Under what circumstances were you being made redundant?

[itsraining2024]

My partner is being made redundant after nearly 10 years in the company (Amazon). 30 people in his department are losing their HR job as it’s being shifted to India (cheaper). It feels horrible they’re being disposed as such but I guess that’s work life for you.

Just the once
I taught in FE and the team was being reduced.
I decided I didn't want to do the new work schedules so took the package.
I was most amused that my replacement turned up on his first day, looked at the site / facilities / expected work and decided he didn't like the set up so told all that he had a head ache and went home.
That left the college scrabbling for a second replacement in the middle of the summer holiday.

They feigned performance issues first with 2 of us (Paid interview prep) and then made me redundant which was a real head fuck! Never been treated so bad in my 30 year career. They hired someone at level below in low cost country. They’re fucked I’ve heard! Still laying off people and share price is through the floor. In a smaller company where they appreciate the expertise and exceeding there. They hired some daft bint as my manager who didn’t understand my role. Will
never forgive them as they should have just laid me off normally

FE college, closed down the interesting art and media courses so offered redundancy , it was a fair offer of money and i accepted. Some colleagues rejected the amount as the college had a history of offering more money later on but this never happened and some got less than me. i never found another ft job and did tutoring and took the pension early which isnt much so still tutor.

My DH, Restructuring , (expected everyone to accept lower paid position) he chose redundancy, they didn't expect that and tried hard to change his mind. It was sweet, he was expensive to release😁.
When one door shuts another opens. Its really hard at the time but you can see it with hindsight, good luck.

The Amazon ones have been shitty.

TTD reorg has been pretty brutal particularly in the US but uk got its fair share too.

There's been 4 years of hunger games at Meta. Google also had its own share or fun and games.
The fucking "underperformer layoffs" last feb were a fucking joke... everyone is know who was fired had never had a performance issue ...the women were all pregnant post partum or had a health issue.... disgusting.
Its psychological warfare at half the faangs at this point.

Thousands globally have become collateral damage in the OMG and IPG merger.

It's horrific and can hit people very hard.
The guys who were fired and came back as contractors were fairly open about how devastating they found it.

I'd recommend you encourage him to focus on eating right exercising "commuting with nature" (ie get into green spaces) and see friends.

first time - our department was being restructured and our job was being removed and replaced by lesser qualified people

second time - Covid

lost My job 3 times due to outsourcing to cheaper countries (India, Philippines and Poland). I am aghast by the Uk government not even trying to stop outsourcing of all sorts of industries. I am in the Financial sector. Waiting for AI to come and get me next.

Mine was a slow miserable departure after 12 years of working for a company. Started when they offered and promised me a 10% pay uplift after doing a big job where I had to work away from home and got a glowing feedback from the client. Was promised the pay uplift would be next pay packet. It took 18 months to finally receive the pay rise but not backdated and with no communication during why it was never being actioned. They then started bringing in new people above me, downgrading my duties to the point I would sit at the desk doing nothing all day. I felt worthless. Hated going in to the office and had zero confidence in myself to even apply for new jobs elsewhere.

During lockdown we all got sent home to WFH and two months in they closed down my email account saying it had been incrypted and then a few weeks later got an text message terminating my position. Obviously terrified at the time with the uncertainty of everything going on at that time but it was also a relief to be out of that miserable work environment.

Within the month I found a new job with a 8k pay rise and company car and I had the best most supportive line manager who gave me the confidence boost I needed. I was given an internal promotion and had to report to the board of directors. Totally new experience for me. I was then head hunted by my present company. They are a small company and it's much more a personal experience of management that I thrive in. Totally love my work and enjoy my work colleagues. It all worked out in the end.

Stood up to management bullies. They made me redundant.

Our company restructured when it was being sold to a bigger company - I think they were trying to make the balance book look better in a time when our industry was contracting a little due to Govt spending. the company offered a round of voluntary redundancies and I applied. It worked out well for me as I set up my own consultancy and I’ve been back to that company several times since then.

This is very much how it works in government. Government has to appease people who think “big government” is a bad thing (despite essentially voting for it in a lot of cases, Brexit) and then we just pay twice the cost to contractors but it’s not in the head count figures so it’s politically more palatable. We then get a high turn over of staff, lost knowledge, and huge costs. But hey, if it means we’re not “bloated” eh.

Redundancy stuff is happening across government currently due to head count pressures, I’ve only seen voluntary thus far though.

My redundancy experience has made me really cynical. I have zero loyalty to the organisation I work for now. I do my job well of course, mainly because I want to try to keep my job as much as possible. I don’t do the long hours, I don’t contribute creative idea etc I think it must really impact companies that people become disconnected and don’t really care about their workplace as they know the workplace don’t care about them. It’s just capitalism.

I'm very much the same. As said above, I was 'at risk' but didn't end up going. I work in tech and actually redundancy and layoffs are so common that I've survived a few rounds since I started.

In some ways its been eye opening. I realise that I'm just a number and they would happily get rid of me in a second just to (artificially) look like we're saving on overheads so the share price doesn't fall when a random investor commentator declares our workflow too bloated. They don't care about me as a person. As a result, I likewise do not care too much about them as a company! I enjoy my job overall and I'm paid well. But loyalty left me a long time ago, and if another position came up with equal flexibility, more pay etc. I'd happily move jobs without a second glance.

Funding cutbacks and strategy change.