How many times have you been made redundant?

[iloveallcats3]

I have an eternal fear of being made redundant. I was made redundant when I was 26 and one of the most stressful things to have ever happened to me, and knocked my confidence massively.

I have a feeling it may happen again in my current role and I just can't go through it again. I'm only in my early 30s, so god knows how many times I'll face it in my working life.

Twice. Once in 1992, and although I enjoyed the job, I was pregnant with my second child and was considering going freelance after his birth. I got 6 months pay which allowed us to put a good deposit on a house and I did indeed have a good freelance career for 15 years. Secondly, this time last year. The job had changed beyond all recognition and I wasn’t happy in it so I left with a year’s pay. I’m now nearly 63 and am living off the payment and should be able to make it stretch till 65 when I’ll start to draw down on my pension. I do some NHS ‘bank’ admin work too to try and ease me into ‘proper’ retirement.

2 for me and 2 for DH

Three times. Every time it was totally for the best in the end and I got a decent pay off which I was able to save some off as I got a new job relatively quickly each time. Saying that, it took 7 months after the second one which was a bit scary.

And I have been at risk of redundancy more times than I can remember.

Three times for me and twice for DH. DH recently took voluntary redundancy and got a life changing (for us) amount of money plus a new job paying more than previous

Once. It was awful.

It was early on in the financial crash & recession of 2009. I was pregnant with my second child, and my then H was at risk of redundancy too (which happened, albeit eventually 2 years later).

I loved my job. They had never before made redundancies & handled it terribly.

It really affected my life, in that it created a whole set more problems that made my abusive marriage worse.

I was fortunate in that I found work and kept working easily enough after - but in short-term contracts which while professionally relevant, weren't at the same level.

Between that, more DC & marriage breakdown, it took me a very long time to work my way back to a secure & appropriate level job. I never take my job security for granted and it's always a consideration when I think about future career plans

The film Up in the Air, with George Clooney, came out shortly after this happened. I went to see it not quite realising - one part has people expressing feelings / reactions from people who were genuinely made redundant. It was so close to the bone. I just started crying in the cinema!

I'll never forget how traumatic it felt, even if overall, I've probably ended up in a sector & role I'm more suited to.

That’s hard

Loads of people cried at our company. It was really awful

I know people have issues with other jobs but I always think I wouldn’t underrate security

As others did - I went self employed from the start of 2009 and retired in 2021 - not what I'd planned to do earlier in life but I don't think my working left every went as I thought it would do.... there are forces that change things that are outside your control - I was just a cork bobbing on the ocean.

Twice in 23 years of working. Both times during maternity leave 🫤

Once.

I will be made redundant next Thursday. I’m a specialist midwife and work for a very famous university. I have no idea what to do next and my payout is just over 1mth salary.

pitiful.

Me - twice, am 50
Dh - 3 times, he's 47

Legally, once. Cost them thousands because I'd been at risk for all but six months over 4 years and I was well aware what they were up to by that point, so planned my new role and start date in secret - they tried to shaft me with an earlier than promised finish date to save about £500 on holiday pay, I therefore had long enough between the new date and my first day at the next place that I qualified for several thousand pounds.

I didn't mention the new job to them until my last day and I'd checked my payment had cleared (if they had known, they would have changed the original end date and not had to pay me a penny - public sector).

Always have your CV up to date and remember, they don't actually care.

3 times

But each time it has led to a change of direction that has been really positive for me and I don't regret any of them.

Twice from part time bar jobs.
1 the club folded after 11 months so no payout but a big blowout party to use up the stock 😂

2 compulsory purchase order of the location from the council. Got about £700 due to the part time nature of it. 11 months later a new venue was found and all staff invited back

I’ve also been through the redundancy process at my job, whilst on maternity leave. TUPE process to a company in india so obviously the day it happened you will be redundant. Luckily I reminded them about maternity protection for the 5 roles that were staying in the UK so I was ok and moved to a different, much better department. It was bloody scary though!

Twice. The last time was while I was on mat leave and was hugely traumatic, it was illegal and I fought hard for a fairer payout more commensurate with their actions but gave up after three months of utter hell. I was hugely invested in the business I worked for, both in terms of time and my emotions, and coming to terms with the fact these people I saw as friends and confidantes just turned against me - it was awful. I will never invest so much of myself in a job again.

3 times , once just after I got back from honeymoon, with a big mortgage; once when the firm I was working for closed, and then again about 6 years ago following a restructuring. I had plenty of notice each time, but in reality redundancy pay doesn't go very far . No chance to put my feet up for a bit, was under pressure to find a new job quickly.

3 times. I've never handed in my notice to any job I've had.

Once for me - I was on mat leave with DC1 and never ended up going back into that career again.

DH twice and both times it was stressful at the time, but has worked out better in the long run.

Just the once at the end of my career, it was a great way to end as it enabled me to stop work a few years earlier than I might have.

DH was twice. First time was stressful, I was pregnant at the time, he secured a new role but had a hefty commute for quite some time. The second time was during COVID and was welcomed. The payoff took a year or so off the mortgage which also helped bring forward his date to stop working altogether.

TUPE transfer was offered but would have required me to work in Lincoln.

You were too smart to even consider coming to work in this shithole.
You may not even realise just what a great decision you made there.
😉😁😁😁

Never. DH was made redundant about 20 years ago before we met but got another job 3 weeks later and had a nice redundancy lump sum.

OP, you can read the posts, many people have been made redundant, often more than once.

Why do you have such a dread do you think?
Is it financial pressure, self esteem, your upbringing?

Never, been through loads of restructures though but always seem to come out of them. At the moment I’m in the weird position of actually wishing they would make me redundant as I’d get a really good payout…I would actually see redundancy as an opportunity in my situation, big cheque and the push I need to go and get a different job, hopefully higher paying..

I know people have issues with other jobs but I always think I wouldn’t underrate security

Absolutely Sunny I'm a single parent, limited support & I'm fortunate to have a good job (though still struggle due to feckless ex).

I'm very grateful to have a secure job that I cannot be made redundant from. I have had some tough times in the role but still remain appreciative of the security!

That's really tough. Surely statutory redundancy is more?