Redundancy: a gift to some, trauma to others

Redundancy is a word that’s become a sentence with many shades of meaning. It can say “I’ve been dumped”. For others it means “Yes, finally-bring on the money!”

Technically, though, a business makes positions redundant, not people. Yet few people will talk about their “redundancy” that way.

Regardless of the meaning, with the current economic uncertainty we’ll be hearing a lot more of this word in coming months.

Redundancies can come from blanket cost cutting, where businesses slash whole departments. Or employers can apply the “last on, first off” rule. Such decisions are in some ways impersonal, and may not account for the actual performance of an individual.

But employees can be also be targeted in a round of redundancies and terminated for reasons other than cost saving. They may not have performed, caused uncomfortable waves, or the organisation may have wanted them out for political reasons.

If retrenched this way, no matter how pretty the pay-out, the impact can be life-changing. People can be bewildered for years-their recovery not helped if they don’t fully understand the real reasons.

When her role was declared redundant, marketing manager Kate Howard (not her real name) found the experience “soul destroying”. Howard says before this her manager had bullied her and belittled her performance to senior management.

She acknowledges she had problems with managing her workload. However, instead of redundancy she would have preferred to know the true detail of any problems surrounding her in the workplace.

Lois Harris (again, not her real name), a PA to a senior manager for a government department, was harassed before her position was made redundant.

She had worked closely with her direct manager and felt that she was well-respected around the business, until another influential manager began undermining her reputation.

“They retrenched me six days before Christmas. I felt totally betrayed,” says Harris. “I couldn’t believe the manager whom I trusted would do this to me.”

Both Harris and Howard were passionate about their jobs and their organisations. They found it difficult to settle into other work, seeking out guidance and counselling. Both took years to recover, and, only several years later, can they see the experience as a catalyst for a transformation in their careers.

Greg Wallace is now managing director of EQ International, his own broking software consultancy. His redundancy experience couldn’t have been more different to that of Harris and Howard.

After 9/11 he knew role redundancies were looming in his finance world. He had wanted his organisation to move in a different direction with his work, and when retrenched he had the means to set up on his own.

Similar to Wallace, Sarah Lim’s (not her real name) experience was good for her motivation. As an airline employee after 9/11 she watched many co-workers depart: “In my case it worked out well. I was sick of being there”.

Lim acknowledges she was lucky-young, financially secure and she felt highly employable. She took a break for six months before working again.

Jacqui Rochester is a registered psychologist specialising in career counselling and coaching. She says people respond in a variety of ways. “It depends on a number of things-including the stage in their career and how well the redundancy fits in with their goals and plans.”

Rochester says it’s important to realise if your employer retrenches you, it will have an impact. The classic response is often similar to the “grief cycle”. First comes denial (“it’s not happening-go away”), then anger (“they don’t know what they are doing, everything is wrong”), followed by bargaining (“maybe we can do a deal”), depression and, finally, acceptance.

Rochester has seen many people struggle to break the cycle. “People may move around and around these stages,” she says. “There is a real problem if people get stuck in anger and depression.”

Rochester believes reactions can depend on how much someone has attached themselves to the organisation, and how secure they are about their career prospects.

“There are people who see their career as a series of jobs in the one industry, and others who will identify with working for the one employer, particularly if they have a long-term personal investment in the organisation,” she says. “If this source of identity is taken away against their will, they are going to feel let down.”

Rochester also sees the way an employer manages the process as important “If you [the employee] have some say in the process and negotiate your exit as quickly as possible, then you are likely to feel more positively.”

She says people will cope better if they always keep an eye on their future and keep asking themselves-if this job wasn’t here tomorrow, what would I do? “It’s a cliche of sorts but still a truth-there are no secure jobs, just secure people.”

Some tips are to “recognise you will react, and that you may well be reacting to events beyond your control. While it may feel personal at the time, ultimately it may not be.

“Use the term retrenched, not `made redundant’. Positions are made redundant. People are retrenched. Recognising this important distinction can help you move on.

“Take advantage of support your company offers: outplacement services, counselling and employee assistance programs. Even if you feel you don’t need this help, you have nothing to lose by taking them up.”