During the AGM, a shareholder asked the Chairman how the downsizing was carried out and how badly it will reflect on the company if one day an ex-staff has to beg for food on the street.
The Chairman went on to explain that the retrenchment, or rather downsizing or right sizing is a continuous process. Some of the staff who were let go were those who have reached retirement age and their contracts were not extended. They also try to redeploy staff to other work areas where there are growth and also try to cut operating costs to be more efficient and effective. The company also ensured that staff who were retrenched were given fair compensation.
Actually, this is nothing new. Retrenchment is not uncommon nowadays. There's really no more iron rice bowl except for some government agencies.
Imagine you are one of the staff in the company and there's a retrenchment going on, how will you feel?
You will be so worried if you are going to be the one to be called into your manager's office and handed the envelope. Even the manager himself is not sure if he will be the next to go. You could probably start working harder and longer and hope your manager recognise your efforts in a bid to secure your job. You start praying that you won't be the one to go.
And when the list is finally out, you can't help breathing a sigh of relief while feeling sad your good colleagues have to go. And for the next few months, you won't complain a bit even if you have to do three persons work while drawing the same salary.
And depending on the state of economy, you'll fell jittery if the situation continues to be bad. Any rumour can sends fear across the whole company.
Of course, no one is going to resign unless they got a job offer. And even with that, they will think twice about jumping ship.
But how will the remaining staff view the company? Will they remain as loyal knowing that they can be asked to go anytime? How does the top management going to rah-rah everyone to work together to ride through this storm?
What if the board of directors starts by taking a 30% pay cut?