Redundancy rant :(

[Dayatatime208]

I was made redundant from a start-up about a month ago. A load of us went. After a lot of reassurance that our roles were safe (even a few weeks before I was given more reassurance). As a start up, we all invested so much. It felt really horrible and like being dumped by text by a guy who'd gaslit you! Yesterday I was listening to a podcast (on off chance) and heard a big celebrity saying they are going to endorse the exact account I worked so hard on at the company. it felt like a punch in the guts.

I feel like I've been made redundant all over again. Or like a bloke who'd dumped me by text is going to marry a celebrity - and wants me to go to the wedding (as I've read how thrilled they are about it and I'm invited to a final team drinks next week).

I just came on here to rant really. It's made me really teary again. All that hard work and no credit or ability to be part of the future. It makes me feel quite bitter towards them.

Redundancies, by their nature, often feel like a personal rejection and I think that's only natural. It's also hard to see your ex employers do well if you left under a bit of a cloud. Just like it can be hard to see your ex partners do well if the split was not amicable

BUT I think I'd keep reminding myself...

1. The most likely outcome of working for a startup is redundancy. Yes, some succeed but that success almost always involves them being sold and the new owners making changes sooner or later. They can be great fun to work on, can give you challenges you won't get elsewhere and experience that helps you in your career - but they are risky and so redudancy is always a threat (imo and ime).
2. I have genuinely never ever known anyone made redundant for whom it wasn't a blessing is disguise. Sometimes the disguise takes a little while to wear off, but the blessing is there all the same. And I don't mean in a spiritual life lesson way. I mean in hard cash. Everyone I have ever known made redundant and whose next few steps I knew about, all moved onto bigger and better jobs. Or, in one memorable case, exactly the same job back at the same company for £20k a year more and only 4 days a week. Which was nice for him

I've been made redundant several years ago and I have only really just got over it - that doesn't mean it's not still sore but it's just something that happened.

They feel so personal but it is so unlikely they were out to get you specifically. I'm so sorry you've gone through it but it might be the start of something big and it will get better

Thanks @CommeUneVacheEspagnole and @GerminateMyParsnips appreciated - I think it's not so much feeling personal, it's the lying and gaslighting - being told repeatedly that the team was safe, and seeming like a nice, caring company - but then just dropping a huge chunk of employees pretty brutally. It was the shouting about wellbeing for employees and then that - which really shocked everyone - that feels horrible.

Allow yourself to wallow for a bit. You've been hard done by. It will heal.

I got made 'sham redundant' brutally and nastily on NYE after 3 years, as they moved their dept to a different cheaper place. I cried. But now been in new job for 3 months, so it's semi ok now.

It willl heal - agree with that!

The reality is that if you want to know how much a business will miss you, take your hand out of a bucket of water and see what hole is left behind.

Businesses can be relativvely caring and still have to make these decisions. Once I'd been through them a bit, I also realised I can be a diligent employee and still not flog my soul for them. It feels personal but it's just a business contract - one either of you can end when it suits.

(But do allow yourself a good wallow as pp suggested! You deserve it!)

I know what you mean. It's hard all over because the people above may not have known or may have been told to lie which is disgraceful but common.

I had a manager lie to me too and works such an integral part of our lives that it cuts deep.

What does the future hold? Focus on that. Find a better team.