Redundancy - What to Expect When it Happens

Unemployment, along with divorce and bereavement, is one of the most traumatic and stressful things that can happen to you. This post looks at ways of coping with this change. Perhaps the most important thing is not to let your situation dominate your life too much and not to be too proud to ask for help.

1. Acknowledging Your Feelings

Acknowledging your feelings and talking to your family and friends will help you to cope. Although they may be worried too, they can be a source of great support. You may also come into contact with other people who have been through the same experience and meet them socially or at JobClubs.

No two people react in the same way but it is common to experience shock, anger - even a feeling of elation, particularly if you have been working with the threat of redundancy for some time. Some people feel misplaced optimism because they receive a large lump sum. A feeling of losing your sense of purpose is also common.

You may recognise some of the following stages: All of these feelings are quite normal and everyone goes through them to some degree. The danger is getting stuck at a very negative stage rather than progressing through to the most positive ones.

Shock/Panic/Denial
Apathy, denial of the problem, rushing around doing pointless tasks, headaches, sleeping troubles.
It is important that before you begin to handle the emotional impact of redundancy, you try

Anger
When the first stage of denial/shock cannot be maintained any longer, it is replaced by feelings of anger, rage, envy and resentment against the Company, the Boss, even friends, family and the ‘system’, such as:
“Why me?”
“Why couldn’t it have been X?”

It is useful if you can try and control your anger and re-channel it so that it can be used constructively at a later stage.

Depression
Anger may soon be replaced with a feeling of loss, typified by a lack of confidence and a feeling of inadequacy. This is often triggered by letters of rejection and perhaps for being at home all day.
You may find it helpful to discuss the situation with your family and friends and it should allow you to move away from this stage to a more positive and constructive frame of mind. It is important to maintain a sense of proportion and to keep yourself active.

Acceptance
You will be starting to make realistic assessments of the problems and possible solutions and will be starting to develop a better sense of proportion. Your self-awareness will also be improving. At this stage, your performance at interviews will start to improve.

Adaptation
If you have managed to work through the above stages, you will reach a stage during which you will be neither depressed or angry and you will find that you will gradually come to accept the situation. You will begin to realise that everything is not as bad as you thought. When you reach this stage, you will find that you are ready to start working in a positive way towards finding a now job.

2. Planning Your Time
If you use a timetable, it will put you in control and help you to use your time effectively.

Successful jobhunters avoid the temptation to fill their hours with leisure activities or DIY; they establish a routine, including sensible meal breaks, so the there is a clear dividing line between time for working or finding a job and time for relaxing.
Using the library rather than buying newspapers saves money and also provides you with a peaceful environment without the distractions of home. The reference section may be particularly useful.

3. Staying Healthy
A good diet and exercise is important. If your health suffers, the job hint becomes increasingly difficult. You must also resist the temptation to ‘drown your sorrows’! If you have a health problem which gets worse with stress, take the advice of your doctor. Don’t allow yourself to become too slothful at home - keeping yourself clean and tidy will help your confidence.

4. Form a Partnership
Working with someone else in the same position will help enormously - you can take it in turns to get papers, give each other support, talk through interviews, practice interview questions, check each other’s letters, keep each other’s morale up and so on.

If you don’t know anyone, see if there are any local support groups to help.