I’m working on an article about life after redundancy at the moment, and interviewing people who have been made redundant before this recession and survived. The bad news is that if it’s unexpected, it’s painful. The emotional fallout can take time to subside and comes in many forms, from anger that never seems to go away to hopelessness and loss of confidence. The good news is that people do survive. Even better news is that only one out of the 10 people I’ve interviewed so far has said that he’d be happy if he still had his job. On the other hand, he says he’s fine now, doing OK and getting on with a new enterprise.

Other responses varied from ‘I really needed the kick to get me doing what I wanted to do – I may never have jumped, I was too comfortable’ to ‘It was such a shock at first, and it took time (about a year) for me to get over it, but I’m glad it happened now. My life has changed completely – and for the better.’

Filed under: Career Coaching by Melanie