Involuntary Redundancy During Covid: A Survival Guide

It came completely out of the blue. No heads up that there may be redundancies in the company. No warning to set the ground for potential job losses. No nothing.

I’ve lost my job a handful of times in my career, which I actually had to think about because I tend to push these unpleasant memories into the back of my mind. The first time was when I was freelancing at a London agency, mainly because I wasn’t doing the grunt work of an Account Executive when I was a Senior Account Manager…’far too lofty for that’ I thought in my arrogant, mid-20’s mind. Lesson learned. The second time was different. I was at an agency in the Middle East and was basically managed out of the business, because in a moment of what I thought was team bonding in a bar at the end of another hectic week, I said how burnt out I was at that time (crushing workload, lack of support etc.) and that I had lost a bit of faith in the agency. Someone present then went and told the MD. Lesson learned there too.

This more recent occurrence of leaving a job unwillingly was by far and away the worst, on every level. I had been in my new role in a big London agency running global issues and crisis for a global sports manufacturer among other major clients for exactly a year. After a slightly stressy start, having plunged right into the deep end, I had found my rhythm and was really going up through the gears. I had built my confidence up through creating relationships throughout the business that in turn had brought in more revenue. I was also making friends and had built strong rapport with clients and colleagues alike.

Obviously, being locked down at home, working from kitchen tables and bedrooms was discombobulating for all concerned. While some seemed to be less busy than others, I had been working like a train creating reputation strategy documents for C-suites, advising a COVID anti-body test manufacturer how to communicate globally and supporting a UK mall owner as it navigated its ever increasing challenges alongside the usual issues and crisis flare-ups.

During lockdown I had started to find that Mondays were a bit of a grind. I was frustrated to have to ‘stay at home’ on Monday rather than go in to the office and get the week going. This had an effect on my mental health. Not a major one, but noticeable in its regularity. I accepted it and moved on. One week though, the malaise crept into Tuesday and for one reason or another I told the team on a weekly call about this unwelcome extension. I was light-hearted and open about it. Honest and transparent, as I’ve always been regarding my mental health. (I always believe if someone has a problem with me, or indeed anyone else being frank and open, then it’s their problem, not mine.)

When the team MD dropped a note into my diary for the following Tuesday for a ‘catch-up’, I assumed that it was to check up on me after my admission. They had only become my line manager recently, after my previous had left the company, so thought they were fulfilling their managerial role in this instance.

However, when my boss, the Global Head of Department’s face appeared on the Zoom screen alongside my line manager’s, I sensed something was up. Bit odd that they are on the call when to all intents and purposes, the call was about my mental health I thought…

My line manager cut to the chase really quite quickly in a rather blunt way.

“This is not going to be a pleasant conversation,” they said.

“Christ, here we go…” I thought to myself.

Having recently trained 10+ senior managers at the global sports manufacturer’s HQ about how to handle difficult conversations such as redundancies, I smiled wryly to myself inside about their delivery as the conversation progressed, playing back in my mind what I told the clients to say and how to act in these exact situations.

They basically gave me two options to pursue. One was to sign up for some HR process, albeit enforced by law, that would show that the company was going to do everything in its powers to help me find a role within the network. The other was to take an extra month’s salary and be done with it. To the company’s credit, I was also given access to career coaching gratis. Given the overall upside-down-ness of the world at the time and the all but impossible chance of there being a job available when cuts were being made, I went for the latter. This led to a legal process, whereby I had to seek an employment lawyer to ensure I fully understood the contents of the letter they eventually sent me. A friend kindly answered my call for help and pointed me in the direction of such a lawyer and the process began. After a bit of back and forth on the binding terms we came to an agreement.

It is important to note that I in no way think that my admission of ‘being a bit down’ momentarily had anything to do with the decision regarding my involuntary departure from the business. I had only several weeks prior been asked to spearhead an internal communications initiative promoting the importance of mental health across the agency. The timing was therefore entirely coincidental…at least I hope it was.

The one positive thing about being made redundant so unexpectedly was hearing the reaction of some of my colleagues. Egotistical as this will sound, they were genuinely gutted to hear the news that I was out and I received some incredibly touching emails, messages and phone calls. I was flattered to hear that some of them got quite angry when they had the opportunity to discuss my enforced permanent absence with the CEO and that they clearly showed their disgust and unhappiness at the decision. I’ll never forget those that stood up for me and I am hugely grateful to them.

I firmly believe everything happens for a reason and while I am as yet to realise why this happened as yet, as I push energy out there to receive new opportunities to come my way, I remain 100% confident that bigger and better things await.

So, what would you do if you got made redundant tomorrow due to COVID? Here are my thoughts as to a strategy:

1.) Try not to take it personally. You are not the only one. There are hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs across the world, in every industry.

2.) Walk out with your head held high. You have done nothing wrong and are just an unfortunate victim of circumstance. How you behave as you leave will do a lot for your reputation. Remember it’s a small world. No famous last words.

3.) Take some time out to process it. Write things down. Talk it over with friends and family. Don’t bottle what you’re feeling inside up — that will serve you no favours and just make you depressed and miserable. Remember, you feel how you think.

4.) Write down all the things you liked about your job and all the things you didn’t like. This will give you focus and distance from the past, and help you look to the future.

5.) Write down all the things you are genuinely good at. This will boost your esteem and give you ammunition to make you feel competent and confident. Just because one company had to get rid of you does NOT mean every company in your industry on Earth shares the same view.

6.) Keep busy or active. That can be in the job hunt, polishing your CV, informing and activating your network. It can also be in non-work related activities like getting around to doing all those tasks you’ve been meaning to do but have never had the time. Exercise in any form is recommended too, as the endorphins it provides will fight off the blues and give you time to really think about why you’re on this planet and what you’re going to do next, in your career and way beyond.

7.) Keep pushing energy out there. This doesn’t mean apply for every job you think you could do, but it does mean doing one thing every day that may get you closer to your next employment, or one thing that makes you feel like you’ve accomplished something.

8.) Last but not least, try not to feel sorry for yourself. Yes, it’s shitty and worrying but sitting around chewing those kinds of feelings over and over serves nobody, least of all you. Believe in yourself, and know that with the right attitude you can repurpose this setback as a springboard to greater things.