When corporate firms signal their intention for restructuring an organization, there will always be uncertainty that sends their employees morale down their spiral. In today's context, we see pressures coming in from top management and shareholders on how they can come up with a leaner processes that will drive up their profit margin and lower their overhead.
No levels are secured - from the junior assistant to the Director level. Anyone at any point in time can be retrenched at the mercy of where the company direction is going. That's what happens recently to SPH who undergo restructuring in order to have a leaner processes and eliminate inefficient resources.
I've spent two years at my current company and now I've probably undergone two major restructuring within an organization itself. Some people who are close to me are directly affected and it is never easy for an organization to go through that in the short span of time. Morales are down, employees are uncertain and productivity to a certain extent goes down in the short term. The overall direction of the company may be going the right way, but as an employee you never are going to relate the same way as a shareholder does.
In these circumstances, the question people usually ask is how well are you prepared for such a retrenchment? Do you have an alternative plan on how are you going to cover your basic expenses for the family? Do you have any transferable skills that will enable you to find another job elsewhere? Maybe here are a few things to get you started:
1.) Have an Emergency Funds
This is where the importance of emergency funds kicks in. You should be prepared to work around your finances well even when things are going well for you. The idea is you never know what is going to happen next to you as long as you work being an employee depending very much on that paycheck at the end of the month.
2.) Regular reviews of monthly expenses
Conduct regular reviews of your monthly expenses and see which of the expenses you can easily strike off from the lists and which is the more important ones. You should be able to segregate the necessities from the luxuries and work on covering the basic necessities expenses while you are still working.
3.) Enhance your productivity
Consistently enhance and upgrade your skills in order to meet the requirement the world needs. Always remember that CHANGE happens within our world whether we like it or not. It is always up to ourselves on whether we want to change for the better that can improve on our productivity and marketability.
4.) Build up your passive income
The idea of passive income is to allow you to eventually do nothing but still receive a stream-flow of income, for whatever use you want it for. To start young means you will have a much longer time to build up your sandcastle so that you will have a canon stream of income when you get older while your employability does get lower.
Most people in Singapore are tied down to major necessities expenses such as housing, cars, renovations, education loans, parent allowances, school fees, maids and so on. This is why money management is even more important for these people who knows that they cannot absolutely afford to lose their job. Working on the above 4 points will at least gets you the start they need, but it needs to start early - when your job is still relatively "Safe".
