The present economic crisis has raised fears of retrenchment in many employees, especially in some sectors like manufacturing and financial services.

For employees with families to feed and mortgages to pay, the loss of a job is really frightening, especially when there’s not much in the kitty.

The rich with their fat bank accounts and those in government service and statutory boards who have never faced financial crises would not know the mental and emotional stress which looming retrenchment brings.

Not me. I was retrenched in 1985 when I first heard of the word “retrenchment” and had the unpleasant task of laying off some employees first before axing myself.

My bosses called the exercise “simplification” and “restructuring” at first, but it boiled down to some ten workers losing their jobs and having to fend for themselves. Thank God the recession wasn’t that deep then and all of them did secure jobs.

Is there life after retrenchment?

For me, the loss of a good paying job set me thinking – why be at the mercy of someone else? Why not do your own thing and be your own boss, and you’ll never be retrenched.

Moreover, I had a strong desire to use more of my time to help out in church, and doing my own business would allow me that flexibility. But what business?

This is the question which thousands ask, and a wrong answer can cause even greater harm and loss than staying put as employees.

Statistics still show only the minority will make a success of business.

I have seen many people losing their life’s savings in failed ventures and worse, getting into debts.

Nevertheless, by faith I took the first step to be an insurance broker, and signed a contract to be an “independent contractor” which basically means I am not an employee and will not be paid any steady salary. I had to find my own clients and keep an agreed cut of the commissions. In other words, I started with (how humbling) zero income and had to sell insurance and build up my own income.

The reaction of people around me was predictable. Are you crazy? My parents wisely advised me to find a paying job. They knew I had a wife and four boys to support, and a house and car to upkeep.

I would never have gone into business, albeit a small one, if not for my desire to devote more time to serve God in my church. I was inspired by Paul, the tentmaker who often supported himself with his own hands.

As it turned out and by the grace of God, there was much life after retrenchment for me afterall. It’s now 23 years since my retrenchment.

My four boys have grown up. My wife never had to go back to work to help out.

Business had been fairly good and I’m still at it because I have looked at my company as my third family after my own family and my church. I am still excited about “marketplace ministry”.

I am also keen to help those who may have to make mid-life career switches because of retrenchment or mid-life crisis review.

If any reader is now facing retrenchment, have faith and see whether it is really a blessing in disguise.

Perhaps you have never ventured out of your comfort zone.

A new challenge is daunting, but it can also bring out the best in you.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 at 12:17 pm and is filed under Blog Entries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.