These days, the words “recession”, “recruitment freeze”, “redundancy” and “downturn” are bandied about on a constant basis. Work for most people isn’t easy at the moment and very few would consider their job completely secure. Having thought about it for a bit I sent out a tweet last week asking if anyone had been made redundant but had turned it into a positive thing, looked at it as an opportunity rather than the end of the world and as a result ended up doing something they always wanted to do.
Aedan Ryan from Puddleducks.ie came back and offered to write a little piece for us which I think is inspiring;
It’s funny how things turn out. Certain life events that may appear bad news in the short term actually turn out to be good news in the long run. Take redundancy for instance. In these downturn-days, being made redundant is normally taken as a negative event. But for me it was the beginning of a new start and now looking back, was a definitely a positive event.
I worked in Motorola for seven years. Seven years of hard work, long hours, challenging work (sometimes), rewarding work (sometimes), great people and a regular income. We knew it was coming for a while but when the final announcement was made it was still a shock that the whole plant was closing with the loss of over three hundred jobs. The regular daily routine of work and meeting friends and colleagues would now come to an end.
The wind-up took around 3 months and was a stressful time - working out the financial arrangements and saying goodbye to friends and colleagues.
My wife and I had already started a small home business two years earlier. Up to then, we never considered that it would be the primary source of income for the family. But when I was made redundant we thought long and hard and eventually decided that I would join the business as a full time partner. So we took the plunge, invested some of the redundancy money and expanded the business. So far we haven’t looked back!
We are now really glad we made that decision. Redundancy wasn’t an option that I would have chosen for myself, however it has turned into a positive life changing event for me.
My advice to anyone who finds themselves in this situation is to take your time and don’t rush into anything too quickly. Decide what are your own priorities and life goals. And while running your own business may not be the route for you, being made redundant will give you the opportunity to re-think which future path to take in your life and career.
Thanks again Aedan - at the risk of sounding like a therapist if anyone else would like to share their story please pop a comment below or pop me an email to vicki@recruitireland.com.