The redundancy blame game

So, time for blog attempt number two.

Last time, I sat firmly in-front of my fan. Fan still going, albeit on a 2 light setting, not 5 lights. This is good. This is cooler. However, I’ve gone a step beyond this week and have a brand new portable aircon unit on order. Coming just in time for the next heatwave. Having a portable aircon pleases me, the cost of it does not. There’s also the environmental impact to consider - would I rather not have an aircon? Yes. Will I be desperately delighted at having it when the mercury hits above 30 degrees? Very much yes. But we’re on a green energy plan, recycle like there’s no tomorrow and I even use reusable straws so I’m hoping there’s a moral trade off.

I wanted to post something about redundancy.

10/15 years ago, it seemed like a bit of a mystical thing to me, or at least something that only happened to pre-historic organisations - like businesses that only made fax machines or a travel agent (delighted to see a few still going strong on the high street). But now, especially in Talent Acquisition, I won’t go a day on LinkedIn without seeing someone post that horrid green banner and then those magic words come out - Open to work.

It definitely isn’t mystical anymore. It definitely isn’t limited to an entire business product becoming obsolete. Nor does it only happen to one type of employee or one type of industry. It’s everywhere. I went through it myself. It’s crap.

For me, the hardest part is the responsibility. If you’re fired, there’s (usually) a very clear reason - performance or conduct. You at least know where to direct your blame, likely on yourself - though I appreciate there’s often nuance.

Maybe you’ve been forced out unfairly, or had a horrible boss, again, you know where to direct your blame - it doesn’t make it any nicer, but at least the blame or anger has a direction of travel.

When it comes to redundancy, more often than not, the blame becomes a void. It certainly isn’t your fault, you could blame org leadership for getting to this point, but often, there are so many circumstances that the blame game becomes impossible. 

You might be level headed and sensible and think ‘well what good does blame do anyway?’ You’d be right to think that, but for those having gone through redundancy, not having that rhyme or reason can be a really confusing emotion to deal with and it often results in you trying to blame yourself, wrongly.

So that’s the thing, above all and everything else, you are the one person absolutely not to blame in a redundancy process. Life can be tricky enough, let alone when going through something as stressful as a redundancy. Even though it sounds simple, don’t be hard on yourself. I’ve said it many times, but your self worth isn’t remotely reflected by a redundancy process, just like when you’re doing incredibly professionally, that also doesn’t determine your self worth.

Being a good person, treating other people kindly, being good to animals, saying thank you when the other car lets you through (regardless of who’s right of way it is) these are the things that determine your self worth (well to me anyway).

This post is written by myself only, not AI. It won't be perfect.