What I Learned From My Redundancy

The STORY

I still vividly remember that Thursday afternoon. I got back to my desk after gobbling my lunch at a speed of 100 miles per hour, as my team had a software release deadline to meet in a couple of weeks. This release would be a game changer for both us and our customers, with a major overhaul in the way we allowed them to connect to our EDI network and exchange electronic business documents with their supply chain partners.

In keeping with my usual habits, I was getting excited about the imminent product launch that the team had been working on for close to a year. I was running from pillar to post talking to our product design team about user experience, consulting with the tech lead about tidying up the architectural details, chatting with testers about the product quality and organising training sessions with the Contact Centre. The last thing I wanted to see was a meeting appearing on my Outlook calendar with my boss and the only human resources (HR) representative we had on the premises, with just 15 minutes notice.

Being a novice to the whole process, I didn’t have the slightest clue as to what was going to happen. I walked into the meeting room feeling restless and somewhat annoyed as I felt my time could have been better spent working on activities related to the product launch. I sat down and wondered what this could be about and how soon I could get back to my desk. Suddenly, I noticed the sympathetic but straight look the HR representative was giving me. Then he dropped a bombshell on the table that would turn my whole world upside down.

Yes, after almost nine years, my service was no longer required by my employer. I had less than 10 minutes to grab anything I could from my desk before being escorted out of the building by the HR representative. I went home feeling completely numb, and not knowing what to think, feel or say.

In the aftermath, the hours, days and weeks were filled with all kinds of negative emotions. Anger, disappointment, disbelief, sorrow and despair kept consuming my thoughts and energy. In the first three weeks, getting out of bed in the morning was particularly challenging. I didn’t have an appetite for food or any kind of social interaction, including with my close friends. Time went by and about six weeks later, I managed to bounce back and started a new job as an Agile Business Analyst.

During the first couple of years after starting my new job, I had the time and the mindset to properly unpack and digest the events that occurred leading up to, and on, that horrible day. That’s when I realised there’s a lot more involved in the redundancy process than being called in for a meeting with the HR representative and your boss.

In fact, that meeting is just the tip of the redundancy iceberg. Understanding what redundancy without prejudice is, why it can happen even to the best of us and how we can avoid it in the future can allow us to approach redundancy — a widely resented experience — from a different perspective.

Let’s dive in!

The WHAT

Redundancy is the result of a series of events that occur over time, created by a combination of internal and/or external circumstances that render your job no longer required.

Whenever our job is made redundant, most of us are inclined to place the blame on our employer. We often feel betrayed and humiliated by the fact that our employer was ready to dispense of us after all those years of hard work. Although it is difficult to accept, we need to understand that no employer would want to let an employee with a wealth of experience and knowledge go if there was a genuine ongoing need.

It is also important to clarify that it is your JOB that is made redundant and never YOU! Understanding the difference between you and your job has a huge impact on understanding the redundancy process, and more importantly, on how you experience the healing process that follows.

The WHY

Recognising where the redundancy stems from puts the whole experience into perspective. That is:

Our employment with the employer is a commercial contract.

An organisation searched for an individual with a certain set of skills to fulfil an organisational requirement, and an individual who possessed a certain set of skills, knowledge and experience was suitable to provide services to fulfil an organisational vacancy.

• Remember the job interview and the questions your employer asked to ensure you fit the job description?
• Remember the various background checks they conducted before making the offer?
• Remember the way you negotiated your remuneration and compensation package with them?
• Remember how you received a multi-page document that you and a witness had to sign?
• Remember all the additional forms you had to complete and sign, and the photo identification they issued you before letting you into their office?
• Remember all the compliance and induction training you had to complete before being granted access to their systems?
• Remember the probation period you had to endure to prove you were the right person to do the job they hired you for?

Well, that’s because your relationship with your employer is highly commercial in nature. Whenever that commercial requirement ceases to exist, all that matters are the clauses in that employment contract and the laws that apply to your situation. It would be naive to hope that the reputation and relationships you have built over time might alter the decision your employer is about to make.

The commercial need for a job could cease to exist due to the following events or circumstances:

1. An acquisition — When one organisation takes over another, it brings two sets of employees with similar skillsets and performing similar types of work under one organisational structure. Although the organisation might continue to retain the increased number of employees due to an increased volume of business activities, it could also lead to some positions no longer being required due to productivity gains and consolidation of some duties and responsibilities, thus making them redundant.

2. A restructure — Organisations go through restructures all the time. In fact, if you’re working for a more nimble organisation that constantly adapts to ever-changing market conditions and customer needs, it will probably undergo restructures more frequently in order to stay ahead, than a traditional, rigid organisation that runs the risk of eventually becoming obsolete and bankrupt.

Let’s take a look at the factors that might enforce a restructure at your workplace.

• Booming or glooming economy — This is probably the most influential factor. As your organisation is an integral part of the wider economy, any movement in either direction will have a direct impact on whether the organisation expands or contracts its business activities. This could trigger restructuring programs either to increase or decrease the number of jobs.
• Government policy changes — Government policy influences strategic decision making and this can lead to changes in the organisational structure across all levels. A great example is the policy directions taken by most governments around the world regarding climate change and renewable energy. These policy directions are having a clear impact on the future of traditional fossil fuel and renewable energy companies, and the jobs they continue to offer.
• Technological advancements — Every industrial revolution we have gone through has had a huge impact on the occupations we used to hold as professionals. The Industrial Revolution, the Technical Revolution, and the Digital Revolution all had their fair share of pushing people out of their positions or roles and replacing them with some level of automation. Some argue that we are witnessing the fourth industrial revolution where machines are becoming ever more intelligent and pushing boundaries with the number of tasks they can perform without human intervention or facilitation. This is causing significant disruptions across many different professions with many people finding themselves holding positions or roles that no longer require human beings.
• Customer behaviour — Every organisation exists to fulfil the needs of their customers. The jobs you are offered exist to facilitate each step involved with delivering great customer service, so customers continue to spend money. As customer behaviours changes, the corresponding jobs that exist to serve them will inevitably have to change. Recent changes in customer retail purchasing habits is a clear example where customers are choosing to purchase products and services through digital channels whenever they want and wherever they want, rather than visiting a store in a shopping centre that only opens between 9 AM and 5 PM on weekdays. This behaviour will eventually dictate the number of stores an organisation is willing to operate and the number of staff it’s willing to employ.
• Organisational strategic direction — Sometimes your organisation can get ahead of the game and decide to make proactive adjustments that anticipate one or more factors listed above. In my opinion, this is the least disruptive of all, as the organisation has time to think through the restructuring process more methodically. The creation of new jobs as a result of new R&D programs or moving employees from business areas that are expected to be obsolete in the near future to more disruptive digital-centric areas are examples.

The HOW

Although I had heard of redundancies before, I always believed that I would never face one until I actually did. Now that I have, I’m brave enough to start a conversation on the subject. I have come across many individuals who’ve had to face the same predicament, some more than once.

The current gloomy economic conditions in the world and the improvements in artificial intelligence (AI) seems to be forcing organisations all around us to undergo restructuring programs more often. This will inevitably lead to more jobs being made redundant. Therefore, understanding how to manage redundancies more effectively is becoming more important.

How do we prevent or minimise the chances of a redundancy happening? How can we prepare ourselves to go through the challenges it brings? And how can we come out better and stronger at the end?

Below are a few lessons I learned to reduce the chance of facing another redundancy and possibly help experience one with less heartache, should I have to go through one again.

1. Don’t get institutionalised — As you continue to work, you naturally get accustomed to the processes and people at that organisation. You assimilate into the system and start operating without much consideration as everything around you becomes second nature. You get extremely comfortable and confident in what you do but exploring how things could be done better becomes challenging. You become more of a ‘we have always done it this way’ person.

This creates a false sense of security and importance, which can potentially lead to an arrogant personality that may work against you during a restructuring process. Be mindful of not falling into this trap and keep exploring how things could be done differently to achieve more productive outcomes.

2. Learn to collaborate and cross-skill — It’s a no brainer that an individual with multiple skills and domain knowledge across many different business areas is more versatile than someone who is great at one skill needed by one business area. Broaden your mindset and be open to learning at least one more skill that compliments your core skill and start working with other individuals or teams to support each other.

For example, if you are a software engineer, reach out to someone who is good at database administration or cloud computing to expand your knowledge in those areas. If you are working in a digital platform of your organisation, be brave enough to dig further into core applications to gain a better understanding of their limitations so you could design and implement a more robust and efficient application.

3. Be open to organisational changes — Organisational changes are the best opportunities to spread your wings and get into new challenges. Always embrace and make the most of them. Make a genuine effort to understand the reasons for those changes and explore how to best adapt to them. This is also instrumental in showing your positive attitude to the rest of your team and the leaders who may reward you with increased responsibilities as part of the change process.

4. Maintain a healthy work-life balance — We must take our responsibilities at work very seriously. However, it is easy to get carried away with work and start overlooking other aspects of our life such as family, friends, health and hobbies. I missed two of my wife’s birthdays because my mind was too occupied with upcoming deadlines at work. When my job was made redundant, all that I had left were the people and activities I had put aside to make room for my job.

I found this to be a significant factor in the way I felt negative about myself and the fact that I lost my job after all those years of hard work. Never leave any room for regrets because you had to choose your job over life. Remember, your job is just one part of life and not the other way around.

5. Keep exploring new opportunities — Don’t get too comfortable in one organisation or job for too long. Explore new opportunities both within the organisation you’re currently working for and any other opportunities that may knock on your door. Considering new opportunities provides us with four main benefits:

1. Keep us on our toes for the interviewing process. It trains us to articulate skills and experience well and reflect on areas of improvement.
2. Gives us a reason to keep our resume up to date. This is something I struggled with when I had to search for a new job after almost nine years of neglecting my resume.
3. Provides an opportunity to constantly evaluate your strengths and weaknesses and what the market is ready to reward you for.
4. Allows us to get ahead of the curve as new opportunities are in fact the result of restructuring or expanding and are less like to be made redundant in the near future.

6. Expand knowledge and network — Make an effort to read articles, blog posts, news and books on subjects related to your professional career. Find time to attend conferences and meetups that will allow you to not only expand existing knowledge but also venture into new areas of knowledge. It will also expose you to the latest developments in the industry and enable you to make more informed decisions to better prepare yourself.

When you get out of your usual workplace filled with familiar faces, it allows you to develop your confidence to walk into an unfamiliar place and reach out to strangers with an open mind. This will naturally broaden your mind as an individual and expand your professional network which may be able to assist you with any potential opportunities.

7. Keep your personal items at work to a minimum — This is something that touches you sentimentally a lot more than the other lessons. It made my departure from the workplace complicated as I did not want to leave without first collecting my personal items on my desk, especially the photos of my family members.

I’m not suggesting that we let all the personalising of our office desk go. However, keeping it to a minimum will cause fewer heartaches when it is time for you to pack and leave in such short notice.

8. Save some money for a rainy day — When you lose your job, losing the ability to provide for your family is probably the number one factor that drives people to desperation and to all sorts of dark corners.

In order to mitigate this risk and be better prepared for what’s to come, make a habit of saving money regularly while you have a job with a regular income. This will alleviate the pressure of not having an income for a couple of weeks to a few months, and put you in the right state of mind to find a job that really excites you and enables you to make a positive impact.

The CONCLUSION

Redundancy is another aspect of our professional life that presents itself as a risk. As with any risk, the best we can do is to understand it as much as possible, asses the likelihood of it happening and identify the actions we can take before and when it occurs to reduce its impact and the chance of it happening.

Looking back, now I know it was one of those rare life-changing events that happened in my professional life. It forced me to take a break from the rat race I was deeply wrapped up in, asses where my actions and habits went wrong along the way, and identify my strengths and weaknesses before using it as a launching pad for the future. It gave me the opportunity to expand my skills and knowledge in many different areas, and break into new business and product domains.

I’d like to share part of a conversation I had with one of my good mates on this matter.

“ What’s better than having a great job? “ He asked me.

“ What? “ I responded with another question.

With his usual cheeky smile on his face he said, “ being employable mate, being more and more employable! “

Thank you for reading and I wish you all the very best in the future!

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-i-learned-from-my-redundancy-sam-perera-he-him-/