The True Effect Of Redundancy

The True Effect of Redundancy by Mark Allan

With companies in the UK closing every week and thousands of people being made redundant, I wanted to share my experiences of redundancy and I hope through sharing my story it will raise awareness and as a community we can pull together to help people who suffer the curse of redundancy.

Redundancy does not discriminate but sadly it threatens your whole survival. I believe more needs to be done early on to support people who quite often are a victim of their own success, as they have not had to look for a job for many years and quite often do not know how you job search effectively in this day and age, this prolongs unemployment causing further barriers such as depression and as time goes by can have huge financial implications which in turn can, if not supported prolong the period of unemployment.

I hope by sharing my story, running my online facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1112499208944382/) and running regular voluntary Redundancy Support Workshops I can make a difference and prevent the people I work with having to experience the dark times I experienced.

Returning to the South- 2016

November 2016, News came a family member had passed away, suddenly being 300 miles away did not sit well with me and I wanted to support my family. When I moved back to Maidstone I was very fortunate to secure a job within just five days, I couldn’t believe my luck and before I knew it I was working as an Employment Advisor on a temporary basis but with a promise I would be offered a permanent job if I was successful. I quickly got people back to work and it felt like I had never been away, sadly due to government contract uncertainty they were unable to offer me a permanent contract. In order for me to build my life and regain stability in my life after returning to the south - I needed a permanent job.

I got a job with Maidstone Borough Council within their Economic Development department, a newly created role that excited me and I really thought finally I have cracked it. Sadly the role within public sector did not really work and certainly did not give me the job satisfaction that I need at the end of my working day so I accepted a role working for Scope the charity as an Employment Advisor helping people who suffer from disabilities gain employment.

My role was to help jobseekers secure suitable jobs and to guide them through the whole recruitment process. I really enjoyed meeting people who wanted to work, yet shockingly their disability had prevented them from securing employment. Sadly again contract uncertainty resulted in me looking for a new job.

As someone who had only himself to rely on being told that you have one payday left and no job sends you through so many emotions – anger, sadness, fear and panic are usual feelings most will feel at different times. It was time for me to take stock of my career and decide how I could tick boxes but give myself stability so I could support myself. I decided I would go back to recruitment, where I had started 10 years ago and gave me a great foundation for my career ahead. I felt with my previous recruitment experience and the fact I had 5 years’ experience working with candidates getting them into work would enable me to make this transition easily and give me a more stable career - not a decision I took lightly because genuinely get so much satisfaction helping jobseekers find their ideal jobs.

Dark Days

I applied for lots of jobs; chased up, emailed, messaged on Linked In, dropped in and for weeks I did not get a positive response. I experienced first-hand how it feels to be ignored and I can honestly say it does not feel good. I started to doubt myself, I didn’t feel good enough and suddenly I could not face contacting companies, I totally lost all motivation and belief in myself. To make matters worse my Nan passed away and the reality of my life became too much. Everywhere I seemed to look there were obstacles I just did not feel strong enough to tackle. Some days I could not even get out of bed and found myself living life in a completely different time zone. Bedtime was 7am and I would wake around 9pm and sit through the night watching catch up TV trying to distract myself from the reality of my life, day by day feeling more alone. I can now see it was at that point that depression had kicked in and I could not shift it. I can remember lying in bed wondering what on earth was I going to do. It suddenly dawned on me that only I could make steps to get myself out of this and nobody else could get me a job and had this overwhelming feeling I had to fight back – after three months, enough was enough.

A glimmer of hope is short lived

I was contacted by a local recruitment agency in my home town and they wanted to see me as they felt my experience was perfect for their business; suddenly I had a glimmer of hope that it was going to be OK. I sailed through the interview process and was offered the job and started. I felt like I had won the lottery, a reason to get out of bed, getting people into work offered me a career, stable job and above all the people interaction I enjoy so much.

I hit the ground running, I felt like I had come home. To feel a part of a team was a good feeling to have back in my life and I had success very quickly and was complimented by my new employers - all the signs of success were there. My passion kicked in and before I knew it I was working until 9pm every night talking to candidates and doing everything I could to ensure I was doing a good job. I remember like it was yesterday being told on a Friday afternoon “You are exactly what this company needs Mark” and that was the icing on the cake for me. I went home and was decorating my front room that weekend feeling a real sense of new beginnings and above all, feeling so thankful my nightmare was over. Little did I know the nightmare was just about to get a whole lot worse.

Monday 24th April 2017 is a day I will not forget in a hurry, I got up and it seemed like just another ordinary day. I got dressed and drove to work in the sunshine, listening to songs, thinking about the day ahead. I arrived to the office and a staff meeting was called and we were told by the Director that the company was going into liquidation, not only did I not have a job with immediate effect I was not getting paid on Friday either. As I was being told, it was like I went into a trance staring into space not believing what I was being told.

To this day I do not remember the drive home and the next thing I remember is lying in bed wondering whatI was going to do and why this had to happen to me again after 6 weeks. I was still recovering from my last redundancy and now I had no money at all coming until I receive my redundancy payment which everyone is entitled to from the government but that takes up to twelve weeks. How could I tell my family and friends? I felt like a total failure and couldn’t bring myself to tell them what had happened so to the outside world everything was fine.

I attended the Job Centre which felt more like an admin centre because I was given very minimal support and although I did not need practical support- I definitely needed to be motivated and encouraged to believe in myself. It takes five weeks to get your first payment from the DWP and with no money coming in how could I even get to interviews or start a job.  I contacted Kent Support Services and explained my situation. They advised me to contact Step Change, a charity set up to help with bills in a situation like mine and arranged for food to be delivered which at the time made me feel humiliated and embarrassed as it was the first time in my life I could not feed myself.

Redundancy has eaten away at my savings and caused me financial problems and massively dented my pride. My mental health deteriorated and sleeping became my way of coping as when I was asleep the anxiety and stress disappeared. I hated my reality and could not pull myself together. I isolated myself from the people closest to me and fell into what can only be described as a dark hole. I slept all day and worried all night and this was a pattern that continued for many weeks until one day I could take no more and I broke down and asked for help. They acted very quickly and did everything they could to get me on track.

Suddenly I did not feel so alone and lost. I was being supported by the people who had my best interests at heart. They made me believe in me and almost rationalised everything which lead me to feel more confident in my abilities and eased the sense of being a failure and ultimately empowered me to move forward. I will never be able to thank them enough.

I set myself daily goals and made myself achieve them. My activity levels shot through the roof and after three months of nothing I started to get a response, this ignited my enthusiasm and self-belief and I felt I was moving in the right direction which was so desperately needed.

I continued to seek employment and secured an interview at another local recruitment agency and before I knew it I was registering candidates, winning new business and placing candidates into jobs and so grateful for the opportunity. I hit the ground running and exceeded my own expectations in terms of success which made me feel the complete opposite to previous months. This role gave me purpose and before I knew it I was spending evenings talking to candidates, researching companies and felt a sense of purpose and became very passionate about the company and my role very quickly. I was finally back to myself and all the stress and worry had subsided.

In December 2017 news broke that Palmer & Harvey had made over 100 redundancies at their Maidstone Depot as the company had gone into liquidation. I knew exactly how those people were feeling, it was all so raw for me and I also knew what support there was available for people who had been made redundant and just had this overwhelming feeling that I wanted to do something. If anyone could make a positive difference I could, I had experienced it first-hand and knew I could prevent them from feeling like I did during those days. I asked my Manager and she encouraged me and felt it was a good initiative and seemingly understood my reasons. I approached a local training company who kindly offered me a training room so I could host my workshop and I got a poster created and began to market it on social media. The Kent Messenger kindly wrote a story to help me reach people and were very supportive and encouraging of my voluntary community project.

I had a good turn out and had some great comments and really felt I had added value, One lady in particular was very keen and after constructive job searching advice, an edit of her CV and some tips on interviews she secured the job within the care industry and was over the moon. I went on to support another five people into jobs and they are all currently working. I was pleased with the results and even though I did all this in my own time my employer felt that it was a conflict of interest and tried to discipline me.

The atmosphere in the office changed and I felt totally demotivated by their attitude. I feel it is important for an employer to believe in you and paramount you believe in them and this reaction made me realise I was working for the wrong company. I did try to carry on but sadly I could no longer work for a company that did not see the value in what I wanted to achieve. I moved on as there was no way I was being disciplined for my passion – not a chance!

Redundancy is not just a chance for someone to get a decent pay out and enable them to take life easy and do the things they have always wanted. Redundancy stirs up emotions, feelings and situations that if not dealt with or supported can lead people down a road that some never recover. Redundancy has cost me thousands overall and for a while made me lose my confidence and crushed my self -esteem.

The effect redundancy had on my mental health, finances and self-esteem looking back is unbelievable and when I look back I realise it turned me into someone else. Thankfully for me the nightmare is now over and I am back to my old self, have my zest for life back and thoroughly enjoy my job and really want to help anyone who feels they could do with some additional support in the same situation - its like occupational therapy for me!

Gaps in CVs are a reflection of our economy, not usually a persons character in this day and age and I feel that needs to be recognised because people do not lose skills in a year. Woman have maternity leave and remeber their jobs and quite rightly so they should have that time but some women have a year off and come back but if someone has a year gap in their recent CV - some companies, I know frown on that - it very unfair.

I hope to continue in my spare time to make a small positive difference to what is becoming a huge problem in the UK and with Brexit uncertainty, machines taking the jobs of humans and whole industries collapsing it is only set to get worse.

If you know anyone that could do with any assistance please pass the link above to the Facebook Group and I hope to add some value.

BBC Radio Lancashire - July 2019 - https://youtu.be/YFtBDpainjE

As long as I have breathe in my body I will do whatever I can to help anyone affected by redundancy or mental health around the job searching process. It is so important and I believe one of the most important tools you can have is finding the jobs you want in 2019!

Here is to the future!