Redundancy

It’s a horrible word, isn’t it? Redundancy or redundant as a dictionary definition means “Not or no longer needed; superfluous”.

This article isn’t to help people understand the legal or HR standpoint of redundancy, but to instead focus on the human element of what being made redundant means to you. If you need legal advice on redundancy there are many valuable resources that you can find here.

Firstly, and by far and away most importantly, it’s essential to remember that YOU haven’t been made redundant. Your job has.

The job you were paid to do is redundant for the needs of the business at this current time. Businesses evolve and develop and in this post-COVID era we’re seeing redundancy levels at an all-time high.

Redundnacy has many challenges.

Firstly, there are the immediate challenges. Redundancy means you are no longer employed, which means you are no longer paid a salary and your ability to pay bills and live your life is impacted. But perhaps a bigger challenge is the loss you now feel.

Working takes up so much of our life, when one day someone pulls the plug out it’s very, VERY easy to feel like everything is lost.

For some of us, redundancy takes away our identity, we’ve been stripped of our badge and our team kit and we’re lost.

It’s OK to feel lost! After all, you HAVE lost a lot – your purpose, your status (this is especially hard for people who’ve created a successful career), and one of the things that a lot of people miss is the structure and routine that employment brings – from the time we go to bed, to the time the alarm is set for the morning, the commute, the friends or colleagues that you may not see again.

Suddenly money is only one of many things you’ve lost, and whilst money may be the driver of fear; the thing that makes you want to sit down day after day, hour after hour looking for jobs on job boards and writing social media posts asking for help, I think it’s a mistake to not acknowledge what else you are now missing in your life.

You have to take time. A day or even a week-long rest will not hurt you, and I’d go as far as to suggest it may actually help you.

There is a certain element of grief associated with losing your job, and taking time to come to terms with that loss is essential for your personal well-being.

Redundancy isn’t nice at any point, but in 2020 Redundancy is the problem you never EVER wanted. Job searching in this market is tough.

When I say tough, I mean the toughest thing you may ever have to do.

The world is reeling right now, businesses don’t know if they’re coming or going and every day the newspapers report redundancy after redundancy.

Job searching in a normal market has always been a hard task, but at least during those times there were jobs available. But mass redundancies like this create a new problem.

“Each redundancy means there’s one less job available”

Which means the problem is getting worse by the day. The job market is shrinking. More people looking for a smaller number of available jobs is a terrifying prospect, but we believe that this is not the end of the story for you.

So, how do you bounce back from redundancy?

Firstly, don’t knee jerk.

Don’t make a long-term decision for a short-term problem. By this I mean slashing your salary requirements or looking for different jobs in different sectors and therefore minimising your skill and experience impact.

Stay calm. Take stock – you do have choices.

Let me explain.

Imagine a scene when you’re out for a drink with friends and an altercation takes place and a fight begins and you’re attacked.

In that moment, after you’ve been hit, you have choices. Press pause on that image.

You can:

• Run away
• Attack back
• Lie down

What you choose in that moment has ramifications. It could be a defining moment in your life.

If you attack back and the person falls over, bangs their head and passes away you are going to prison. For years.

This is the point in human psychology where there is a moment of time between the ‘thing’ and the ‘response’.

You are in that moment right now. Every choice you make, every email you send, every application you make is that moment. Be aware of your actions, your words, your social media posts and the statements you make.

Are they going to help you? Are they going to help advance your job search? Are they going to assist you in getting out of this mess?

Things to consider here:

• Applying to a job on a whim and being ill prepared for a call back and messing up your chance
• Rushing your CV and making a mistake
• Placing an update on social media that could, if seen by a future employer, be interpreted differently
• Speaking ill of your employer or a recruitment process that didn’t end well (it’s a small world out there)
• Taking it out on people close to you (friends, family or partner).

 Foundations are your key

Do you know that underneath The Shard, the tallest and perhaps most iconic building in the UK, the foundations are 53 meters deep?

That’s 21 stories of building under the ground before you even see the actual building!

You can’t build a tall building without strong foundations. You can’t build a building that can withstand problems without strong foundations. You could rush it, you could build it quickly, but you will pay the price at some point in the future.

Your job search is the same.

You need foundations.

And in human terms foundations are facts.

Which takes us back to just how good you are, so first things first, I want you to begin a calm self-analysis.

How you start is key to everything. Running around like a headless chicken, with no plan or direction, is not going to help right now.

We want to help you with EXACTLY this.

The Great British Job Search has been designed to help you today with the problems you face today.

Redundancy.
Rejection.
Rejection again.
CV creation. 

And so much more.