How to Tell People You've Been Made Redundant

By: Maggie Lonsdale BA (hons) - Updated: 13 Nov 2024 | *Discuss

 

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Telling people that you’ve been made redundant is never going to be top of your To Do list. Unfortunately, statistically speaking, we are all likely to be made redundant 2.7 times in our lifetime, so we’d better get used to it!

With the current global economic downturn, redundancy is becoming more common. This brings with it good and bad points; good, because you’re less of an oddity if you get made redundant but bad, because you’re more likely to get made redundant in the first place (not to mention finding it harder to find a new job). With unemployment figures getting scarily towards three million, the likelihood of you or someone you know being made redundant during the recession is increasing by the day.

Redundancy Can be Positive

In modern working environments, there are very few ‘jobs for life’ anymore, with golden handshakes, carriage clocks and a final-salary pension at the end of it. If you do have such a job, hold on to it tight because they are very few and far between. That said, being ‘trapped’ in a job that doesn’t make your heart sing, just because of the ‘security’, is really rather a sad state of affairs, especially if you end up spending twenty or even thirty years doing something you don’t like.

So, assuming you have just been made redundant, probably against the backdrop of the credit crunch, what do you say to your friends? The fact is you probably are not the only person you know going through this, but this really doesn’t make much of a difference. It’s like saying someone else has got toothache – it doesn’t make you feel any better.

How Do You Feel?

If you are feeling totally wretched and you want all your friends and family to pull together and support you, then what you would say and how you would say it is totally different to if you are actually a bit pleased, as you can now spend some time finding a job you really love, or setting up your own business (this is especially likely if you have had a juicy redundancy payment and are not in dire straits trying to work out how to pay the bills.) Similarly, if you are feeling totally desperate, but don’t want anyone to know and want to have some time on your own working out your next step, don’t go wailing to your pals.

Once you have had a chance to absorb the fact that you have been made redundant, give yourself time to think about how you feel and what you want to do next. Understanding how you feel about the situation will actually give you more advice about what to say to your friends and family than being told what to say.

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Next Page

How to Tell Employees You Are Making Them Redundant

When a Workforce Fights Against Redundancy

Redundancy and Stress

The Role of Trade Unions In Redundancies

What to do if your Employer Becomes Insolvent

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