After 14 years as a showroom consultant for a national chain of building suppliers, Steve Copestake was so shocked and angered by suddenly being made redundant that he was tempted to tell his employer what to do with its offer of providing him with a constructive recovery strategy counsellor.
Luckily, he didn’t. Nine months after being made redundant Copestake is back at work as manager of a Manchester plumbing and central heating firm - and credits the help he had from his CRS counsellor with getting him back on his feet again.
Difference
Copestake’s advice to anyone facing redundancy is: “If you are offered the services of a qualified counsellor, don’t be too proud to use them. It could make all the difference.”
Many redundancy victims feel the same, which is why, as two people become redundant in the UK every minute, the CRS industry has grown by five times in the past year and is a key factor in many redundancy programmes.
What can recovery specialists offer someone whose job has suddenly gone and whose world seems in danger of collapsing around them? “It’s important that we come in at the very beginning when firms realise that redundancies are inevitable,” says Bev White, managing director of international outplacement expert Penna.
CRS was pioneered in Australia seven years ago. “Redundancy is never pleasant,” says psychologist Dr Roger Small. “But when it happens the important thing is to get as much support and advice as you can. Don’t go into denial and pretend it hasn’t happened.”
The first thing CRS counsellors will do is build a recovery framework designed to:
• Rebuild a sense of security.
• Replace previous work structures with new ones.
• Rebuild confidence and self esteem.
• Plan the future.
“Redundancy brings major changes that threaten our sense of security,” says Dr Small. “By focusing on the resources we have rather than the ones we’ve lost, we have a good chance of retaining stability in the face of upheaval.”
Stages
Losing your job is always a bombshell and studies have shown there are usually three stages of response to the shock of redundancy:
• The initial stage involves a sense of unreality. Often redundancy victims ‘forget’ they’ve lost their jobs and make plans and appointments as though nothing has happened. There may even be almost a holiday feeling, particularly if a large redundancy payment is due.
• The intermediate stage often brings negative feelings of anger, worry and grief. Victims haven’t yet come to terms with the situation and suffer feelings of unrealistic pessimism. They fear they will never work again.
• The final stage is hopefully the settling down period, when people adjust to a new pattern of life after a crisis. Some people go through these stages in an orderly sequence and others find they repeat them in cycles over weeks or even months.
The good news is that the shock, however great at first, invariably lessens in time and at this point CRS can begin, based on these basic rules:
• Believe in yourself. Stay upbeat about your abilities and chances. Carry out a realistic audit to identify your skills. Then see how they might apply to other types of businesses or sectors.
• Involve friends and family. Don’t pretend that nothing serious has happened - talk through your problems and get their support. But remember, people can only take so much doom and gloom.
• Investigate retraining. Are there strengths you want to develop and weaknesses you want to rectify? Many adult education courses are cheaper for benefit recipients and you might also be eligible for free training.
• Check your finances. The Department for Work and Pensions will explain what you are entitled to and ensure you get national insurance credits. Work out a realistic budget. Try to resist using any redundancy payment for day-to-day living and get sound financial advice before you invest it.
• Restructure your day. Redundancy will almost certainly have destroyed the routines you’ve lived by for years, so create new ones to suit your changing circumstances.
• Keep socially active. It’s easy to become isolated when you’ve lost your job and are hard up, but it needn’t cost a fortune to keep in contact with friends.
• Set yourself simple but realistic targets that will help you get things moving and will also chart your progress.
• Develop a sense of purpose. Work out what’s important to you and what outlets are available for your talents.
• Look after yourself. You’ll need all the energy you can get to start a new career. Take care with healthy eating, rest and exercise.
• Boost your self image. Think of specific qualities you appreciate about yourself, while still being aware that there are ways in which you need to develop.
• Replace the word ‘should’ with the word ‘could’. Think about what’s going well in your life - there must be something.
• Accept constructively what’s happened to you, as opposed to resigned acceptance. Accept the day-to-day reality of redundancy and adapt accordingly. Start to make realistic plans for the future.
• Take risks. CRS experts say that being adventurous builds confidence. Getting outside your comfort zone and trying something new or difficult can be scary, but invigorating.
• Make use of any facilities the company offers - office equipment or financial advice, for example.
• Take control financially. If possible, pay off pressing debts and talk frankly to your bank. Let it know exactly what’s happening, as it will help you more than if it’s left in the dark.
Network
CRS experts urge redundancy victims not to keep their changed circumstances to themselves. Tell everyone that you’re on the job market. Try to get two promising names from each person you meet and don’t be shy to call in favours. Network like mad and register with the best possible recruitment consultant.
Spend time on an honest CV. Just seeing what you have achieved will probably do wonders for your self confidence. Most potential employers take within 20-30 seconds to ask an applicant to come for an interview. The content and presentation of a CV is always the deciding factor.
Look at your life. Do you want to continue what you were doing before redundancy or try something completely new? Think about how you want to work. Could you cope with self-employment? If it’s a possibility, talk to freelancers you know about the advantages, and otherwise, of working for yourself.
Steve Copestake says that part of his CRS therapy was to envisage his ideal job - and then look for it. “I had to assess what was good and bad about the job I had lost and what I enjoyed doing with my spare time,” he says. “As it happened, I came up with a job that is uncannily like the one I am doing now.”
“Of course, redundancy is distressing and traumatic, but it doesn’t have to be the end of the world,” says Janet Davies, head of redundancy counselling specialist New Life Network.
“Try not to take it too personally. Redundancy is a numbers game, but when it happens you will naturally feel angry, betrayed and possibly desperate. These are perfectly natural emotions, but it’s how you respond that matters.
“Using constructive recovery, there’s no reason why you can’t not only survive the trauma of redundancy, but in the long run perhaps even benefit from it.”