Redundancy – An employee’s view

As the furlough scheme draws to a close - many people were faced with reduced hours, had their life in limbo and were hoping that business would just pick up, are now being let go.

Let’s not kid ourselves, the myth of a job for life has long gone and now we’re all having to adapt to the new working landscape, which is very much heading towards short-term even zero hours contracts, freelance work and people having portfolio careers.

With the far reaching impacts of the global Covid 19 pandemic, frequent changes in strategy, globalisation and rapid advances in technology, the pace at which companies need to change tact to stay in business is getting faster and faster.

There's always been an issue when new leaders join and want to clear the decks to make room for old colleagues or ward off potential threats in case you know more about the role and business than them.

All of these factors mean that redundancy is more commonplace and people are having to change roles more frequently. As someone who has been through redundancy from both sides of the table, and on more than one occasion - here are some of my observations.

Why is there so little support for employees?

It’s funny when you do a google search for redundancy – you get a barrage of articles from law firms offering employment law/advice for employers. I guess it's a good old business opportunity. But the fact that there are very few resources that offer support for employees themselves to guide them and offer them hope for the future; is one of the saddest things about the whole situation. I would be interested to hear of any good support websites that you’ve come across for employees. I think that many more should be created. In the past being offered career coaching and outplacement support services was welcome support for me but some employers overlook the impact that redundancy may have on people and don't want to cover this additional cost to help soften the blow of transition. 

Why me?

Was it me? Was I not good enough? Was there something I did or didn’t do? Could I have influenced the decision in some way? With redundancy you’re often searching for answers as to why you were the one who selected and why others survived.

Let’s be honest, at times it may be simply that your face no longer fits, but for legal reasons this could never be communicated with you. Reasons often given these days include restructuring, strategy change, new direction, downsizing a particular location and of course the good old cost savings/efficiency drive type stuff.

Get ready for a rollercoaster of emotions

You’re likely to experience a rollercoaster of emotions from euphoria at the thought of being free, to anger about putting your heart and soul into something and then to ultimately be rejected. And now you’re quite rightly licking your wounds as it’s being taken away from you.

A bit like bereavement, redundancy is something that we all experience and respond to in a variety of ways so the way someone copes with it will be very unique to that individual. It will be influenced by factors including the way the changes were communicated, the support being offered post event, do they feel that they’ve been treated fairly and of course their personal circumstances outside of work. When it comes to redundancy there is no right and wrong. 

Redundancy is like a bad break up

I was talking about redundancy the other day and the best way I could explain redundancy was that it’s like a bad break up. You go through a host of emotions on the way to healing and being in a fit and ready place to get on with the next stage of life.

Sometimes this process may take quite some time as you adjust to being out of work, get yourself mentally ready to jump back on the treadmill of searching for something new and take time to lick your wounds. 

But when redundancy really hits you bad, like a break up, you may find that you need to protect yourself and create distance from what once was. This could be limiting contact with former colleagues for a while or even until you feel ready and have come to terms with everything. It could even be seemingly petty acts like unfollowing your previous employer on social media channels – but it’s worth bearing in mind that it often hurts to see that life does go on without you.

So, what next?

The big question – is what do YOU want to do next? And making sure that YOU take time out to really think about this? Do you want to stay on the path you were already on or is there something else in your heart of hearts that you want to transition towards? Lots of major questions to get under the skin of and now you may actually have the time to address which is the exciting part. Don’t get me wrong, we all have mouths to feed, bills to pay etc and a host of responsibilities that come with life. But I guess we all need to make time to stop reflect and reflect on where we are now and ultimately where we want to be.

Would love to hear your stories and feelings on redundancy and how you overcame it and moved onto the next chapter.