Redundancy: Not the End of the World

Following the Comprehensive Spending Review we now know that 490,000 public sector jobs are to be axed over the next four years .  Mass redundancies look like the order of the day and the misery won’t be confined only to the public sector. The private sector, a good chunk of which relies on the public sector for business, will suffer as well.  The pain that we’ve all been promised is there to be seen and losing your job can be traumatic.

I’ve written on many occasions before about the law concerning redundancy and selection procedures and two articles you can read are  here and here or check out the “redundancy” category on the right hand side.

What I want to write about today is more my personal observation on redundancy from experience over the years of helping clients landed in this situation.

My day job is as an employment lawyer advising both employees and, less frequently, employers, in employment disputes.  I’ve seen more people than I can recall who have come to me with compromise agreements following redundancy programmes.  The clients have ranged from junior employees to the most senior; some have been devastated by the rejection, more have just been merely angry and, a few, have been delighted. One client I saw years ago was ecstatic because he had secured a new job and was going in on Monday to hand his notice in when he got summoned to see HR instead and the “bad news” was broken to him.  He had difficulty keeping a straight face, so he told me: a fat redundancy package and a new job to go to. He was quids in.

Of course, that sort of thing happens very rarely and only to the very lucky.  For most people though new work can be found and many of my clients go on to start new careers.  I’ve also lost count of the number of people who have subsequently seen their (initially unwanted) redundancy as a fresh start. Don’t forget that a redundancy payment can be used to start a new business as well.

I also spend a lot of time advising clients on what their contracts of employment mean, often when they’ve just received it from a new employer.  Quite often I’ll have helped the same client with their compromise agreement.   In other words, redundancy doesn’t mean the end of your career.  There are always jobs out there and people do get re-hired.

There are also career consultants who can help in rebooting your career and I would always recommend taking up “outplacement assistance” if it is offered as part of your employer’s redundancy package.  If it’s not offered, ask for it. Twitter is full of people offering career advice.  For an example of someone offering excellent advice on making a fresh start take a look at Energise Brand Communications, and home to Liberate your Talent.com.

This may all seem facile or complacent to some readers, but don’t give up hope.  Redundancy  can be the catalyst for positive change.

For other helpful resources try these sites;

Dale Langley & Co

DirectGov

Hargreaves Lansdown wrote an interesting article on the financial issues to consider on redundancy.  I’m not endorsing them (or  Energise above) in any way with this link but it does have some useful information.

But only the end of this post.  Of course, if  you do need LEGAL advice on redundancy please give me a call on 0207 464 8433 or michaelscutt@dalelangley.co.uk for a non obligation, free, preliminary discussion.