Redundancy is a word you never wish to hear in your career. It’s bad enough hearing other people’s experience of it, let alone yourself. I was made redundant in July 2018, and have wanted to write this blog ever since. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out until I hammered down some thoughts on the keyboard. As it turns out, I can share 4 main things that you can remember when dealing with redundancy… Here we go!

THE STORY:

I previously worked at a relatively large automotive retail company in a social media marketing position. In January 2018, I saw my manager leave for a ‘normal’ meeting and return 30 minutes later without a job. She was made redundant without any real rhyme or reason. Bad day. The following 6 months were horrendous. For a start, I had no manager. Myself and colleague were trying to take on her work and were, ultimately, failing. We had additional pressures from upper management who couldn’t see the issue, making things incredibly difficult. In July 2018, we were also made redundant. It was a tricky couple of months, but from it saw the launch of my freelance business – Winter Media – and I’ve not looked back since… Actually, that’s not strictly true. I have looked back, but only to laugh! However, here are the 4 main things I remembered while dealing with the whole fiasco.

1. IT’S NOT PERSONAL

The hardest thing to keep in mind during any redundancy process is that it isn’t personal. One of the general rules on redundancy (the law, in fact) is that only the JOB ROLE can no longer be required, not the employee. This occurs when processes and structures change, removing the need for a particular job role or task. A person’s ability, or even inability, to do their job CANNOT affect the decision; nor can their popularity within a business, their connections, or even disconnections, with management.

If you feel these factors have influenced a decision to make you redundant, you can dispute this and create a case for unfair dismissal. However, you have to be honest with yourself, and take a big step back to see whether your role really is still required. If you can agree it is no longer ‘needed’, you’ll better understand business’ decision. However, if you believe their assessments are incorrect, you have every right to dispute their decision, highlighting the inefficiencies it may cause, or the fact you may be doing more tasks than they realise.

2. THEY CHOOSE MONEY OVER EFFICIENCY

Financials play the biggest part in redundancy decisions, and when you look at things from the outside, this can actually give you great comfort – let me explain:

The main reason that businesses try to ‘streamline’ their process is to save money. This normally comes during key financial times like Christmas or the end of the financial year (April). Because of this, money is normally favoured over efficiency, cutting out colleagues and passing their work onto others as a way of saving expenditure on salaries. It made it easier for me to move on knowing the business will face bigger issues down the line as a result. It’s fair to say that redundancies come in the need of financial salvage, but favouring short-term financials is often outweighed by the long-term inefficiencies. When companies choose the short-term financial benefits, they are at risk of jeopardising their success in years to come. I actually made this very point in my final redundancy consultation, and keeping that thought in the back of my mind made it so easy for me to walk away.

“favouring short-term financials is often outweighed by the long-term inefficiencies.”

3. THEY FAIL TO SEE VALUE

Warning: Rant alert! Redundancies come when a business fails to see value in a particular job or task. It’s very simple – they’re either right or wrong. A lot of the time, evaluations are open to interpretation. I believe the business was incredibly wrong and found that standing for what I believe in (social media marketing) made it incredibly easy to see myself moving on, and accepting their (incorrect) decision. If you see the value, fight for it. If you see the value, move on and prove it. If you see the value, use it to your advantage and go build something you love. That’s exactly what I did with my freelance business; I don’t need complicated spreadsheets to show me my value, I’m living it first-hand.

Here comes the rant: I believe so passionately in social media and content marketing that I disputed their evaluation of our role to the hilt. I refuse to believe with so many social media success stories, that any business can claim social media ‘doesn’t work for them’. There’s no excuse, it you market properly, it will work. If you don’t market properly, it won’t – regardless of your business, product or service. If you sign up for a gym membership and don’t train once, you won’t see the results. The same goes for setting up a Facebook page and not posting. You wouldn’t go to the gym just to watch everybody else train, so why would you create a Facebook page just to watch your competitors dominate the platform? There are, of course, many variables but I believe the company’s inability to properly invest in social media was their ultimate downfall. I KNOW that social media works, and it’s why I decided to set up Winter Media! The day of my final redundancy consultation was the day I launched this business, and have to say – I wish I was made redundant earlier!

” I don’t need complicated spreadsheets to show me my value, I’m living it first-hand. “

With a long winded rant comes my final point. This one took me a few months to even realise, and only added it to this blog a few minutes before publishing. But it is this:

4. THERE’S ALWAYS MORE OPPORTUNITIES

When I was told I was being made redundant, it felt like the world had collapsed around me. It was pretty bleak, and couldn’t ever see myself finding another ‘dream job’. The fact of the matter is, I did – Winter Media. I’m sure many people will feel the same as I first did if a redundancy decision comes their way, but the truth is this: 5 minutes on Indeed, JobSite, LinkedIn or any other recruitment platform would present you with a world of opportunities. You could at the desk of your dream job come Monday morning!