The Layoff Syndrome

We have read about many layoffs in different industries worldwide especially in the west countries in the recent financial meltdown. Despite the economy recovery supported by various economy indicators and statistics, the layoff exercise is still the favorite approach used by many employers in the name of cost cutting.

Layoff is probably the worst nightmare for many employees as the termination of employment would mean a loss of main or probably the only source of income for a lot of people. There are many interesting symptoms among the employees resulting from the so-called “layoff syndrome” witnessed in one of the layoff.

The impacted staffs are in denial stage initially with lot of doubts in their mind when they first received the letter. Criteria for candidates selection not disclosed to the impacted staff further aggravated the situation. It is unbelievable that the layoff happened when some other departments within the company are still recruiting employees and contractors.

The managers involved in the exercise in determining or providing the feedback for the candidate to be laid-off are equally in denial stage, worrying to be blamed by their staff for causing the loss of their employment. Human real characters are also uncovered in this period. Back-stabbing is not unheard of for survival sake. We witnessed personally a selfish manager who refused to fight and justify the existence for the impacted staff for the own benefits. A real disgusting and embarrassing case!

The most disturbing fact is the reorganization took unusually long time of more than 3 months before the organization chart was announced. In this period, the staffs were left with unofficial rumors as their main source of information. Small group discussions or tea break gatherings are popular for the gossip catch-up. The staff productivity was in record low due to the uncertainty and the mind-boggling situation.

Employees including the non-impacted one are busy updating their resumes or updating their online profiles in the professional networking site, or contacting friends or ex-colleagues or even the head-hunters for job search. This is the symptom reflecting the fact employees are anticipating rounds of layoffs in the future even if they are spared in this round.

Farewell lunches for the leaving employees are becoming increasingly common. We had one for a colleague last week and many more are expected in the coming weeks and months. In this period, colleagues are usually more than happy to participate the lunch as a token of appreciation for the leaving colleagues or most importantly for exchange of information. A recent Chinese New Year lunch has an unusual high turn-up rate this year. It is always right to say human tends to be closer in their relationship in the difficult moments.

SetiaWalk Serviced Apartments

The Ambitious SetiaWalk Project

The serviced apartments in the Brio Tower, the central tower of the 3 tower blocks residence apartments from the ambitious Setia Walk project, were selling like the hot cakes ever since it was launched on Oct 09. Apparently only 2 units from the total of 254 units were left when I made a visit this morning.

According to the sales representative in the SetiaWalk Galleria, the developer will be launching the remaining block (The Vio Tower) for sales by March this year. It is expected to launch with a 10% appreciation from the previous Brio tower. Phased launch is definitely a brilliant move from the developer even though all the 3 blocks of serviced apartments are all in the same development stage, about 20% of completion now.

The smart developer is inviting the potential buyers to attend the Chinese New Year celebration on 26th Feb 09 for the potential goodies in terms of Angpau of up to RM1ok for purchase of the apartment in the forth-coming Vio Tower. However the developer may be reducing the benefits offered under "The Best for the Best Setia Homeownership Package" for buyers which the developer will bear the legal fees for SPA, legal fees for loan agreement, stamp duty on MOT & loan agreement, 0% interest during the construction period of 36 months.

I have been considering purchasing a property in the rapidly growing Puchong area for investment purpose. This serviced apartment fits into my expectations in terms of the strategic location (with the LRT station to be built opposite near Tesco hypermarket, under the LRT extension project), reputable developer with good track record and the layout of the apartment. However the budget seems far from favourable. The serviced apartment with the built up area of 1138sf will be selling at RM450K (after the 10% appreciation) is definitely on the higher end. To achieve a rental yield of 6%, the serviced apartment would need to be rent out at the rate of RM2,250 per month, which I feel is too high for the middle class living in this area.

I would give it a pass as it does not fit my personal investment purpose.

Economy Rankings

It is interesting to find out that Japan has successfully retained its position as the world's second largest economy, the position is maintained for more than 40 years, with the economy grew at a faster-than-expected pace of 1.1% in the last three months of 2009. The cabinet office in Tokyo reported that Gross domestic product rose at an annual 4.6 percent pace in the three months ended Dec. 31, fueled by the robust exports and a pickup in consumer demand at home. The Japanese economy was valued at about US$5.1 trillion in 2009.

On the other hand, its biggest rivalry, China ‘s GDP was valued at about US$4.91 trillion, up by a stunning growth of 8.7% in 2009. The fastest growing economy is currently at the third position of the world largest economy, behind US and Japan. However it is almost no doubt at all and almost certain that China will overtake Japan in 2010 as the world second largest economy with the GDP forecast of 9.5% in 2010, driven by the strong domestic consumption and corporate investment. The annual growth will continue to benefit from the stimulus package amounted to $586 billion to bolster its economy.

However the economy ranking serves little significance to the livelihood of the people of both the countries. Japan’s economy remains fragile and could drag growth in the months ahead as the impact of government incentives wane. Rattled by deepening deflation and falling wages, businesses remain cautious about spending and hiring. On the other hand, China’s is facing with a great challenge to maintain a balance between the economic growth needed to create sufficient jobs for the country's 1.3 billion people, and at the same time struggling not to let the economy overheat and drive up the cost of basic goods and housing for its people.

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao pointed out in his recent lunar new year speech that "All the things we do are aimed at letting people live more happily with more dignity". These are really words of wisdom from my point of view. Looking at the high unemployment rates in US and the Euro zone, what dignity can we say if the people can not even have a job to support themselves and the families?

CCTV 's Spring Festival Gala

There are not many differences for Malaysian Chinese in celebrating their eve before the lunar new year. Other than the usual get to together for the family reunion dinner at home or the increasingly popular dining out, many especially the young would also choose to go out for the so-called new year movies or catch up with friends for a drink. My personal preference has been on watching the TV program at home. The CCTV's Spring Festival Gala or Chunwan (春晚) show was my choice ever since our local satellite TV service provider, ASTRO started airing the program a couple of years ago. This is also the most widely watched program in the mainland China ever since it was inaugurated in 1982.

This year's Chunwan show is definitely a must watch because of appearance of the long missed artists such as Faye Wong (王菲) and Xiao Hu Dui (The Little Tigers - 小虎队) after a long break. The Mando-pop diva,Faye Wong performed the song "The Legend" (传奇), an old song composed by Li Jian (李健), a talented singer cum composer in the mainland. With the new song arrangement and the amazing Avatar like 3D background effect, and her usual crystal clear vocal, the performance was extraordinary good and attracted big applause from the crowd after the song performance. The video posting for her performance in Youtube has attracted more than 100,000 views in one day with many comments welcoming her back to the music career she left behind 5 years ago.

Faye Wong in her performance

For many of us born in the 70s and 80s, the Little Tiger is defintely in the memory for many fans of the Chinese music industry. The boys band reunite in the year of tiger, unfortunately in the Chunwan show only, after a long break up for more than a decade. The medley of 3 old songs performed reminded the audience of their teenage days and you can see everyone in the scene clapping their hands singing together with their idols. This was definitely the most popular performance in the whole show. It doesn't really matter that the little tigers are no really young boys.

The Little Tigers reunion in the year of Tiger

Another innovation worth mentioning is the stunning background 3D effect on the stage with multiple LED screens, the first of its kind at the stage performance. This reminds me of the opening of the Beijing Olympic games in 2008.

Stunning background 3D effect

Reorganization and Retrenchment

The company is currently conducting a reorgnization as well as staff retrenchment exercise for the purpose of cost-cutting. Some colleagues have already received the letter informing them to start looking and applying internal jobs available within the company by end of Feb. The termination exercise will commence by next month and a severance package will be offered to the candidate who is unable to obtain the internal job at the end of the notice period (1 or 3 months depending on the individual letter of offer). The working atmosphere has been weird ever since the company announced the reorganization in Nov last year. The recent announcement has made the situation worse as different type of rumours were just flying around on who is staying and who is leaving.

To have a clearer understanding about the employees’ rights during the retrenchment exercise, a few of us made a trip to the Malaysia labour dept (Jabatan Buruh at Jabatan Tenaga Kerja) head-quartered in Putrajaya, inside one of the block of the red cement buildings beside Alamanda Mall. The parking is disastrous there as the single lane road were occupied with illegally parked vehicles on one of the lane.

Here are some points collected from the consultation with the officer in-charge
(1) It is up to the company conducting the retrenchment on whether to disclose to the employees the total headcounts impacted by the retrenchment. This is a bit surprise to us as we always think that the company should be transparent in this aspect when come to retrenchment.

(2) Approval from the labour dept is not required for retrenchment. Well, I guess this is the so called business friendly environment

(3) There is no provision for female employees in their pregnancies to be exempted from the retrenchment exercise if the severance package is offered and that the retrenchment is not done with the intention for escaping from the 2 months obligated maternity leave

(4) The employee can report to the labour dept for request for investigation if it is felt that the dismissal is not done properly.

(5) The employee can report to the labour dept with proof that the retrenchment for the local employees are done for the purpose of keeping the foreign employees within the same dept of the company.

(6) If the dismissal is not done correctly, the employee can report, within 2 months after the dismissal, to another government dept to seek reinstatement of job position.

(7) There is no provision that states that types of works or assignments to be assigned to the employees have to be equivalent or similar in nature with the current position or matching the skills for the employees. In summary, this can subject to abuse by employers who assign inappropriate tasks to the employees in order to make the life difficult for the targeted employees, hopefully the employees would reassign before the severance package is offered.

(8) The letter of offers or contracts offered to the employees in the local company usually does not contain any statement on the terms of dismissal and the relevant compensation for the employee in the event of dismissal, other that the notice period.


Generally, the local employment law is more geared towards and favoured the employer and the poor employees are always in the disadvantage end when comes to retrenchment.

Platinum Lake Condo - PV12

I accompanied my younger brother yesterday to collect house keys for his newly completed condominum at Platinum Lake Condo PV12, which is located at Danau Kota, Setapak. Setapak used to be familiar for me during my Stapak high schooll days decades ago. I have not been here for more than 10 years and all I could only recall is the old toll established near the Pahang roundabout which is of course long gone by now.

The condo is ready now with Certificate of Fitness (CF) and as expected the management office was filled with house owners eargerly awating for their keys. This is of course a wonderful moment for many house buyers after placing their orders 3 years ago. The condo is designed with covered parking in the first fourth floor of the building. An big open area dedicated to the swimming, wadding pools and playground is located at the fifth floor. Thumbs up for the modern concept, similar to the setup of many commercial hotels.

Fifth Floor - An open area

The swimming Pool with two small wadding pools at the side

Nice View at the open area of the fifth floor


Children Playground

For light exercise

The condo tower is 26th floor high. My brother's unit is on the 23rd floor with the Genting view. Although the units with KLCC view are more sought after according to the real-estate agent met, I would personally prefer the Genting mountain view as it is more scenic and less commercial

Mountain View

Mountain View

Mountain View

The real estate agent informed me that the condo unit with the size of 1207 sq can fetch the selling price as high as RM280K or the monthly rental of RM1300 due to the popular demand from the TAR college students. A handsome capital gain of more than 45% for investors. Another good selling point is the Platinum Walk, a street mall with the shaded boulevard ambience and now a rapidly growing happening site, is located just right beside, within the walking distance of the condo.

Platinum Walk

A Charity Sale

The charity committee in the company is organizing a charity sale within the office to collect some fund for donations to the victims from Haiti who suffered from the catastrophic Mw 7.0 magnitude earthquake in the 12th Jan 2010. The organizing committee seeks the donation of household items, clothing, toys or books from the colleagues for the charity sales. I was looking around at home to see what I can contribute for this charity sale. My aim is not to clear something I do not want but rather to share esomething which is beneficial to others. Finally I have chosen a book entitled “Foods that harm, Foods that heal – An A-Z Guide to Safe and Healthy Eating” published by Reader’s Digest couple of years ago.



I bought this book two years and have benefited much from this book since then. The book is about 400 pages with more than 150 food entries, organized from A to Z, provides the readers the lowdown on the nutritional value every food which you can name it. The benefits and the drawbacks are listed for each food in plain English for ease of understanding. Other than that, readers can also look for foods that that are beneficial for the patient and foods to be avoided for different type of diseases and medical conditions. Inside the book, there are also short paragraphs of case studies and myths which are really interesting for reading.

The food bible is invaluable and should be a collection at home for anyone who claims to be health-conscious. Rather than sitting idle in my book-shelf, I share this out so that hopefully someone else can also benefit from this book. I recommended to the organizing committee for the price tag of a minimum RM100 for this book. Let's see how it turn out to be in the charity sale.