On BBC Radio Nottingham’s Morning Show with Frances Finn last week, our hot topic was Redundancy,  after the recent announcement by Notts County Council, that 3000 jobs are to go.

As this happened to me in 2001, after 25 years in senior management with C & A, I have both personal and professional experience of the many different individual responses to this situation.  For me, it was a relief after months of anxiety about ‘what if…?’  and after adjusting to the shock of it actually happening, I began to see it as a chance to do something more meaningful, and re-train.

Whilst this is one typical reaction, some of the people around me had different predominant emotions:

• Anger – how dare they do this to me/us after all I the years I/we have given this organisation……  
• Fear – What is going to happen to me? I’ll never get a job as good as this (at my age/with my skill-set/ working round my other commitments)  
• Bargaining – maybe if business picks up they will change their mind and then it will all be ok again
• Denial – well the end date is 6 months away, that’s ages yet…..
• Sadness – it feels like the end of an era, I am going to miss everyone/thing so much, it will be awful

These emotions, are of course, typically associated with loss and the grieving process. And there are many similarities; we suffer most in bereavement, for example, when we have a high emotional investment in the person who has died, (eg a child, or partner).  Some people value themselves by the job they do, and the professional or social status they perceive they have from it – eg a manager, a teacher, nurse etc.  This means that a partcularly significant part of the person’s identify is lost if redundancy strikes  (or other job loss, eg contract termination due to disciplinary action). Confidence and self-esteem can be thus be severely damaged.

Bereavement is also harder to bear at certain times in our lives, eg when we are vulnerable due to loneliness/isolation or past distress, especially loss.  Likewise, redundancy is tougher to face when an individual is singled out as ‘not needed’, which can feel like rejection, and may trigger recall of other such experiences; whereas when hundreds of others in the same company/organisation are made redundant at the same time, there is a sense of inclusion, a shared problem.

Generally, our reaction to the experience of redundancy mirrors our stance on change and our attitude to control. We are all on a continuum of internal versus external locus of control:  some people at one extreme end of this continuum are extremely prone to take responsibility for everything and anything and try to control their environment, whilst others at the opposite end take the view that ‘what will be, will be’ and abdicate all responsibility. Most of us are in the middle zone, with a controlling attitude to some aspects of our lives and a more relaxed attitude to others. It is a very human tendency to prefer order to chaos, and certainty to unpredictability.  Clearly, those need to control is not extreme are likely to feel  less threatened by change, and vice versa. And of course, those who have a ‘whatever’ attitude to control may well put the experience down to bad luck and just wait for things to improve somehow – not helpful either!

I find the book Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson (1998) really useful as an illustration of helpful versus self-sabotaging attitudes to change and uncertainty, in my work with clients and students.

The ‘cheese’ in this witty little parable represents something important to you in your life – your career, marriage, professional standing, etc. The point is that nothing stays the same forever – it is essential to keep working at it – as the French philosopher and writer, Voltaire said: ‘il faut cultiver notre jardin’  (we must keep working on our ‘gardens’ / lives)  because CHANGE IS UNAVOIDABLE AND NATURAL – so anticipating it, having a Plan B (eg with regard to job prospects) is really healthy, just as not taking the special people in our lives for granted – and looking for ways to keep the relationship strong – is essential.

When things change, as they must, being willing to let go and move on makes things easier for us. It may help to think about what really matters; for example, if you listed the 5 things that matter most in your life, and had to decide what to jettison first from your hot air balloon that needed to lose weight or crash – how quickly would you throw out work? On a typical scale of health, partner, family, friends etc…… work, important as it may be, could well turn out to be not that high up the list; it pays the bills, it makes life easier, but at healthy aim is to work to live, rather than to live to work? 

Focus the mind by imagining your headstone: ‘he/she was a …… who was ….. and will be …..’

Those missing words are unlikely to descibe your career, possessions and financial status, but rather the relationships of warmth that you had and the feelings of those you have left behind.

The sooner you face forwards, letting go of the past, the sooner you will be able to embrace the future and move on. Sometimes, the sense of failure can be so strong that it anchors us to the past and seems to transfix us; it can be helpful to envisage it as a THING/PROBLEM, place it on the ground and take a couple of big steps back from it, then slowly walk right round it, in a big circle, preferably with someone whose of objective opinion you know and trust. You will see that from each part of the circle you get a different perspective on this ‘failure thing/problem’.

As always, going with the flow rather than fighting the tide, makes the ‘swimming’ easier….so in the words of Spencer Johnson ‘MOVE WITH THE CHEESE’ and enjoy the ride, the challenge and opportunity! and get ready for new changes in the future….

When faced with redundancy, there are many practical steps that need to be taken, eg with regard to finances, job applications etc. It is not part of my role to advise on those; however, with acceptance and understanding of why you may feel the way you do, and a positive mind set to change, I believe the experience can be much easier.