Lay off and VSS are among the last few words that most employees would like to hear off, other than ‘you’re fired!!’. But this is the reality for those working in private sector must face today. Financial lost, missing profit target, merge and acquisition(M&A) are among good ‘excuses’ for that. And now, mother of all crisis, recession, has turned the situation even worse.

In Cyberjaya and Penang, the 2 IT and electronic hot spots in Malaysia, business seems booming as usual. There is almost no news about lay offs on mainstream newspapers. In fact, job recruitment continues as like nothing happened. The job advertisement can be found in online or offline mediums or even word-of-mouth.

But in reality, only small number of people are aware about what is happening. In the last few days also, I’ve received few emails regarding the possible layoffs, or operation shut down/time off on numbers of manufacturing companies in Penang plus few outsourcing companies in Cyberjaya. To avoid being seen as speculative, I won’t post it here  until I’m pretty much sure about the truth of this email.

If there is a person who should worry about it, one of them should be me. And that’s why I’m called upon to write this. I’ve been working in MNC for a few years in Penang & Cyberjaya. In that short period of time, I’ve seen VSS once, and another round off VSS recently, even though Asia Pacific region is excluded this time. Like other person who is in this position, it will put you in difficult situation to remain here, when the job safety can hardly be felt.

Even though the situation as a whole in Malaysia might not be as bad as other regions especially in the US, but that doesn’t mean our region is safe. Judging on the report layoff tracker from the TechCrunch and Cnet, the number is no longer to be taken for granted.

So are we free from this crisis? This article might say so. But if you go through the list of companies, there are a few common names which are operating in Malaysia. So it is not possible that part of the lay off workers will come from us.

While the whole picture looks darker ahead, there is still a positive aspect. The price of crude oil has consistently dropped to below $60 per-barrel recently. It was a relief for most motorists, but has very little impact on other commodity, food or electronic price.

If you’re worried about the safety of your job, why don’t spend your time reading this guide. It’ll educate you on your rights as employee, what you deserve to, including compensation package.