It has been a sad sad month and it's only half way through.
First the Fitout team at 5&6 started letting ppl go when it was decided that L2&3 are suspended. Adrian was lucky to be kept and transferred down to the Casino, and that means he gets to stay -- a relief! Then it's our team, the RCT, we had to let 5 teammates go. Honestly, it did not impact us that much -- big relief. But Eric had already been laid off and Mendy was requested to resign a month ago and served her notice and left the first week of the month. She was glad to have to leave -- she was going back to Australia to get married!
This week, worse news struck early Monday - 5&6 will be suspended indefinitely, i.e. until Sands finds a financier/sufficient funding. This means that Adrian job is on the line now. He is gonna be laid off if he is not one of the skeleton team member that's been selected to babysit the project that is now at "vegetable" state (it was said that only 4 will form the team). Adrian is not confident that he's gonna make the team -- well at least that is not the impression he got from the chats that he had with Paul James. However, up to today, they haven't announced anything to the team yet.
The full suspension of 5&6 also means that the RCT will have no shops to open in the project and that will lead to a major downsize of the team. The bad news struck early morning of Thursday (13/11/08) -- I was called in to Ken Holman's room. There, he told me that they've decided that they will keep 12 team members and I was one of the 12. It's gonna be tough moving ahead but that's the reality. He wanted my commitment and with Adrian's future unknown, I will have to commit. And I did.
It wasn't my decision but I got what I hoped for. Of course I want to keep my job considering going back to Malaysia seems to be a bad idea now -- it's not doing any better compared to here anyway.
I should be happy to have kept my job. However, that wasn't the case. You can't imagine how bad it feels to see your mates being let go like that when at the same time, you get to stay. Not unless you've been there -- Adrian's been there and I'm so glad that he understood me. I cried that day before I had lunch with some teammates. I thought it was the worst that it could get. I was wrong.
Then came Friday. The day that they have to break the news to the teammates individually. The management met with them individually and gave them the letters and... that's it. I was busy putting cost analysis together for Mall Management but I couldn't help hearing ppl saying goodbyes and taking pictures... and the fact that Jane and Brian will be parting soon hurt so bad! These two wonderful mates have been my best friends in the team. I don't want them to leave! But I can't do anything about it. I hate the feeling of being helpless. Everything has a solution but not this one. When Eddie came around to my cubicle (he normally doesn't do that, btw, he's one of the selected 12) I turned to him and then broke down and cried. I am not good at things like this. It's harder than I thought. Knowing that some guys have got a family to feed, toddlers and mortgages...
I just hope that all my mates pull this through and I wish them all the best in their future undertakings.
Now I have to worry about Adrian being laid off and sent to another country for another job or finds another job in another country after being laid off. They are going to break the news to the Fitout team next week.
So stressed that my period came 1 week earlier. Shit.
