Call with colleague who’s been made redundant

[Fluffalumpper]

Hi All,

I’m looking for advice.

i’ve been with my company a year and my colleague, who’s the only person in the company with the same job description, has been here for 9 years. We’re in a team of 10.

Out of the blue it was announced on Monday that my colleague has been made redundant. Everyone’s pretty shaken and our manager wasn’t supportive of any of us being made redundant but had to make the decision.

For the last year I’ve worked closely with my colleague and we have a good relationship but understand I’m probably not the person she wants to speak to at the moment (we work remotely) so I’ve given her space.

We have a call tomorrow which was planned prior to this happening. I’ve left it in the calendar to give them the option of attending.

Has anyone had any experience of this and can give advice about how to approach the call?

Have they left?
was it a work call or mates call?

if work I’d leave it
if mates I’d wait for them to contact me

Or they might have agreed severance terms to mutual benefit.

@CantHoldMeDown no, there are 2 of us with the same job title in a team of 10.

I have been made redundant in the past and I appreciated colleagues reaching out to me to see how I was and just to give well wishes, offer help for next role etc . It. Comes as a huge system shock and it’s worse if people pretend you never existed

If the job is still needed, ie you, then it's not a redundancy in the legal sense.
It's a case of a reduced workload for that role.

A supermarket couldn't have twenty staff, all sales assistants, and make half 'redundant' when work dried up.

If you're friends with her I'd have a chat and see if she wants to talk about it. Your company could well be screwing her over.
She almost certainly won't blame you in any way for what's happened though.

They’re leaving in 2 weeks and then will get a month’s garden leave.

Yes, I have a similar experience where a colleague I worked closely with was made redundant. It wasnt exactly the same situation as you’re in but she had been working there a lot longer than me and it felt very weird that my role wasn’t considered for redundancy but hers was.

anyway, I just opened the conversation with - I’m so sorry to hear you are leaving, it was a real shock, do you want to talk about it? I told her I would miss her and asked if there was anything I could do to support her next move.

It’s difficult to disclose the details without being too revealing but the workload hasn’t reduced but the company is having some financial issues. I’m going to have to take on a lot of her work.

I suspect there's a lot of information around the decision that you aren't party to.

I would use the call as an opportunity for a handover and to get all the information you need to take on her workload. If she wants to vent, fine but be wary of getting caught up in that drama or taking sides.

I’d be more worried about how I’m meant to do the work of two people rather than what I should say to the persons who has gone!

Well what’s odd is that they’ll be paying her redundancy whereas they could have got rid of you without. Maybe you’re both going and you don’t know yet. If not there should have been a selection process and she will challenge this if she’s bothered.

Trust me this is definitely another concern!

It doesn't actually sound like your work have followed the proper redundancy process.... So if I were you I'd be very concerned theyd do the same to you in future... Make sure you fully read up on what the process should like look and know your rights so they can't fuck you over in the same way in future

@PinkTonic i understand there was a selection process of sorts but we weren’t informed about it prior to the announcement that she was going.

If the company is in financial difficulties, I would start looking for another job asap if I were you.

I was made redundant in February and have really appreciated the contact from my former colleagues.
My company had two redundancy periods in 6 months, the first was very secretive and there was no announcement that the two people had left they just disappeared one day and we were told that codes for the office needed to be changed. The second was company wide so it was public knowledge.

@CantHoldMeDown the person is based in another country and has checked with a solicitor. It was all legal in that country. I would have been part of the pool considered for redundancy and wasn’t told so I’m not sure if it was legal from that point of view but I still have my job so not something I’d pursue.

@Superscientist thanks. I had a long call with her yesterday. She was a lot brighter and more positive than I would have been although she told me that, obviously, she’d been in bits about it.
She’d not had contact from our manager since the announcement and HR had refused to outline the reasons she’d been picked so she was concerned it was a personality clash plus performance issue. I reassured her our manager had been telling everyone how great she was and encouraging everyone to forward job ads and recruiter details to her and she was grateful for that.
I’ve sent her my private contact details plus links to good recruiters and a copy of my CV to help her update hers. I’ll have a couple more meetings with her before she leaves but told her I’d love to stay in touch and to contact me any time.

Why was she ‘made redundant’ and not you?

Honestly, if she’s been sacked over you when you’ve said it was all down to finances, then I would not be wanting to be all pally pally with you if I were her! After all, it will have cost the company money to get rid of her but nothing to get rid of you. So it isn’t a financial decision is it?