the big R

[atemporal]

Yes for LinkedIn. But disagree on hobbies and interests. Simply not relevant in the job market. Any volunteering, or community work is.
I'd also add to reach out directly to agencies that deal with your particular skill set, industry or region.
(I've been made redundant 3 times over the years)

If I get the chop I might see about volunteering at the local food bank. Might as well use the time.

[spacein_vader]

thanks. My boss deals with recruitment etc and knows I'm not on Linked in. They'll probably notice if I start setting up a profile and adding people or however it works on there. I don't want to make them think I'm planning on leaving etc.

Anyone put at risk of redundancy would be mad not to explore every possible avenue for employment, so it really shouldn't come as a surprise to them if you join LinkedIn.

Given the rest of your post I'd say it's even more pressing if they're not being even handed. In fact if they really are keeping all the people who need hand holding would you really want to stay and be part of that organisation afterwards?

Look out for number 1.

[Saracen999]

thanks. My boss deals with recruitment etc and knows I'm not on Linked in. They'll probably notice if I start setting up a profile and adding people or however it works on there. I don't want to make them think I'm planning on leaving etc. I've really been through every emotion with this. Having found out more about how they're selecting people they (paraphrase) are ranking people how they see fit and so it's not an even playing field. This is to keep more junior levels (presumably because cheaper) even though they're less efficient and need baby sitting - but then when work is down you gotta have something for those middle managers to do right? So I'm not hopeful anymore and really quite pessimistic, but I don't want my actions to seal my own fate anymore than it already is purely by virtue of my age and wage. I've already sat in meetings where actions that should come my way have been listed "TBC at next meeting". I think I can see where this is going.

Well, again with the caveat (I'm not an expert) it sounds like they're a bit naive, and setting themselves up for unfair dismissal claims.

Any employer with common sense going about redundancy selection ought to know they really should be careful to do it in a fair and impartial way, andthat they may end up having to justify it in front of a court/tribunal. The normal way is to set up a pool of similar jobs, etc, and then a list of criteria for judging candidates. There's a number of suitable criteria (experience, qualifications, history of meeting targets, attendance record (some types of absence must be excluded from consideration) and giving each points. You can decide what matters more than what else, but should be able to explain why it does. Then, there's a long list of factors you must not take into account, like sage, gender, gender identity, race, religioon/beluef, etc and, of course, disability. In other words, there's a range of things defined by statute as discriminatory.

Then, assign points fairly based on such criteria, and if you make exceptions, be prepared to be challenged.

Fail to follow a process of tha type (and while the exact process isn't stipulated, the principles are, as is 'fairness') and they set themselves up to be challenged.

Not that being the one doing the challenging is necessarily a good idea. It is certainly risking not leaving a favourable impression on potential future empoyers if they ever find out. Personally, I think that going to a tribunal definitely has a risk/reward calculation inherent. The longer you've been employed the greater the reward if you got screwed, and the closer retirement is, the lower the risk. But often, it just won't be worth the hassle.

[AGTDenton]

thanks. My boss deals with recruitment etc and knows I'm not on Linked in. They'll probably notice if I start setting up a profile and adding people or however it works on there. I don't want to make them think I'm planning on leaving etc. I've really been through every emotion with this. Having found out more about how they're selecting people they (paraphrase) are ranking people how they see fit and so it's not an even playing field. This is to keep more junior levels (presumably because cheaper) even though they're less efficient and need baby sitting - but then when work is down you gotta have something for those middle managers to do right? So I'm not hopeful anymore and really quite pessimistic, but I don't want my actions to seal my own fate anymore than it already is purely by virtue of my age and wage. I've already sat in meetings where actions that should come my way have been listed "TBC at next meeting". I think I can see where this is going.

Just a small point to note, you can hide your public LinkedIn profile, so you could start the ball rolling and configure your profile to be ready if worst case scenario kicks in, then there's less of a mad panic to get things moving, you're better off doing it with a clear head.

https://www.linkedin.com/help/linked...rofile?lang=en


I have to say what a very informative post/topic. Not one you generally want to tackle.
Being in Retail IT I'm certainly keeping my ears pricked for the inevitable high street shrink.

[cheesemp]

If you think they are more likely to let you go for creating a linkedin profile I would take that feeling as a good idea to make one. If its that likely they going to let you go don't waste your chance to be first out. My person feeling is that the job market will get harder before it gets easier so I'd get re-hired ASAP. Be proactive - it'll help with the anxiety of the situation. Just a further piece of advise. Don't mention the potential of being made redundant to future employers as its not a selling point. Talk about looking for new opportunities.

[Saracen999]

If you think they are more likely to let you go for creating a linkedin profile I would take that feeling as a good idea to make one. If its that likely they going to let you go don't waste your chance to be first out. My person feeling is that the job market will get harder before it gets easier so I'd get re-hired ASAP. Be proactive - it'll help with the anxiety of the situation. Just a further piece of advise. Don't mention the potential of being made redundant to future employers as its not a selling point. Talk about looking for new opportunities.

Good points, and agree. Applying while you have a job is always a stronger position than waiting until unemployed but moving too soon might mean losing a redundancy payment which iin turn, depends on how long the employment has been as to how big it is, if indeed he qualifies at all.

But to avoid mentioning potential redundancy as a possibility, prepare a good (as in plausible) answer for the question "Why are you leaving your current job at such a timer of uncertainty?"

[ik9000]

Are they offering any incentive to take voluntary redundancy? Sometimes the enhanced packages can be worth snagging in the first round as they usually dry up by the 2nd/3rd rounds. If you think there will be more rounds it might be worth weighing up if that might swing it - especially since you suspect you might be unlucky in this round anyway.

[atemporal]

thanks all. Does anyone know if i took the option of taking voluntary redundancy prejudices me with universal credit/job seekers down the line? (or bites me in other ways?) They've not indicated any enhancements/bonuses or anything for taking it. Just statutory same as anyone who doesn't volunteer. I am half wondering about volunteering though to make Saracen999's question easier to answer. "Felt stale, meant someone else didn't get the chop, took one for the team and got some time out etc" I've been there almost 12 years so even statutory is enough for a couple of months breathing space. Provided I can find something in the new year... but that's the issue. If the worst happens I don't want to be left with stunted benefits because I took voluntary. I've tried searching online but nothing seems to deal with this query.

[Phage]

Dunno - i'd call the DWP

[Smudger]

I think you're ok unless you've got over £16k in savings.

[atemporal]

I was right. I have my marching orders and it's all long-term staff bar one or two relatively new faces who got the push. Presumably just enough so they can say they weren't just targetting longer serving staff. The whole thing is so blatant but they've been careful to do the process so you can't say they didn't do X or Y and with the scoring being more secret than a star chamber hearing of the privy council you can't highlight the complete rigging that has taken place to shuffle us out of the door. I'm fuming. To be scored as if I were some reprobate just adds insult to injury.

[DanceswithUnix]

Sorry to hear that.

My wife has been going through the same thing, but hopefully she has found a better job already. She was actually looking at teacher training as a fallback, seems they offer a £24K bursary for people training to be a computer science, maths or physics teacher (and only those three subjects) so her CS degree was of huge interest to them. Not brilliant money, and the start salary would have been quite a drop for her but she fancied a change of career. Thought I would throw that out there, I expect a lot of people on here would have had those subjects as their strongest.

There are jobs out there, so try not to be bitter or take it personally (which is hard, both times I was quite angry at first), see if you can make something positive from it.

[cheesemp]

I hate to say it but at least you knew it was coming so it wasn't a bolt out of the blue. Now's the time to get active and put your energy into the job hunt (Linkedin etc). Moving quickly is a good idea.

[Quartz]

I was right. I have my marching orders and it's all long-term staff bar one or two relatively new faces who got the push.

Sorry to hear that. I'm late to the party - as usual - but if you're the appropriate age, perhaps you could ask if they could change the redundancy to early retirement? Do your homework first!