unemployed as this will add on to your emotional stress. Also, having an emergency fund to draw from allows you cushion to seek for a new job, which again may take some time as employment conditions will be bad.

The chill of winter is real

It has been an unsettling time in the office the past few weeks. There have been news of restructuring and layoffs. Over the past year, the market has been bad for my company and I have heard of a few people being let go. Over the recent two to three weeks, I have heard that close to six people have been let go, bearing in mind my company has about 140-plus people in the office.

I have yet to see my new organisation chart and there is a chance that I will be blogging more often. At this point in time, the downturn is feeling a bit too real for me.