Retrenchment

Looking back at the year of 2009….. this year has indeed been a rather unusual year for me. I became one of the victims of the US financial tsunami despite the fact that my employer was deemed as one of the financial players that have emerged rather relatively unscratched. Nevertheless, the whole industry was affected and if profit cannot be achieved through revenue, the only other alternative is to cut cost. Thus, it didn’t surprise me when I was called into the room to receive the pink slip. While it wasn’t a great feeling, but the whole episode wasn’t as bad as I would have experienced. The most challenging part of dealing with retrenchment was probably breaking the news to the family. Relief comes after this, and on the second day I was already up drafting a to-do-list containing things that I had always wanted to do but never had the time to do. After assessing the economic situation, I estimated that my break is likely to be at least 6 months, and thus have plenty of time to work on these things. One thing that I was determined to do is, not to regret for passing by the opportunity of living a life other than pursuing career and money. So it turns out, my prediction was spot-on and market started improving after a few months and 6 months on I was back – well rested and ready to embark on a new journey! Most important of all, I am happy to say that I have not lived the 6 months in vain.