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Any expats have lost their jobs due to the Covid-19?

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  1. #1

    Join Date
    May 2018
    Location
    Tai Po
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    36

    Question Any expats have lost their jobs due to the Covid-19?

    Hi everyone, hope that you are all doing well.

    I'm just curious to know how the expats community was affected by the pandemic while living in Hong Kong.
    Lost your job?
    Decreased the salary?
    Increased or even found a better job?
    Transition to working from home?
    Transition from Full-time to Part-time?
    You name it... Or if you just want to talk about how life has changed due to covid, please feel free to do so.
    As an ice breaker I'll start :
    My activity has at least been reduced more than a half but seems like it's slowly bouncing back.


  2. #2

    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    θ–„ζ‰Άζž—
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    47,971

    Based on some of the posts here and from friend/connections - does seem like there is a fairly brutal redundancy cycle in progress.

    Not sure if this is in any way related to the ESS subsidy timelines - perhaps someone more clued in can chime in on this aspect?


  3. #3

    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Hong Kong, from UK
    Posts
    3,838

    I lost my job at the end of last year, unrelated to the virus, but planned for various reasons to start seriously looking for a new one after CNY - in retrospect, that didn't work out well...

    I ended up doing an interview on TVB a couple of months later about the difficulties of unemployment under a pandemic, and it took me until the end of August to find something new, after a bunch of interviews. The new thing is better paid, and potentially has good prospects, but it started on a 6-month contract and involves longer hours and commute than I'd like. Pretty much everybody except me was out of the office until last week, so in practice I've only really started digging into my work properly since then - got to get some visible achievements under my belt to justify renewal/extension in the new year.


  4. #4

    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    Sai Kung
    Posts
    5,003

    I have a horrible feeling that post 1st January is going to be very ‘interesting’. In the finance industry as we’ve seen through countless ‘crises’, (which pale into insignificance) going back to post Big Bang in the late 80s in the UK, no one wants to be the first to announce but as soon as one does the domino effect of people waiting to pull the trigger 2nd comes into play.

    I regard myself as in the at risk category and urge others to at least consider at a high level what their options would be.

    To anyone that has lost their job, my industry or otherwise deepest sympathies. I’ve been there myself before but the personal and work situation then and now is incomparable.

    mysti, z754103, spode and 5 others like this.

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Posts
    734

    COVID's been absolutely great, except for the fact I have to do quarantine now(I was in Europe a couple of months, came back 10 days ago).

    In around March it was brutal when our clients basically cut down on everything, but in April it started to pickup again and business has been great ever since.

    My income has increased quite a lot this year, so I got a bit mixed feelings about an vaccine. Although on the one hand it would be nice to go to Thailand, but on the other covid ending would suck business wise...

    All in all, perhaps another 12 months of closed borders, social distancing, etc would be optimal (longer than that I couldn't take it)

    I work in online marketing(Facebook, google, instagram, etc), and as a lot of business has moved online my employers business has soared(and my bonus) along with it.

    Vaughn.T likes this.

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Posts
    6,531

    I lost my job some months ago, but it wasn't directly related to the pandemic. It seemed more related to the tensions and protests in 2019, and the business just wanted out. It was a tough month of uncertainty early on in the pandemic.

    I quickly found a job with many other benefits, though. It would have been nice to have stayed longer at the previous place just for some consistency in my life, but I am grateful for how things have worked out. But we've been personally looking to exit Hong Kong and if I hadn't gotten this new job, it would have been a lot easier to leave already. Now, we continue to feel stuck a bit as the opportunity is really quite good for me.

    We both have really enjoyed the opportunity to work from home for so long. Much more relaxed lifestyle and no commuting, getting dressed, packing lunch, getting home late.

    No cut to pay.

    Vaughn.T, huja and spode like this.

  7. #7

    Join Date
    Aug 2020
    Posts
    535

    There's a ton of Dragonair pilots out of work - probably would be good to ask them.

    All I know is if I lose my job, in all likelihood, it would also mean the end of HK for me.


  8. #8

    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Posts
    1,693

    Worked for a looong time for the same bank that brought me here to HK. Was approached by a friend and ended up moving to a new firm in the middle of Covid. So increased pay, increased hours (pretty natural when you are new) and a nice change of atmosphere. Also a real boost to see how you deliver when you are not in the setting you are used to.

    Now I'm even trying to find a consultant/contractor to work for me for 9-12 months. As per usual job matching in the HK market is terrible. Balancing the effort spent on finding the right person, given that its just a short contract is a pain, versus actually finding a good candidate. I refuse to hire mediocre people at insane rates from consultancy firms, so I end up spending more time on this hiring.

    From what I hear all banks have been waiting to pull the trigger on firing. But now it is coming..


  9. #9

    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Posts
    8,280

    I had a crystal ball and started working from home in January before COVID was a thing. I moved to Australia and my plan was to WFH for 3 weeks every month from Australia, and then in office in HK one week every month. It was a great plan, company gave me me the green light since even though they had to pay my flight/hotel every month, they wouldn't have to pay 2 kids international school in HK any more so overall would save them a shit load of money. Win win!

    Stupid crystal ball was defective and didn't tell me the aviation industry was about to disintegrate and the Australian government would close their borders and not allow their own citizens to leave the country. My plan starts to unravel.

    I still have a job for now, but my team are all in HK and not sure how long I can keep working remotely and how long company will accept this situation.

    Vaughn.T likes this.

  10. #10

    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Posts
    6,531
    Quote Originally Posted by RobRoy:
    Now I'm even trying to find a consultant/contractor to work for me for 9-12 months. As per usual job matching in the HK market is terrible. Balancing the effort spent on finding the right person, given that its just a short contract is a pain, versus actually finding a good candidate. I refuse to hire mediocre people at insane rates from consultancy firms, so I end up spending more time on this hiring.
    What kind of consultant are you looking for?

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