<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>BEST PAID in the world, but only knows how to use 154th to psycho Sporns to accept 'die is their own biz'!
'Don't waste time feeling sorry'
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Mr Leow was retrenched from his job as a manager in 2001. He now runs his own car-polishing business.
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Life looked good for Mr Vincent Leow in 2001, even in that recession year.
Called to the boss' office, he was expecting a promotion. After all, three days earlier, he had completed his part-time diploma in business administration.
Instead, he was retrenched.
Mr Leow, then 34, with 18 years' service in the major fast-food company, had worked his way up from being part of the service crew to a senior manager earning about $5,000.
'It was a big shock. I was so lost I didn't know what to do next,' he said. He was given a 20-month severance package.
With two sons who were still toddlers, and his wife a homemaker, he was depressed.
With his experience, Mr Leow considered setting up his own burger stall. He also sent out job applications and went for at least five interviews.
But he was out of luck. 'I felt hopeless,' he recalled.
He dabbled in multi-level marketing for eight months before landing a job as store operations manager. His salary was half what he took home from his earlier job.
By the following year, 2002, he had saved $10,000 and started his own car-polishing business. He worked up to 15 hours daily, but business was poor. When Sars hit in 2003, things got worse.
To put food on the table, Mr Leow cleaned casket vans. 'I would be in tears, asking myself how I fell from being a manager to cleaning casket cars,' he said. 'I didn't tell my family what I was doing.'
But business eventually picked up. But now, with the current recession, he said he is again feeling the pinch.
His advice to the newly retrenched: Don't waste time feeling sorry but take any job even if it means a pay cut.
'Things will get better. What's more important now is to put food on the table,' he said.
Mavis Toh
'Don't waste time feeling sorry'
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Mr Leow was retrenched from his job as a manager in 2001. He now runs his own car-polishing business.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Life looked good for Mr Vincent Leow in 2001, even in that recession year.
Called to the boss' office, he was expecting a promotion. After all, three days earlier, he had completed his part-time diploma in business administration.
Instead, he was retrenched.
Mr Leow, then 34, with 18 years' service in the major fast-food company, had worked his way up from being part of the service crew to a senior manager earning about $5,000.
'It was a big shock. I was so lost I didn't know what to do next,' he said. He was given a 20-month severance package.
With two sons who were still toddlers, and his wife a homemaker, he was depressed.
With his experience, Mr Leow considered setting up his own burger stall. He also sent out job applications and went for at least five interviews.
But he was out of luck. 'I felt hopeless,' he recalled.
He dabbled in multi-level marketing for eight months before landing a job as store operations manager. His salary was half what he took home from his earlier job.
By the following year, 2002, he had saved $10,000 and started his own car-polishing business. He worked up to 15 hours daily, but business was poor. When Sars hit in 2003, things got worse.
To put food on the table, Mr Leow cleaned casket vans. 'I would be in tears, asking myself how I fell from being a manager to cleaning casket cars,' he said. 'I didn't tell my family what I was doing.'
But business eventually picked up. But now, with the current recession, he said he is again feeling the pinch.
His advice to the newly retrenched: Don't waste time feeling sorry but take any job even if it means a pay cut.
'Things will get better. What's more important now is to put food on the table,' he said.
Mavis Toh
