18 Oct 2020

The company my husband works for decided in the last week to make a bunch of their employees redundant.

It’s been happening a bit in this COVID world we live in – the effect on companies has been enormous, let alone the impact on individual workers.

Within his company there were people who were genuinely very fearful of being made redundant. They have financial commitments and families depending on their income earning ability. Sure, they’d get a payout depending on how long they’d been employed, but the worry about finding another job before the money disappears, is a very real one.

For people of a certain age, however, the prospect of redundancy is an attractive one. The prospect of the company paying you a year or two’s salary, when you had already started thinking very seriously about your timeline to retirement, can be an intriguing and attractive prospect.

My husband falls into the latter group. He is still in his 50’s for another few years, but with the right incentive (ie a shed load of money), he’d quite comfortably ride off into the sunset.

He didn’t get chosen to become redundant however, and it’s caused conflicted feelings for him. There’s the disappointment of not getting a golden handshake, for sure. He’s quite convinced he could have spent a couple of years actively working on his number one hobby, and maybe coming up with some other hobbies to keep him amused until he gets old enough to actually feel retired.

Unfortunately for me, his number one hobby is to annoy me, and I’m fairly sure that any new hobbies would just be variations on this theme.

But the downside of being made redundant when you are a ‘certain age’, is that it basically is the confirmation that your working life has ended. No more. You are no longer one of the valued and required workers in the company. You may have had a long and successful career, but it’s now over. The company has said thanks, good bye now. They give you a bunch of money to soften the blow, but they don’t want you anymore.

Obviously you can go forth into the world, making a difference by volunteering your time and talents in an area that interests you, or maybe you could find a different part time job to keep your wife from making a voodoo doll that looks like you to use as a pincushion. Just a thought.

Were you made redundant? Were you happy about it? Or did you reach retirement age the regular way (ie you got old)?

Was your significant other made redundant before you were ready to have them hanging around your house too much?

And does anyone know how to make voodoo dolls, just in case?