Disclaimer: In Real Life is a platform for everyday people to share their experiences and voices. All articles are personal stories and do not necessarily echo In Real Life’s sentiments.
This story was shared by an oil & gas engineer who was laid off twice in 2014 by two international companies, which spurred him on to start his own business.
I was an oil & gas engineer working in Singapore for 4 years. When the first layoff happened, there was no warning whatsoever.
In 2014, the 2 biggest oil producers (Saudi Arabia and the Americans) were at a price war that plummeted the world crude oil prices for years.
When crude oil prices are too low, no one wants to go dig for new oil as the selling price is lower than the cost to produce it. Here’s what happened:
The Heartless Uncle Sam Layoff
One morning in my cubicle, I received a work email bcc-ed to me, asking me to go to this room that I’ve never been to at 10:00 am.
At 9:55 am, I stood up and asked my colleague next to me, “Hey, you’re not going to that meeting?”
Cubicle colleague: “What meeting? I didn’t get any email.”
Me: “Weird, OK.” I took the elevator down by myself anyway.
In the elevator were my other colleagues from different departments. Small elevator chit chat: “You got that email too huh?”
Elevator colleagues: “Yup.” Weird, some people got the email, some didn’t.
We all piled into a room with around 15 to 20 other of my ‘selected colleagues’.
Across us were the HR people from Singapore. Along with them were 2 authoritative Texan Americans (with the classic Texan hat) that I’d never seen before.
The Texan: “Everybody’s here?”
Singapore HR counting heads: “Yup.”
The Texan: “Alright, close the door,” followed by a long pause. He then went straight for the jugular.
My company made us sign a Contract Release
The Texan: “Alright, I’m just going to be blunt here, you all will be relieved from your position effective immediately.” (not verbatim, but something along this line).
“We will honour your termination contract payment (it was only a 1-month pay for me). But before you get that, you need to sign this paper.”
The Singapore HR passed down everyone a piece of legal paper with pens. Basically it says that by signing, we won’t sue the company.
They psyched us to sign the legal papers, or else they told us we won’t be getting our 1-month pay in lieu.
Actually, as I learned later on, they can’t do this. But at the time, we were all shocked and emotional, we just did what we were told.
While signing, a colleague I didn’t know was quivering to the point of almost crying. He was a grown man. Apparently, he had just moved to Singapore with his wife and kid from India for this position. It was painful to watch.
After the HR collected all the documents from us, the Texan guy continued:
“We’ve arranged a bus for you back to the city. I want you to go up, get your stuff from your cubicles and get on that bus by 11 am.” (The office was at the edge of Singapore with no public transportation).
That was it. I was shocked and extremely embarrassed to show my face to my other colleagues. I just quickly and discreetly packed all of my stuff and got onto that bus full of confused, weeping adults.
It was brutal.
The Polite Scottish Company Lay Off
6 months later, I got another Oil & Gas offer, but that job only lasted 9 months.
This new company was based in Aberdeen, UK. But I was hired for their small Singapore office. I spent 3 months in Aberdeen as part of their ‘training’ and had an absolute blast doing some hikes over there.
After that, I came back to Singapore and served for a couple of months. One day, I met one of our project engineers in the pantry.
As we got to chatting, he explained to me how the market was so bad now, and that we all should be lucky to still have jobs in a couple of months. I don’t know why I didn’t take him seriously at the time and just went back to my cubicle with my fresh coffee.
Lo and behold, one day, my Singapore Manager (he was a chap from the UK) called me into his office.
He asked me to close the door so I did and immediately I was like “Oh crap… is it happening again?”
Indeed it did, ladies and gentlemen. I was getting laid off for the second time in my life.
My manager took me out to lunch and broke the news gently
“Hey Helmi, as you know the market is tanking at the moment. We don’t think we’ll be able to make any money for at least 2 years because of this price war. So unfortunately, we are forced to make your position redundant. So today is your last day.”
Pausing to reflect on it further, he added, “It’s not just you, my position will likely be next, along with the closure of the Singapore office.”
I totally respected his tact, as he was nice and upfront about it. He even treated me to lunch, during which he gave me some personal industry updates and career advice.
“The Oil & Gas market is tanking for the next couple of years. My advice to you is go into something else, like automotive engineering. Just forget about Oil & Gas,” he said. “If you need a recommendation letter for a new job, I’ll help you out.”
That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you lay somebody off. I was treated respectfully and humanely.
The lunch was not necessary, but ultimately, I understood the industry’s situation and was not mad at the company, nor him as the manager that was responsible to lay me off.
I went back to my Singapore rented room, wondering what the hell I was going to do next.
Next Chapter: Entrepreneurship
When I came back to Malaysia after being laid off twice in Singapore, I realised I had had enough. I had enough with the Oil & Gas industry, and I had enough of being an employee.
I had 2 mortgages to pay off, and that’s when I started an Airbnb business which grew to a 10 studio business in Bukit Bintang KL.
The spin-off from this venture was the launch of my very own blog, initially to promote direct bookings for my studios but which has now been repurposed for a topic that I love to write about, which is personal finance. I’m now a full-time content creator.
What I learnt from this experience:
- If you start getting weird emails like a BCC email from HR, then you know you’re in the hot seat.
- American companies will fire you, effective immediately, just like in their movies.
- I personally think the Oil & Gas industry is flawed. Usually, when the Arabs decide to go into a price war, massive layoffs will ensue.
- If you have a very high salary and if anything happens to your job or industry, it’ll be very hard to find another job that can value you and pay you as much. (Feel free to prove my views wrong in the comments though).
- I was lucky to not buy anything ridiculous when I had a job (like a luxury car or a big bike).
- Saving enough money and not spending on useless items saved me twice. Smart personal finance is baked into my consciousness from these 2 events.
- Everything is fine until it isn’t.
What do you think of this story?
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Read also: I Was Fired For Being Too Good At My Job
I Was Fired For Being Too Good At My Job But The Company Closed Down Soon After
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