Blog » June 2017 » The redundancy Q - to stay or go?

The redundancy Q - to stay or go?

Julie hates having to make a decision. Especially decisions that affect her career, financial position and future like redundancy. That anxiety in the pit of her stomach ends up making her sick. And that feeling sits with her day in and day out. You see in a week's time she has to elect whether to take the voluntary redundancy package at her firm. This is one of the toughest work decisions she has to make and she does not have any professional support to help her make that decision.

In fact most of her colleagues also are undecided. What is the best option? Stay? The coffee room conversations centre around these kinds of questions and reflections: Perhaps we will have a little more security. But who knows for how long? What if we then have to go through all of this agony in twelve months time when there is another round of cuts? Seems to be a trend to outsource and offshore doesn't there! I am too young to retire but what if it takes me more than 12 months to find a job - what am I going to do?

Go? Rosemary thinks it is time to go. She is feeling a little more confident about her career options and excited about that next job. With a beaming smile she pipes up in the coffee room "I think it is better to take the money and run. There may not be another chance down the track. Besides... I have not been happy in my role for at least 18 months and not particularly emotionally tied to this place. So this opportunity is a blessing in disguise".

Not everyone shares her optimism about the future however.

This dilemma to stay or go when presented with an option of voluntary redundancy is an extremely difficult decision for many people. Obviously they need to take into account future employment prospects and the likelihood of obtaining another job, and fast. Or they might be weighing up the viability of moving down a freelancing or independent contracting pathway. They need to consider their financial and family commitments, life-stage, future promotional prospects, current job market, current job fulfilment and engagement in their work ...... oh way too many things to take into account. No wonder people find this decision difficult.

We help people make an informed decision to stay and grow, move or go based on consideration of their current fulfilment in their role, career and life stage, career goals and ambitions. If they decide to stay we help them take steps to improve their career prospects and enrich their experience of work. If they decide to go we can support their transition into another job, self-employment or retirement.

If you are managing voluntary redundancy programs or perhaps facing this decision yourself and want a little more independent and confidential support then perhaps you might like to trial a career decision making tool called the individual Role Engagement Alignment Profile (iREAP) - see www.ireap.com.au. This tool essentially considers the alignment of motivations in a job and level of engagement towards an organisation for the purposes of:

  1. helping people to make an informed choice whether to STAY, MOVE or GO.
  2. enriching your career
  3. provide a structure for you to have a conversation with your manager about options and the future
  4. providing selection criteria that you should look for in your next job (whether internal or external).

Up until the end of this financial year I have decided to offer a free trial of this instrument. You will receive a confidential and independent report which can help you in your decision-making. Click here for the sample summary report.

WHY - because I want to be able to support employees emotionally to make such critical career decisions in instances where their employer does not have the resources or tools to provide this level of support. I have worked in the career transition space for the past 15 years and in my experience mostly when outplacement support is provided it is only available to people once they have made a decision to go rather than in the lead-up to that decision.

Posted: 6/06/2017 1:21:13 PM by Pamela Frost

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