Redundancy - Some Reflections

Over the years I have been a workplace chaplain I have seen both Kay's (later Shop Direct) warehouses in Worcester, where I was a chaplain, close with the loss of hundreds of jobs and, again as a chaplain, seen significant numbers of people made redundant in various local authorities through cost cutting, restructuring and reorganisation, and the creation of shared services departments, as well as talking from time to time with individuals in churches and elsewhere who have been similarly affected.

I've also been made redundant and redeployed by my present employer (the church) so I have some personal experience of what it feels like!  I don't intend here to offer an opinion on whether any of these events were necessary or right, nor specifically on how any of them were handled, but rather to try to say something about how it affects the people caught up in it.

Many people have drawn the comparison between redundancy and the well-known stages of loss in bereavement -  denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.  I have seen pretty well all of these, but just as in bereavement not everyone experiences all of the stages, or at least all of them equally, and maybe not in the stated order, so it is with redundancy.  Situations can be quite different, as can be the way each individual reacts depending on the kind of person they are.

It is one thing to see the complete closure of the entire workplace, as in the decision to move all of Kay's activities from Worcester to the North-west, it is quite another to be, perhaps, the one individual in a department to be singled out for redundancy.  The way organisations handle the process can also make a difference to whether it is felt to be difficult but fair, or acceptable in the end, or for people to feel unfairly and badly treated.

There are certain legal procedures that should be followed, which I don't intend discuss here but which can be found in this link.   The Faith at Work in Worcestershire website has a page on redundancy and some reflections by colleagues about being made redundant that might be helpful.

When an entire workplace is to close it is more likely that everyone will feel in it together, though even within that some will more seriously affected than others.  Some will be happy to take a package, perhaps voluntarily, and either retire or wind down a little, or feel their prospects of finding another job are pretty good.  I remember the highly qualified engineers at Longbridge being cherry picked at the jobs fair by the likes of Bentley and Railtrack and so on.  When the jobs market is buoyant, as it was a few years ago when Kay's closed, it didn't feel too scary, and there too many of the national retailers and the bus company and others were coming on site to offer interviews.

Some firms also provide 'out-placement' services - help with writing CVs, improving interview technique and so on.  In other cases, when cost-saving is the name of the game, you might get a bit of help from the HR department.  Another factor is also how generous the package is.  When Kay's closed the union (it was a heavily organised company) negotiated a pretty good pay-off, which gave those who had been there a good while quite a reasonable sum to tide them over.  Some public sector packages, particularly to smooth the way for re-organisations have included generous early retirement pay-offs, but in other cases no more than the statutory minimum has been on offer.

I have spoken to some people who have seen redundancy as an opportunity to make a fresh start, perhaps to do something worthwhile.  Many at Kay's had ideas of working in caring type jobs rather than sorting returned goods.  Others have said they needed a kick up the backside having got into a rut from being there too long.  For other people, their job is their life and identity, or the thing that got them out of the house and mixing with others, and have been distraught when it is threatened.  This can happen to people in quite ordinary jobs as well as those who have put years of commitment into building a career and climbing the ladder.  Identity, self-respect and -esteem, position in society and in the workplace pecking order and much more are bound up in a job that is threatened.  And it doesn't matter how much people say it's the job that's being made redundant not you, there's still the feeling that all that I've done and put into this role can't be valued or they wouldn't be cutting my job (insert expletive about what one thinks of the management!).

It can seem as if the safeguards in legislation to provide protection and equal opportunities can just increase the uncertainty and pressure.  There may be rumours that something is afoot and worry (surely not me) or it can come as a bolt from the blue and be a real shock.  Whatever happens, there will have to be a statutory consultation period whilst the proposals can be questioned and alternatives put forward (all the time you are 'at risk').  This can be difficult if nothing seems to be happening or it is hidden.  I've heard it said more than once that it is a genuine consultation so nothing can be said until it is ended.  I can't help feeling, though, that more communication would help.  In fact if I had one thing to say to managements it would be to keep communicating and show the people you do still really value them as people and for their contribution to your organisation.

When eventually a new or revised structure is announced there is then the question of who has a place in it and having to apply for the new posts. Unless there can be a direct assimilation this usually starts from the top and gradualy works its way through the layersof posts.  Often there seem to be delays (perhaps an outsider is brought into be the new boss and has to work their notice elsewhere, or there's a failure to appoint at some stage and the post has to be readvertised), but it never seems to be  anybody's fault.  And then there can be the agony of applying for one's own job.  I imagine most people are successful, though it is more tricky when the jobs have been changed to take in new ideas that someone has decided will make your department run better (and invariably be more efficient and 'customer focussed').  Some people suffer the ignominy of not being successful , and I have seen people in tears when this has happened.

Eventually, the time comes when people start leaving.  It doesn't perhaps feel too bad at first if you are in a group needed to keep production going or have more notice to work.  But as the day approaches a feeling of foreboding grows and the mood changes.  If everybody is going, or a whole department is moving somewhere else it can be the opportunity for a party, or a wake, to mark the transition - a rite of passage in some way.  If it is just individuals, there can be ghastly leaving presentations, when everyone feels horribly uncomfortable.  Some people prefer to slip away, some never make it this far and go off with stress, never to return.

For those left behind in the new slimmed-down, more efficient, refocused department, embracing new ways of working, it can be a new opportunity, but there can also be survivor syndrome - a feeling of guilt about why I'm still here when my best mate didn't get the job.  I know of some dreadful stories of people who were good friends who both had to compete for the same job that they both desperately needed and the destruction of personal and working relationships that causes.

Sometimes good can come of these experiences.  People go on to do something they wouldn't otherwise have done, or they are able to get off the treadmill and find a better quality of life.  But the statistics say that very many people who are made redundant lose out financially and take a long time, or never manage to recover their previous standard of living.  In the present downturn many will be on the dole for a long time, though one should remember that those who are unemployed are not a static population and many will eventually find work, but some will not.  Those who don't will usually be disadvantaged in some way, but this is something that could easily befall most of us and we may then have to call on reserves of resilience we may never have tapped before.*

For those still in work, I have observed that managements often believe that all is well much sooner than may in fact be the case.  Either they believe their own propaganda and the briefings they may give the workforce or else people are reluctant to tell them how they really feel.  One thing is for sure, it will take a considerable time to rebuild the trust that has been shattered by an event such as redundancies.  People are not dispensable resources to be hired and fired at will.  Most managers know this but they often still under-estimate the damage that is done and it is doubly important to live, not just speak in fine words, the vision and communicate with sincerity.  In time there can be healing and recommitment, but it should never be taken for granted.

*In addition to the reflections I mentioned above, some time ago I wrote something about suffering, loss and redefining faith in the light of this, following the illness and death of my older son.  It occurs to me that some of this may be relevant, but it will take a little time for me to consider this and adapt the parts I feel useful to appear here rather than as something that has only been shared with a relatively small number of people.  It might be helpful, though, to say that it is based on W H Vanstone's 'The Stature of Waiting', which is about Christ's passion, and 'Face to Face' by Frances Young, the story of the evolution of her faith and theological thinking as she lives with all that it means to have a severely disabled son.

As we approach Lent and then Holy Week, there will be much as we track Christ's journey towards the Cross that we might reflect on in trying to understand suffering and loss, whether through redundancy or for any other reason.  It is also right to remember that resurrection follows.  But we must never be trite about this.  New life does not occur without the searing reality that precedes it, and we must not under-estimate that.  In the good times we have had in the UK in the past 60 years we Christians, and especially we who have been comfortable, can move to resurrection too easily.