The idea of the old style pension plan has failed. The only entities that still have this are federal, state and municipal governments, and a few private sector unions. Those private sector unions that are still around, have had to give back, because their salaries and benefits were too generous compared to similar workers in the global economy and because their members have been undercut by illegal and uncontrolled immigration. In Illinois the state pension plan is underfunded by 60%. Ten states are underfunded by more than 40%. Those pension plans are too generous, and the management perhaps is corrupt. Pension plans worked in the early to mid 20th century, because the workforce and the economy were expanding so rapidly. Then in the 1970's the bottom started to fall out, particularly in manufacturing, and the pension plan weaknesses were exposed. Still public sector pension plans in too many states failed to see the light and have responded too little too late.
While not perfect, IRA's and 401k's have been put in place, and are the best option for most workers. The company will have a good plan if:
1) there is a company full or partial match to the employee's contributions, which are tax deferred. Keep in mind that the employee contribution is also tax deferred.
2) there is a reasonable vesting period for when the company's match is 100% vested, that is, part of your 401k. If you leave the company, before the match is 100% vested, then you stand to lose all or part of the match.
3) the company provides alternatives to their match being company stock.
4) the plan administration expenses are low or free. And try to avoid investing in mutual funds that have a high expense ratio. The lower the fund's expense, the better your chances are of making a higher return. If you are only offered funds that have a front-end load (generally 2% to 5.75% expense that come out your contribution and match), then you are not in a good plan.
5) watch out for annuities in the plan. They are generally VERY expensive in fees, and 99% of us never need an annuity in a 401k plan. Many people are in a 403b plan, which is commonly found in colleges. A good number of them wrap the investments in an annuity plan. But not a lot you can do. In some cases you can transfer the balance to a brokerage house, without triggering taxes, but that is a complicated process, if even offered.
Brightscope is an interesting website to look up your 401k plan. If it is listed there, you can see comparison ratings, and even some peer company plans are linked. The service I described is free. They do however, track the number of lookups by cookies, and have an annoying popup window to get you to sign up to the site.
http://www.brightscope.com
To the OP, I know that losing money is scary, but it does happen over the course of 30 to 40 years. You may want to re-exam your investments and see if you can do anything to lower the risks you are taking. Market timing doesn't really work. To paraphrase or quote John Bogle, the founder of Vanguard Group, "stay the course." Unless you are going to start a company or work for a startup, all which are highly risky, your best course of action is compounding your investments over years and keeping the expenses low.