Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Soundtrack: The Clash - Should I Stay or Should I Go?

So I'm a Jumper!

As in Jumped-not-Pushed.

To volunteer for redundancy in these times might seem, well – a bit crazy.

As RedundancyDad said to me – 'But love, are you sure?!'

And to be honest, I'm not really.

It's a massive gamble that might well backfire. And although I have plenty of ideas, I have no real plan as to what to do next. Although, for dull reasons I won't bore you with yet, I felt as though I didn't have much choice. As the song says - if I go there will be trouble and if I stay it will be double.

But I wonder how many other people are volunteering at the moment?

In our gaff, more people went for it then they could accept – which is surprising considering the less-than-enticing job prospects for a public sector worker right now.

But it's a very individual decision.  Not an easy decision. One that has to be made entirely on your personal circumstance - there is definitely not a right or wrong answer.

The best advice I heard was from one of our union branch reps. His take on it was that you shouldn’t be dragged into complicated sums over settlements for compulsory/voluntary, notice given or anything else. If you want to leave and fancy your chances – go. If you're not sure, stay and fight for your job.

I'm not sure I fancy my chances. But go I seem to be doing...

Anyone else out there just volunteered?

I have a friend in her late eighties who as well as being one of the funniest people I know and great company on a night out, is a constant supply of sage advice.

But her take on the situation worried me – 'Well, dear – you know what you're doing.'

If only I did.

I'm seeing her next week – I'll report back on what she actually thinks when she hears my decision...... ; )

Blog-off

As of yesterday, I officially became one-in-half-a-million.

One week to the day after the Chancellor presented the Spending Review - uncannily almost to the hour, I found myself in my Director's office being handed a redundancy letter.  This officially makes RedundancyGal one of the 490,000 public sector workers estimated in the Review to lose their job in the next four years.

The fact this happened just one week from the Review makes me feel pretty quick off the blocks - trendsetter some might say. But to all accounts there going to be a lot of Redundancy Sisters and Brothers joining the ranks soon.

Hence the idea for the blog  - somewhere to share laughter and tears over job-hunting blues, career change crises, money-saving tips and just generally bitch about the situation so many of us are going to find ourselves in.

Perhaps somewhere to chat to a few of the other half-a-million.  We can always make plans to go to the park on Tuesday afternoons or get pissed on cheap cider on Sunday nights. Just because we can.

OK - that makes me sound flippant about redundancy - and I'm not.  I'm terrified.  I bounced round the office today all chipper, and then burst into tears when I got home.  And I've got it much easier than most. I'm certainly not flippant about how it affects people's lives. The reports from Ireland about links between suicide and job loss and the Samaritans responding campaign are sobering reading for anyone.


RedundancyGal is genuinely concerned about the changes we are going through and how we all come out of it the other side. So the plan is that this blog malarkey will partly be an account of personal experience, and partly commentary on these strange times we find ourselves in.  

Well peeps, here goes.....