22nd February 2012 / Posted in: Human Resources, Reduncancy, Unemployment
I know a guy who is incredibly, incredibly bright - a first class honours degree and PhD from Cambridge sort of bright. He’s not like some very bright academics I’ve come across who aren’t on my planet - he’s great fun, easy to talk to, has a terrific sense of humour, is a great conversationist and someone I love to meet up with. He’s incredibly successful in business too, has all sorts of investments, written books, an amazing house and garden, terrific wife and two lovely daughters.
Recently he was going though the redundancy process. He’d described the people he worked with as highly stressed and mad as a box of frogs. My initial thought was that he would be glad to get out. His employers really demonstrated their madness by making him work his 6 months notice - partly because they couldn’t find a frog mad enough to hop into their box and replace him!
Not all successful people are prudent and have a life outside work. My friend is. Many people with very senior, demanding jobs don’t have absorbing interests outside work. He does. As I write this I'm beginning to think that if he was single he’d be a great catch!
A month or so before he was due to leave we delivered some training together. I was shocked at the sight of my friend. Rather than being de-mob happy or looking like the weight was soon to be lifted off his shoulders he looked crushed and depressed. I can hear you thinking, what’s his problem? No financial worries, great home life, lots of hobbies, great prospects - where's the problem?
I was reflecting on our day working together when it hit me. Inside he’s no different from the rest of us - he’s just a normal, vulnerable human being. He was reacting in the way most lesser mortals do and taking his redundancy personally. He’d have been happy to leave of his own accord to move onto pastures new but his employer decided to make cut backs, the decision was out of his hands, and it hurt.
Just because he’s ‘well insulated’ against the financial effects of redundancy, can almost certainly find work easily, and has lots of interests and a lovely family to fill his time we’d be wrong to judge a book by its cover.
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14th September 2010 / Posted in: Finding employment , General, Human Resources, Reduncancy, Voluntary work
Most of us enjoy camaraderie in our work place and feel good if our efforts are valued. But what happens when redundancy changes your routine and you find yourself at home all day, possibly alone? We’ve all grumbled that there’s never had enough time to do the things we wanted to do, but suddenly having time on your hands may not be as motivating as you thought it might be. Redundancy can come as a shock and it can give our self confidence a knock.
The Institute of Leadership & Management commissioned some research entitled “Bouncing back – attitudes to unemployment” which found that 84% of managers thought a candidate’s employment status was irrelevant as, in the current climate, it isn’t an indicator of ability or performance. However, candidates that remain unemployed for 6 months or longer will find it more difficult to as 28% of employers are less likely to take on someone they consider to be long-term unemployed.
You need to aim to find employment within 6 months and take positive steps to increase your chances of being offered a job. The research identified the three most important things you should be doing, namely:
You are unlikely to be spending all your working week keeping up to date with industry developments, looking for jobs, writing applications and attending interviews, and the research show that employers like candidates that undertake voluntary work.
Redundancy was the nudge I needed to set up my own company, but I knew that to start with I’d struggle sitting at my desk five days a week. So, for the first three months I worked as a Volunteer Ranger with the South Downs Joint Committee. I enjoy walking and cross country running so voluntary work that enabled me to help maintain something I cared about was important to me. As well as learning a great deal about all sorts of things, I’ve enjoyed great team work and camaraderie, lots of banter, lots of fun and met some really interesting people. Now my business is up and running I still take the occasional day off from my day job to spend a day as a volunteer ranger.
You’ll find lots of volunteering opportunities on www.volunteering.org.uk and www.do-it.org.uk.
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