Redundancy. Don't know what to do.

[HangryPants]

I was made redundant from the end of this month. It's a blessing as I was so fed up of my job. Due to a few days of annual leave, today was actually my first day off.

I am so directionless. I don't know what to do. Having worked hard all of my life I now have zero motivation to get a job or take on a new voluntary activity or start a new hobby or do anything really.

(No kids, no pets, no rent or mortgage. 1 DP).

Can you afford to not work, or do you just feel like you should be doing something constructive?

I could manage on savings for only a few months. DP says that I'll get motivated once I can't afford takeaways. He's probably right.

I do feel I ought to be doing something constructive with my life, but I'm not sure whether I want to, if you see what I mean? Or even what I would do if I had the motivation.

It's a big shock even if you knew it was coming, and it's such early days. Your brain might just need a few days or weeks to process it. Don't overanalyze,thee is plenty of time to make new plans well before the takeaway budget gets exhausted.

I have two thoughts about it.

A) Take this to its logical conclusion and I'm left wondering what the point is in living. (I don't mean that in a suicidal way).

B) If I fall seriously ill, I'm going to be pissed off at myself for wasting this time.

@Murmurur what would you do tomorrow? And the day after? I am open to your advice, but what do I literally do tomorrow?

What was your previous job?

Do you want to do similar work?

Give yourself time to process. I was made redundant (while on mat leave no less) and it really pulled the rug out from under me. I wish I’d taken more time to work through my feelings and have a bit of a stock take about what to do next. Instead I just panicked and leaped at the first job which came along, and which I should have foreseen I wouldn’t enjoy.

It's early days. But make a decision.
Next week?
Update your cv. Apply for a few things.
Why did you hate your job? That job with that firm? Or the job itself.
I do accounts and love it. Hope you find something you like.

See this as an opportunity to consider doing what you’ve always wanted to?

There are careers websites with online questionnaires to answer that could show you what your skills could be good for.

Or do you like the work just not that employer?

I think it's early for you to have all the answers.
Give yourself time (2 weeks or more if you can afford it) to think without putting pressure on yourself.
With time, you'll start planning and thinking about your options.
I was made redundant by a big corporation and took 3 months off.
I decided to go back part-time for a small company and managed to progress into an FT management role. I am now earning a lot more and loving the job as well.

@Murmurur what would you do tomorrow? And the day after? I am open to your advice, but what do I literally do tomorrow?

What I’d do is take stock which for me would involve sorting out cupboards and clearing through the house while processing what I wanted to do next. I’d be thinking about whether I wanted a job in the same sector, or full time/part time, how long I could survive financially before finding something else and how much I needed to make to be ok. No big decisions, just catching up on myself.

Tomorrow: I’d have a long lie in, do some housework, go for a walk, have lunch, read, Mumsnet, make a nice dinner. Similar for the rest of the week, plus food shop and a couple of YouTube exercise sessions.

Next Monday, I’d start doing some research into jobs/careers.

I was made redundant in November, after being on furlough for months, so I recognise that directionless feeling. People say that there's more to life than work, but when the routine of work is taken from you, life can suddenly seem quite empty and it's easy to question your place in the world.

It's only day 1, so you're probably still in a mild state of shock about what's happened. Also, with the pandemic crisis and winter weather, things can seem very bleak. I would recommend that you take time to update your CV and consider what sort of work might suit you better than the last job. Don't rush into taking any job, out of desperation - you might regret that and it could set you back, mentally.

Try to create a new routine for yourself to pass the time. I take a long walk every day, read, and do crosswords to keep my mind active. Do you have friends who are also out of work or at home during the day? Perhaps you could meet one for a socially distanced walk, to prevent feelings of isolation. This is probably the worst time in decades to be out of work, but we are not alone and I think things will improve radically by summer, when everything will start to pick up again, hopefully.

I agree with taking some time to reflect. There’s no hurry if you can live off savings for a while.

What are you passions? What are your strengths? Think how you can utilise these in a career.

You're on annual leave until the end of the month so do what you would normally do with an extra couple of days off. For me that might mean as people have suggested above, or maybe do a DIY job such as painting a room.

Plan some things you enjoy into every day. Not ironing or cleaning the oven "because you love it" but meeting or zooming a friend, reading, or watching a particular film or whatever floats your boat. I learned this when having CBT for depression. We divided stuff I do into routine, jobs and pleasure or somesuch and I had to do some of each every day. The tricky bit, weirdly, was getting the pleasure ones in.

If you were straining at the leash to find a job like your old one, or you needed the money, then that would be different. But you don't have to solve it all tomorrow.

I'd look at whether I was in the right job/career for me and if not try and look at what that might be, how to retrain, what funding was available for that and what kind of work I could do around that while training. Especially while your living costs are as low as they'll likely ever be.

Redundancy is really hard...I was made redundant and I was expecting it and in a way I was happy as I didn’t believe the company ethos anymore but I had been there 18 years and the way they dealt with it was crappy. That was the difficult part for me. Managers just started ignore me & it was like they were embarrassed and didn’t know how to deal with it. Ridiculous grown men behaving like babies. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is just take some time for yourself for a few weeks and process it. Like many people, I’ve moved on to better things and you will too. You don’t need all the answers right now.

I have had a few months of getting used to this, so whilst it's still an odd feeling and a bit of a shock, I've also spent quite a while thinking about what I want to do. I just don't get any insight beyond, "I don't want to do anything".

Used up quite a bit of annual leave and reduced hours due to Covid, and the house and garage are quite tidy at the moment.

What would you do if you could do anything?
Do you have any hobbies or skills you could turn into a business?
Why not look up some online courses eg future learn, coursera and do some free ones that interest you to give you focus and perhaps learn something new?

I think at first you need to take some time to let this sink in, then think about your workplace skills and if you actually need another job.
Can you do some lockdown volunteer work to keep you busy for now while you think about your next move ?

Tomorrow I'd go for a run or long walk, watch TV, write because that is my creative thing I never have enough time to do, and otherwise chill completely and just let myself process. The day after the same, probably. Starting Monday I'd start doing some concrete planning about what next. In the meantime I'd exercise a lot, for sanity.

If you have to work to buy food and not go nuts, you know it will involve another job and it's a question of what the best option is.

What's your longer term position? No rent or mortgage - is that because you own outright, or do you live in DP's house?

How about writing down where you want to be in 5 years, 10 years etc, see if that triggers any ideas.

Will you have enough retirement income?

Look longer term, and work backwards to know what to do tomorrow.

It’s weird. I’ve always been really motivated, creative, keen to learn and have new experiences, go to new places... now just nothing.

If I think ahead 10, 15 years... I just don’t think there are any guarantees. I’d rather be happy today because I’ve learned that that’s really all we’ve got. On the other hand, I can see that a long term plan would be useful in terms of giving me a purpose, and purpose is important for being happy.

House is mine alone, I paid the mortgage off. I’m about 30 years off retirement and don’t have a great amount in pensions.

I've been made redundant a couple of times. The first time was a horrible shock.

Generally I give myself a three week break and then start looking. Unfortunately it sounds like you need to work, so early retirement is off the cards. That said, you don't have costly outgoings like rent / mortgage, so you might be able to look at roles that interest you and not something you need to do for the salary.

That's helpful, Hangry.
So after a few months, you need to look at earning to cover food, bills and fun, and to build a pension.

The current climate is not a great one for decision making, or looking to the future- just make short term decisions. Have a few days off, then look for a 'getting by' job. Something that will keep body and soul together until you feel ready to be a bit more ambitious/creative/future looking.

It's perfectly possible you are a little depressed- do some mental health work and think about going to the gp.