Where is your career? Resilience in redundancy

Losing your job through redundancy does not make you redundant. It is about the job, not a judgement of your worth as a person.

Knowing this and actually feeling it can be two different things, particularly when redundancy has knocked your confidence. No job ever had a guarantee, and this job was going to end someday, but for every closed door, the question is, 'Where is the open window?'

The answer? It's inside you.

So how does one handle themselves after receiving the redundancy news? I have been sacked once and made redundant once. In my feelings of rejection, it was hard to separate the person from the action, and I have learnt much since. The first place to start was accepting the reality that the job was gone, and I felt terrible, in need of something to grasp. It happened, and I needed to do something. It's the place to start if we want our logical, problem-solving to kick into gear. Learning from a bad situation or occurrence can help you begin thinking about what happens next. To be and to do. Let us explore how you might go about this.

Facing practicalities of redundancy

No doubt, there are practicalities to face:

• What ongoing living needs are there immediately, in this reality?
• Who needs to know about this, when and how can they offer practical or emotional support?
• What conversations are required?

To improve the chances of better decisions, this is time to take a step back. Who are you and what really happened?

It can be tempting to interpret being selected for redundancy as feedback about you personally – your competence, relationships, behaviour or character. But redundancy can happen for many organisational reasons, including restructuring, financial pressures or a change in direction.

Depending on your habitual response to negative feedback, the news of redundancy could affect confidence and raise self-doubt. Give yourself some space to acknowledge those feelings while also looking for perspectives that help you think about what comes next. Consider a different perspective.

If it would be useful, you may choose to understand more about why the decision was made – for example, whether it reflects restructuring, financial pressures or a wider change in direction.

Even where you have reason to believe the decision was punitive, considering what else the decision could be saying about you may be useful to your personal development and ability to move forward. If appropriate, you could ask whether your employer can offer constructive feedback, a reference or information about other opportunities. Do this because the information would be useful to you, rather than because you need to prove that the redundancy was or wasn't justified.

Ensure that your reasons for searching are beneficial to you, whether you intend to challenge them or walk away. Such an inquiry could reveal a useful perspective for thinking and positively speaking about your own reality. For example, if you were the decision-maker, faced with the same situation, what would you have done? What might this tell you about the wider circumstances surrounding the decision? Remember the keys to moving on are inside you.

A senior human resources professional posted on LinkedIn to encourage contacts to recruit the staff her firm was making redundant. Those on that list must have left a positive impression on the organisation, and on this professional, to risk such a referral. I was encouraged by her boldness on behalf of others.

We all know that a compass is a reliable reference guide in uncertainty. Looking inside to your own compass, a key starting position is that you are not your job role and so, as soon as possible, begin to lean on your core values to say who you are – those few principles that you live by to be your best self. Review or discover them.

Looking into the future

Next, consider a beacon in the future, perhaps five or 10 years into the future, shining on you.

• Where is the best place the beacon would find you if you weren't limiting yourself to your current circumstances?
• How does this redundancy affect that picture?
• Your commitment to that future will probably be determined by how well it aligns with your personal values.
• What gaps need filling to get you back on track?
• Where will you start today?

To have a taste of the sort of beneficial conversation you could be having with yourself and others for getting you back on track, why not contact a life coach to book a non-committal chat. A coach can provide space to explore what the redundancy means for you, rebuild direction and consider practical next steps.