Redundant: the Find Me a Career Thread!

[Mr Ono]

It's weird as we have people quitting at the moment rather than being laid off (although a few have been laid off).

My colleagues are all pissed off by the headcount squeezes and the management of the dept in general. I have been looking for a few weeks now but have seriously considered quitting on the spot and taking a break. I think the company is assuming that we are all too scared to quit - but that is not the case.

[Geoff D]

Sorry to hear that Unwell Cat - it's **** for sure; best of luck in the job hunt.

[VR46]

There are jobs out there, but the amount of applicants each one seems to get is very high, companies know this and will always be able to find people willing to work for a very low salary compared to that of twelve months ago, especially in IT/Computing related positions, as someone pointed out to me a few weeks back.

EDIT: didn't mean that post to sound all doom and gloom by the way, just a current observation, I've worked in Recruitment advertising for years.

[toythatkills]

It was kind of unusual seeing this thread on the forum front page, wondering who'd been made redundant and then finding out it was me!

Pretty crap news, Unwell Cat. Hope everything works out OK, are you getting a decent enough pay-off to support you for a while? Any decent contacts from this job that you can take advantage of?

[Unwell Cat]

It was kind of unusual seeing this thread on the forum front page, wondering who'd been made redundant and then finding out it was me!

Pretty crap news, Unwell Cat. Hope everything works out OK, are you getting a decent enough pay-off to support you for a while? Any decent contacts from this job that you can take advantage of?

Going through old contacts etc at the moment. Not sure about pay out yet.. a couple of months maybe.

[kernow]

Sorry to hear that, lifes ****ty, isn't it? Sometimes I wonder why we bother.

[eastyy]

It's weird as we have people quitting at the moment rather than being laid off (although a few have been laid off).

My colleagues are all pissed off by the headcount squeezes and the management of the dept in general. I have been looking for a few weeks now but have seriously considered quitting on the spot and taking a break. I think the company is assuming that we are all too scared to quit - but that is not the case.

my company who will remain nameless.....well what there doing is...kindoff putting pressure on the people they want to get rid off.....to make them quit

[Baseley09]

I'm starting to get bored of my retirement, for the first few months though it was awesome, try and take a few positives like you'll have a bit of time to do lazy things.

[Grapple Convoy]

My advice would be to learn a trade. My mate lost his job last summer and enrolled in a plumbing course, he was certified before christmas and now earns a more than decent wage and actually enjoys his job plus Its a job for life. Oh and you cannae outsource it to India either!

Ah, the job-for-life is a fallacy. There's a fair bit of research that indicates that many manual occupations are a dead end in the longer run, as although the work can't be outsourced, cheaper workers can and will be imported.

Learn to do something that uses your brain, not your hands, and make sure you end up with skills that are, above all, flexible.

[funkydan]

Sorry to hear of your job woes guys. I work for a small publishing firm and there's just me and my two bosses (who are husband and wife) - as people have left over the years, technology has allowed us to not have to replace them. I have another colleague who is on maternity leave and may or may not be back in April. I came to this job 8 years ago after being made redundant from being a trainee underwriter by a large financial comapny who'd been taken over and were moving operations to Peterborough, and I did not want to move. But I got this job and have never regretted it, I liked the underwriting position but this is much better. So I understand what you are going through - redundancy is never a nice thing to have looming - especially if you don't know whether you'll be one of the ones staying or going! But take this opportunity to get your teeth into something else. I really hope you guys find secure positions soon so all the best with your job searches.

[Dirty Sanchez]

Feel for you. We had 10% go before Xmas, I was one of them (well my position was), I was reassigned to another team. No bonus or pay rise either, which was a bummer, but being in an ex-investment bank was never going to be an easy ride.

We lost another 5% yesterday.

I tried to buy redundancy cover, ?2k a month for 12 months, all sorted then the underwriters said 'Sorry - bank employee = fail', so even though I have tried to protect myself for a short time I was scuppered.

Perversely we are looking to take on people in the near future, it's a known that in recession you can pick up good people for less than they are worth.

[Daragon]

Feel for you. We had 10% go before Xmas, I was one of them (well my position was), I was reassigned to another team. No bonus or pay rise either, which was a bummer, but being in an ex-investment bank was never going to be an easy ride.

We lost another 5% yesterday.

I tried to buy redundancy cover, ?2k a month for 12 months, all sorted then the underwriters said 'Sorry - bank employee = fail', so even though I have tried to protect myself for a short time I was scuppered.

Perversely we are looking to take on people in the near future, it's a known that in recession you can pick up good people for less than they are worth.

2k a month???????????? God damn, how much do you earn?

[Dirty Sanchez]

2k a month???????????? God damn, how much do you earn?

That's is how much I'd like as an income, the premium on that was ?38 a month, with a 60 day lead time.

[Daragon]

Oh my mistake then, your post looked like you paid out 2k a month for 12 months for some redundancy cover, as someone would do with insurance of some sort.

[oracle]

my company who will remain nameless.....well what there doing is...kindoff putting pressure on the people they want to get rid off.....to make them quit

Um that would be Contructive Dismissal, one quick call to an employment lawyer and they could have a sizeable settlement figure on their hands.