Im redundant..now what

in all honesty, everyone was sort of looking for the package (even me when i was there) at the place i was made redundant from.Some with 20 years service on boards (which would have been 6-8 years of non-working).

in terms of preventing it happen, the industry i am in, it happens all the time (maybe 4-5 times in your career life )

in fact, if i get a package again today i would take it and just go find something else again.

 

Having the skills and actually doing it are 2 different things- not one post has suggested such.

 

In corporate, people don't usually get redundancies if they are crap. They just get shifted out to a different department until they get annoyed and just leave.

Much cheaper than giving them a redundancy, especially if they have been there for years.

Redundancies aren't given out lightly in my opinion, it can get quite costly.

In my case, the guy that was chosen over me was very good at walking around and talking to people, but not actually getting things done. As they say, perception is reality.

Funny thing is that he wanted the redundancy and didn't get it.

 

When I was working for a State Government Department, a few years ago, redundancies were being offered due to change of Government and change of direction. It happened each time the State Government changed! One of the Senior Clerks had just won first prize in Tattslotto on his own but refused to leave without his redundancy. He did just the minimal tasks and asked for his redundancy package every day, Eventually he got it

 

Not sure about that - in where i used to work, there were redundancies happenning every 4 months due to changes and shifts in the organization (so whole divisions were closed and all in that division were let go). My cousin as well who a 99.95TER VCE score, melbourne uni 1st class honours engineer and highly gifted programmer. Some who were redundant came back as contractors. In my contracting role, whole contracts for service providers were not renewed so all the perms had to be made redundant. Where i am now, listed ASX company got bought out by another overseas entity and decided to combine with another listed compay hence cut their staff numbers into 2. in my opinion, it is not how great you are in your job, it is just a numbers game from upper management and yes networking forms part of it as well.

 

I'd have to ask how long these guys were in the role prior to being made redundant.

Can't see it being a cheap exercise making people with 5+ years service redundant.

Unless it was about moving numbers around to make their department appear more profitable as "contractors" didn't form part of their departments balance sheet.

 

6-7 years last one. i heard recently they did another redundancy and some of those had 25 years, 10 years and 15 years service. This is company that has offices worldwide in btw. It isn't cheap but it still gets done.

In my current place - the department that was created to service the ASX listed company was only 2-3 years old. and that chopped and changed just recently too.

as for balance sheet (yup that's why there is also a push for off shore outsourcing - call centers, IT support and even graphic design). to show profits and savings to upper manager or shareholders.

 

My goal in every job I have had is to MAKE myself redundant. I've never understood the mentality of some people to guard their knowledge and build empires. Document everything, refine the process, hand it over - that way you get to do the more interesting jobs.

I've only managed to actually score 1 redundancy though, and that was the start of my 4 years out of the workforce at home with the kids.

Cheers,
Inertia

 

No one is saying to guard knowledge in order to keep your job.. Quite the opposite. knowledge transfer adds value.

 

@sammmeee, you've just been given a free ticket. If you have 6-9 months up your sleeve, you could change your life by gaining some clarity in terms of what you want to do with it. It's an amazing opportunity to take a step back and look at things from a new perspective.

@Michael_X made some great points. I would suggest working through 100 goals too. Figure out what you really want in life and go for it.

This may be a once in a lifetime opportunity so seize it with both hands–you've been given a wonderful gift which most people never receive (or are too fearful to capitalise on).

 

I worked hard to get the redundancy. These are my steps/points to get redundancy.
1. Do a good job for 3 years. Get your manager on your side.
2. Wait for your one-step-removed manager (say director)to change.
3. Don't be afraid to argue/challenge the director. Do your manager's dirty work.
4. Plant a seed into the director's mind that they don't really need many similar roles to yours. Let your manager know that you would be glad to get redundancy.
5. Wait for it... it will happen.

 

haha love it!

 

I've never got a redundancy before but I dread the day if/when it happens

 

I've seen people who were there for around 9 years be made redundant, and then hired back for about 3 times the amount as contracters because there was no one who could do their job.

 

I used to work for Lucent Technologies back in the day. When I started with them they had 130,000 employees world wide. They ended up at about 35,000. As the directive came from up high to cut X headcount, there were people going left, right, and centre, often with little concern for the actual skillset that was removed. They ended up having to implement a policy where you weren't allowed to contract back to the company for 6 months due to what @Azazel mentions...

By the time I walked, I dont think there was a single employee that would have been upset to get the tap on the shoulder.

Cheers,
Inertia

 

Ha ha ha, I like your little step by step redundancy plan.

At my last corporate job, I was very well with my job, and got bored of it. I waited for redundancy for years ..... but it never came !

So I thought it's better just leave and do something else rather than waiting for this "god knows when" redundancy package to come.

As soon as I made my decision and start to working on my mortgage broking path. About a week or two, after I submitted my resignation letter........ I heard there were 4 people got redundancy package !!!

Anyway, back to topic, I think these days redundancy is very common and less scary than say 20 or 30 years ago. With information so readily available, it's easier to start up a business or find another job as long as one is willing to work.

As above people say, take sometime off and relax work out what you really want to do.

Good luck for a brighter future

 

Currently doing a rental home open at one of my IPs. This is 400m down the road. Redundancy has its perks.

Interview tomorrow doing a dead end job a quarter of the wage previously got.. Can't hurt to go I guess. I was starting to look forward to having the summer holidays off with the kids. Enrolled in a course I can do online...the days are going a lot quicker than when I was working

 

Very nice.
Having the Summer off sounds even better!

 

@sammmeee Its a good feeling isnt it ? Especially when you've got several months of pay upfront

 

Here's a good link

10 Signs You’re Doing Well In Life (Even If You Don't Feel Like You Are) - Expanded Consciousness

"Life doesn’t always go our way but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Being fired from a job today might mean you finally push yourself to make your dream a paying reality. Much of life is like art…it is in the eye of the beholder. What one person sees as a tragedy another might see as an opportunity. "