Threat of Redundancy Took Away My Confidence: A Case Study

It is well documented how redundancy can shatter your confidence, but what about that low-level continuous stress that comes with the threat of redundancy?

This is the situation that Heather Cooper found herself in when the global recession started to take hold. Working in the automotive industry, Heather was acutely aware of the downturn.

She told us, “There was so much information on the news every night that I was so aware of the problem, not to mention the fact that, as fleet administrator in a car manufacturers, I could tell that orders were considerably down. It wasn’t helped that all my friends and family kept asking about my job and how safe it was, because they were watching the news too! I know they were only trying to help, but I felt like I couldn’t get away from the problem at work or at home.”

Keeping Staff in the Dark

Heather found that the most damaging aspect of the situation was that no senior management at her company were talking to staff about how the global downturn was affecting their business. This meant that all the staff were talking among themselves, making matters worse.

Heather explained, “We all knew what was happening in the company, with the lack of orders, but no one was saying anything official, which meant that the gossip in the office was terrible. If anyone had a day off, it would go round that they had been made redundant and no one felt able to take a day off sick, or book any holiday. It was a really bad atmosphere. I was really disappointed with how the management chose to handle the situation.”

Ultimately, it was this bad atmosphere that made Heather decide to change her career direction. Rather than continue to work at the car manufacturers under the cloud of possible redundancy and then try to find work, Heather decided to take control of the situation.

She continued, “It was clear that the automotive industry was not going to enjoy another boom time for a while, especially not the company I worked for, so rather than keep trudging into work and feeling worse and worse, I decided to look for other work. I didn’t breathe a word to any of my colleagues because I knew that it would get gossiped about and potentially mark me out for redundancy sooner.”

A Positive Change

Heather’s health was beginning to suffer as she was finding it hard to sleep and she had taken to comfort-eating, making her put on weight, which was not helping her confidence. Heather felt better almost as soon as she had made the decision to leave of her own accord, rather than waiting around for information that was not forthcoming.

Heather concluded, “Waiting to inevitably be made redundant is not the best way to feel good about yourself, especially as everyone around you reminds you of the situation. I knew that if I stayed and then was made redundant further down the line, my confidence would be so low that any new employer wouldn’t want to hire me anyway. I am so pleased that I decided to leave, especially as I found a new position in the IT training field that uses my skills but is less affected by the recession.”