Change of Tide in Our Career....

We programmed ourselves to retire at age 60 and then enjoy our retirement. Early on with our career, we were high flyers. That was in the first decade. The second decade when we were married with growing kids were the trying moments. It was really pressure laden, and it was also the period where we have accumulated so much debts. I remember going home one night after working for more than 12 hours in the office, half dazed and defocused on my driving that I almost met an accident. This was due to the job pressures, and demands of my job and my boss.

We were caught in a tumultuous and fast changing decade. The decade that saw the world economy giants start to collapse. Companies started to do drastic cost cutting measures. Our respective companies started also to shrink their factories, and consolidate their resources. We faced the greatest fears in our JOB: retrenchment, redundancy, early retirement and outright cutting headcounts (same objectives with different names- reduced manpower).

The third decade was the most disastrous part of our career. What we thought as retirement at age 60 came early. Actually it was too early as Fely was just 48, and I was 52 when the company we worked for retired us. Fely's retirement was a little more pleasant than mine. She was given at least 6 months of transition prior to her actual separation from her company. Mine was totally different. It was a terrible experience.

Let me tell you about that last phase in my corporate life: I was able to detect something anomalous in our way of handling our quarantined products. Instead of fixing the problem, and improving the system, the blame was placed on me. Eventually, it was me who was asked to do the explaining. Finally, they surprised me by offering me an early retirement. I was revolting inside me. I felt betrayed and used. I felt the whole world tumbled on me as I think of how I can support the education of my children, and how do we survive our day to day existence. I trembled in fear as I calculate the mountain of debts and responsibilities I have to face out from employment! What now? How do we survive?