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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that being made redundant means you are no good at your job

83 replies

user1498911470 · 05/06/2018 17:57

If somebody is made redundant, would you automatically think it's because they are no good at their job? I mean if only 3 people are being made redundant then presumably they are the 3 people that the management consider to be the weakest members of the team?

OP posts:
SellFridges · 05/06/2018 19:18

Yep. Roles not people.

OddBoots · 05/06/2018 19:18

Sometimes everyone in a company is made redundant, we know that will be happening to dh's job due to Brexit soon so just being made redundant itself doesn't tell you anything.

oblada · 05/06/2018 19:21

It is actually the person who is made redundant and not the role. But it doesn't mean they're shit, just that their skills are currently not needed, or not needed as much as other skills.

Semster · 05/06/2018 19:22

I think it can be to do with performance if it's a situation where (say) they are cutting a group all doing the same role from 6 to 3. My last employer did this several times, and usually they started with the weakest people and the most expensive. Those of us in the middle were kept on and (of course) there was never actually a reduction in workload. I got to the point where I was almost begging to be made redundant.

ZiziJeanmaire · 05/06/2018 19:24

I was made redundant. I can't have been that bad because I went back to the same company (different team) in an IT Contractor role at twice the salary.

I was the bottom performer in a very high performing team, so not the worst in the company, just filling the quota.

Hope you move forward from this OP, it was a good thing for me personally. Flowers.

ForalltheSaints · 05/06/2018 19:25

Not at all, as a job becomes redundant which a person does. The thoughts that would come into my head would be whether or not there were personality clashes, an irrational hatred of someone by their boss (or of a team by someone more senior), or something that could be unrelated to their ability.

Conversely, being spared could be for some reason such as knowing something that would be toxic if known.

FASH84 · 05/06/2018 19:30

My dad was made redundant, he was a couple of years off retirement one of the most experienced so higher salary, his company moved their offices 150 miles away and tried to tell him that staying in a Travelodge Monday to Friday with no pay increase or travel pay was a reasonable offer, he sought legal advice. It wasn't reasonable they had to offer him redundancy. For him it made sense he just saw it as early retirement. Sometimes seems there's little rhyme or reason, but I wouldn't let it get to down and having recruited seeing redundancy on a CV has never put me off hiring someone.

Alwayslumpyporridge · 05/06/2018 19:32

Totally disagree, I say this as some who has been made redundant and had to make others redundant. Restructuring, buy outs etc. However in my experience it’s always led to good opportunities

Ikabod · 05/06/2018 21:27

I've been made redundant twice. The first time it was because of local government budget cuts and half my team (including our boss) were made redundant, lots of whom were very talented.
The second time was because my boss retired early, and they decided not to re-fill his role. It was a small company so no other roles available for me (I'm a PA).
It's hard not to feel that it's personal, that maybe it's because you're not good enough, but most of the time it's about the bottom line and not about your ability.

Please try not to take it to heart Thanks

lurkingdad · 05/06/2018 21:27

I've been made redundant 3 times, in two of the cases my role was just not needed any more, nothing to do with performance or any other criteria.
If you are facing it now look at it positively, in every case it has given me the push to get a new job, and the first time around allowed a sideways career step that I would never have given up a permanent job to do.

YesBarry · 05/06/2018 21:28

I’m banking and finance? 100%

Good people don’t get made redinandant!

andthislittlepiggywent1 · 05/06/2018 21:38

My father was made redundant because his particular department was phased out. They kept him until very last out of his team and gave him excellent references. He got another job fairly easily and ended up staying on a few years past his planned retirement date in the new role because his employer kept making it worth his while to stay.

I gather that he was as much of a bastard to work for as he was to live with! However, he was undeniably brilliant at his job, so I don't agree.

HoardingQueen · 05/06/2018 22:56

I was also made redundant, the only one,our business out sourced, I was the highest earner, apparently my role didn't exist in the new company. Now another manager in my role, but new title with slightly less responsibility, he is struggling massively with my lovely staff now working to rule, but incidentally my two under managers both hated working for the new company, both had been tuped over, both have resigned and left, the business very rocky.... karma

HoardingQueen · 05/06/2018 22:57

Must add, don't want my lovely staff to suffer if the business goes tits up, just the senior management who made the decisions..vindictive..moi?

greatbigwho · 05/06/2018 22:58

I was made redundant because a systems change meant my role was no longer needed

londonrach · 05/06/2018 23:00

Incorrect. Dh had to go through this three times...due to restructing. I live in dread it happening again which sadly very common in his line of work

tabulahrasa · 05/06/2018 23:05

Ive been in a board making people redundant... we picked roles that the organisation could do without or that could be restructured into something else, didn’t even look to see who the people were until afterwards.

It was the fairest way.

BakedBeans47 · 05/06/2018 23:10

YABU

Sometimes a whole department closes, sometimes people volunteer, sometimes the employer’s selection criteria are shit, and sometimes it might be the lowest performers that are selected. That doesn’t mean that they’re not good at their job though, just that the selection criteria used place that person at the bottom.

Yes some people selected may be shit at their jobs but there are other ways to get rid of them than a redundancy exercise if that is the case.

You clearly don’t know much about how redundancy works. You might not be so pass remarkable about it if you ever do. It’s a hard enough thing to cope with without ill informed idiots passing judgment

JohnMcCainsDeathStare · 05/06/2018 23:12

not at all. I was made redundant since the job left me and went overseas. There was the option of relocation but 4 lives on one income didn't sit right with me.

BakedBeans47 · 05/06/2018 23:12

Sorry OP just seen you’re one of the 3. Sorry to hear that. I’ve worked in HR for many years and would never assume that just because someone was made redundant they were not good at their job.

I hope you’re OK. I’ve been made redundant twice (workplace closure and then voluntary) and it’s no fun. Remember it’s the job going and not you personally x

IfyouseeRitaMoreno · 05/06/2018 23:12

YABU. My friend is being made redundant and she is brilliant at her job. It’s about restructuring not competence.

catgirl1976 · 05/06/2018 23:14

No.

I make people redundant a lot as part of my job.

Sometimes the role is no longer required. Other times there is a selection pool and due to something beyond their control like absence people will score the lowest. So no.

BakedBeans47 · 05/06/2018 23:19

*I’m banking and finance? 100%

Good people don’t get made redinandant!*

Nonsense

These sectors have made tens of thousands of people redundant since the financial crash (caused, let’s not forget, by these “good people”) fucking up. They’re not all going to be shit at their jobs. They’re victims of endemic bad decision making across these institutions

Refecti0n0fsky · 05/06/2018 23:21

My job and many of my colleagues roles were "off shored" to a non European country that pays significantly less wages and benefits. The second round of redundancies has just occurred for the same reason. We all loved our jobs and worked above and beyond. I also know someone whose job went to another European country. I know people who have been made redundant when two similar companies have merged and there have been duplicate job roles. I imagine in the future that more people will become redundant due to cheaper work forces in other parts of the world and automation.Driverless cars could cause a lot of people to be out of work. No I don't agree that redundancy is linked to a person, it's normally related to cost cutting, relocating, mergers etc

TroubledLichen · 05/06/2018 23:27

When I was made redundant it was a case of closing an entire business across the region and I was one of over 1000. I didn’t take it personally nor think it was because I was shit, I was a very junior employee and was asked to stay on a different capacity but decided not to. However, the business was closed as we weren’t making enough money. Yet our direct competitors were making a shit ton. So it’s logical to assume that management’s strategies didn’t work and those in direct revenue generating roles weren’t do that good a job.