About two weeks ago, Madam Kristin Goh, 38, served her last day as a guest services executive.
Understandably so. Her company offers corporate housing, and business had dried up entirely as the outbreak hit Singapore in late January.
"Companies started cancelling or postponing business trips when countries began to put in place travel bans. By early March, the financials were really bad," said Madam Goh.
By late March, the grim news hit home. Her company, which was part of a larger group, was shut down and she, along with about 20 colleagues, was retrenched. Gone is her monthly salary of $4,200.
The months ahead will be tough as she and her husband, a former general manager who is also unemployed as he has been unable to find a suitable job, figure out how to pay for the family's expenses and loan instalments amounting to more than $5,000 monthly. They have three children aged between one and 18.
In the past weeks, she has sent out at least 60 job applications, including those for temporary work related to Covid-19 operations like temperature screeners and safe distancing ambassadors. But she has not heard back from anyone yet.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/uncertain-future-for-some-amid-emerging-wave-of-retrenchments
Understandably so. Her company offers corporate housing, and business had dried up entirely as the outbreak hit Singapore in late January.
"Companies started cancelling or postponing business trips when countries began to put in place travel bans. By early March, the financials were really bad," said Madam Goh.
By late March, the grim news hit home. Her company, which was part of a larger group, was shut down and she, along with about 20 colleagues, was retrenched. Gone is her monthly salary of $4,200.
The months ahead will be tough as she and her husband, a former general manager who is also unemployed as he has been unable to find a suitable job, figure out how to pay for the family's expenses and loan instalments amounting to more than $5,000 monthly. They have three children aged between one and 18.
In the past weeks, she has sent out at least 60 job applications, including those for temporary work related to Covid-19 operations like temperature screeners and safe distancing ambassadors. But she has not heard back from anyone yet.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/uncertain-future-for-some-amid-emerging-wave-of-retrenchments
