Should I start looking now?

[Tobias1985]

Hi all.

I was made redundant in January (after five years in my last job) when they closed our office premises. I was lucky enough to get a new job pretty quickly and started in February. Things were going well and I was really enjoying my new role until Covid struck!

At the beginning of lockdown I was working from home but was then placed on furlough in mid April, along with about 60 percent of the workforce (work in travel so very little business coming in) with the view to coming back to work in July, which I was OK with. Since then we've had a few updates, firstly pushing our return date back to August and then to October. The latest update we had was that we should still expect to be furloughed until October but that also redundancies were a distinct possibility given the current state of the industry.

At this point I’m not sure whether I should just hold out and see what happens with this job or should I start looking for something else now, since redundancies are likely? I really enjoy this job and would be so sad to leave but I’m not sure I can go through the stress of redundancy again and am thinking if I can get another job in a different industry it may be best to cut my losses now and find something more secure?

Any advise would be appreciated!

I’d start looking now. Thing are not looking good for the travel industry.

The reality is that even though the govt is subsidising wages it doesn’t mean the company has the funds to pay any of its other. Staffing is always the highest cost but realistically most businesses do not have access to sufficient funds to mitigate an extended period with no or minimal income. And then it relies on income resuming to the same level as before - it won’t, and they are already missing the most lucrative time of year.

The longer this goes on the harder it will become to get a new job, because many people are going to lose their jobs in the next few months. Personally I would get ahead of the pack.

Start looking. Even when the formal restrictions end I think it will be a long time before lots of people feel confident or comfortable travelling. If you mainly deal with local travel, self contained accommodation (in the same country) that might recover more quickly but travelling abroad will be uncertain.

Thanks for your replies! I think you are right, but friends and family have kept saying it’ll all be fine and not to worry so I’ve been burying my head in the sand a little bit! Going to update my cv tonight and get onto LinkedIn!

You’ll be lucky to find anything that isn’t care work or fruit picking.