Today started off earlier than usual as I had an early presentation at 7 am. Presentations make me nervous but that wasn’t the worst part of the day.

At 9:45 am, I received an email calling for a company meeting at 10:00 am. If I’ve learnt anything from 3 years of studying history, it’s that history repeats itself. Unfortunately, 27 colleagues will lose their job. Late 2008, the company had axed over 20 staff members. The difference is, I didn’t expect this as the recession is over. The reason this time round? Cost-cutting by shifting development to India and China. Ultimately, all businesses are out to make a profit.

I consider myself incredibly lucky as I’m probably a borderline case. I think the reason I still have a job, for the time being at least, is that I was involved in a project that has been generating quite a fair bit of buzz amongst the clients. While I appreciate the fact that I haven’t been made redundant, I can’t help but think how similar this feels to my experience with the failed investment company, United Finance. I now have over 20,000 shares in Allied Farmers, which have a present value that is about half compared to the value when it was issued to me.

I have been at my current job for just over 4 years. During that time, I’ve shifted desk 4 times, twice of which involves moving to a different building, and one of which involves moving to a different suburb. Occasionally, I can feel the floor shaking under my current desk. I just hope the floor doesn’t collapse under me, both literally or figuratively, at least for the next year. Otherwise, it would really mess up my plans for the year.