To ask if you've ever been made redundant

[GabbyChalice400]

Did you know it was happening or was it totally it of the blue? I worry how Brexit will affect my job as I work in finance.

We have already opened an office in Dublin and some of our funds have merged out.

AIBU to be worried? Management don't seem to say much about it.

What position do you hold? Is it something that could be considered recession-proof, or have you heard of people in similar positions being made redundant? From past news reports it looks like many financial companies don’t give any warning, although I guess if your managers start to make noises about restructuring, then that’s a good indication that some jobs will be on the line. I hope that’s not the case for you though!

I was made redundant many years ago from Air Europe. Didn't know a thing about it and was phoned by my Dad on the morning the company went bust to say 'all your planes have been grounded (he worked at the airport). Got a call from the office a short while later to say don't come in. Never even got to collect my stuff and didn't get paid (well got about 12p in the £ I was owed several years later)! Hideous time of my life!

In terms of notice/warning etc I think it depends on how long you have been with the company, how big the company is and how many people they are making redundant. In a larger company with a lot of redundancies likely, there is normally a requirement to consult the workforce and unions, if there is one recognised by the employer. There is then a chance to appeal etc.

In my case there was a mass restructuring, lots of warning/consultations and the process was about 5-6 months in all. I took voluntary redundancy in the end.

If your particular position would be at risk - rather than as a department etc - then I’d expect you’d have a good idea it was on the cards? Business slowing etc.?

Not possible to predict this I'm afraid. Either the business goes tits up suddenly because everything's been hidden from the workforce or as in my case a gradual reduction in staffing and running down of previously well maintained standards of operation which I and my colleagues spotted a mile off.

A couple of times out of the blue. Second time was very iffy (political not personal) and they had to make me a good offer.

I haven't, yet. My Dad works in manufacturing so we've had almost yearly consultations, almost always around bloody Christmas, and reapplying for his, job. Nightmare. Glad he's retiring.

What do you do in funds?

Fund Management and associates jobs will stay here. Compliance, everything to do with domicile obviously, some risk jobs might go, but a lot of them have already moved (or people know that they will), so I don't suspect that there will be a rush of redundancies.

No, but when I did contract work, my contact has not been renewed unexpectedly a couple of tInes, which was bad enough.

Work in finance myself, I would say the biggest change you will face is automation not Brexit

Once about 6 years ago, I worked as an admin support person in a London office of a uk company, we had offices all over the UK and each had an admin like me. Then they had a big restructure, and we all had to come in for a meeting and they announced that they were centralising the Admin, so rather than each office have their own person they’d have an office in Bristol with a general admin team. My job didn’t exist anymore and there was a big red cross over my title on the new org chart they were presenting. Everyone turned to look at me, which wasn’t nice.

It wasn’t just me, my office had 10 people doing a certain role and they cut it to 5, again the extra work was being sent to the new Bristol office. So a bunch of my colleagues had to compete with each other for their jobs which was very tense and created a difficult atmosphere. In a way it was easier my job was cut because I couldn’t do anything about it and didn’t have to fight for it.

We were all blindsided by it, there were rumblings of change in the company but nobody below board level had any idea this was on the cards.

The worst part was they announced all this but the actual changes were going to be implemented in 9 months time, so we all had to stay on for the duration if we wanted our payouts, and any slip in standards would also mean we’d risk losing the payout. It was demoralising in the end, nobody had any energy or sense of morale.

But it was fine, I stayed on to get my (okayish) settlement, part of which I used for a fuck off holiday, and ended up getting a new job relatively soon afterwards. I suppose there are a lot of Admin jobs so I was in a good position. Some of my colleagues who had been let go were in very specific technical roles and had been there for years so struggled with being back on the market after so long. But they found their way eventually.

It wasn’t great, but it turned out fine, it’s just one of those things. I don’t think you can really prepare for it as you never know what the higher ups are thinking or planning. The best approach, if you can, is to try not to think about it and accept that it’s out of your control. It’s just a job after all, there are others. Most people will be made redundant at some point, you get through it. Try not to worry, but it’s always worth giving your CV an update anyway and keeping an eye on roles in your industry as you never know what’s around the corner.

I'm 36 and I've been made redundant about 5 times. About 3 of those were working in financial services 06-12 so well done on making it this far! Shortest amount of notice I had was 3 months. Longest was 9 months and only stayed there that long because the payout was good.

Happened to me twice,

First time knew nothing about it went into work as normal and at 10am a meeting was called and we were informed that we were being made redundant with immediate effect as company was folding.

Second time company merged with another so we were “put on notice of redundancy” as they had 2 people for the each role and then they asked for people to volunteer and then after that had been sorted any positions where there were still duplicate staff you had re-apply for the job and if you didn’t get it you got redundancy - I volunteered as had been there a long time and got a great payout - got a totally different job and love it - was best decision I ever made.

It's possibly one of those situations where a company can decide to restructure due to the impact of a specific event, even if it really isn't having an impact on the business.

Back in 2008 I moved from the public to private sector (to a very large organisation) and of course the recession hit. The CEO of the area of the business I was in started a restructuring process. It was only a matter of time before this filtered to the section I was in. The recession was having no impact in our section and we were repeatedly winning tenders for work, but it was the recession being used as a repeated excuse for the endless restructures.

We would have restructuring announcements at the end of every financial year (nothing too odd about that), then every 6 months, 3 months and then god only knew when. Nobody knew when it was coming, a global email would come out and that was the warning. If you didn't get the call to say you were "at risk" you survived that round.

I bailed after 3.5 years of that, it was stressful to say the least.

I work in finance and have been twice due to company takeovers. I’ve always got a new job straight away and benefited from the pay out. In finance it’s not unusual for restructures etc and I would never consider I have job security in our industry. I have always tried to have a rainy day savings pot in case of this and stay well networked with others in the industry who have been helpful when I’ve needed it, and vice versa.

I read someone's emails (sort of on request) and found out that way...it later turned out he wanted me to know (it wasn't his company or his decision, but he was my line manager). I asked the owner and left the building about half an hour later.

Got temp work the very next day and never looked back. But I was Young, had just bought a house, and was very scared for a while.

Once. Pretty out of the blue a few weeks before Christmas from a job I hated. Had been there under 2 years but they paid me 4 weeks wages which I didn't have to work for plus 4 weeks redundancy. I got a job that paid 25% more the following week and had a very merry Christmas indeed.

DP got made redundant under very dodgy circumstances when I was 7 months pregnant. That was not so much fun!

Twice.
Both unexpected, but welcome.

Both in finance.

Both times because my role was moved to head office several hundred miles from home.

Both times I walked straight into another job.

Three times. The first i declined to reapply for my job. The second i quit the day we were told about the plan and i was asked to start training my offshore replacements. The third i thought about waiting for the pay off but hated the company by then so left early.

A couple of times, both when the small companies I worked for was taken over by bigger ones. The writing was on the wall each time when the takeover was announced, it gave me time to prepare

Ages ago I’ve twice been in London branches which have been closed down in good order by head office. Both times the local bosses were very good about letting us co-ordinate generous redundancy payments with taking up our new jobs. I’m not sure that would happen nowadays.

Never actually personally made redundant but the role I was doing has gone twice. I work in the public sector so it is a bit different. It's a lot slower and you are pretty much safe of a decent pay out or being redeployed, which is what happened to me.

Usually you can tell it's coming. I moved jobs last year and already I can sense changes are brewing. . But dragging it all out is so bloody stressful IMO. Last time it happened I was also pregnant and it was just horrible. No wonder I ended up in the hospital with pre-eclampsia!!

Yes I have, it actually turned out very well for me because I’d only been in the company for a short period of time, but they extended everyone to the most generous notice periods (ie I think mine was a week as I was in probation and they extended mine to three months). My boss also left everyone’s holiday requests out on his desk and then went for lunch and said if he’d managed to have lost anyone’s by the time he got back then it wouldn’t be processed and we’d be paid the holiday time instead..... needless to say there were zero team holidays booked thereafter!

For me, it worked out well as I got paid about 10 months salary for 5 months work, took the summer off then got a job with a competitor with a pay rise. Appreciate not everyone would be that fortunate though

Hi there.

yes, twice.

Each time, even though I KNEW it was nothing to do with me or my performance, it still felt like a kick in the stomach, that I had failed some how. That said, I was lucky (and willing to admit that) - I got a good payout and walked into another job. Some people who were made redundant at the same time did not work for another 6-8 months - grim times.

Best of luck

When I was made redundant it was a mass redundancy, a last ditch plan to try to save a failing manufacturing plant, which closed a year later.

I had months of warnings and selection processes/interviews, then once I knew my role was affected I had 6 months of having to managing closures and reallocation/training of responsibilities to lower paid/graded successful roles who didn't have the aptitude or want the extra workload.

Over a year of uncertainty, being responsible to make a new organisation work that you won't be part of is absolutely soul destroying.

It is always a scary time until you find a new role. I would much rather be told my role is gone and leave with little warning.

Get your CV polished up and start getting familiar with where jobs in your industry are advertised and also companies in the area you might want to send speculative enquiries too.

The airline I worked for went bust when I was overseas on a trip. We were left to make our own way home. Luckily Virgin Atlantic flew us home for free. I’ll always remember being in uniform and passengers from my airline having a go at the crew. Yes I’m sorry your holiday is ruined but we have been left with no jobs and no income. Most passengers could claim their costs back from their credit card companies. The crew could not.