Unfortunately redundancy has become an all to common word and it has affected so many people in the current climate. I have personal experience of what this feels like and I am happy to admit it had an affect on my emotional wellbeing.
It is a fact when a person loses their job there is a whole host of emotions they may go through. Firstly, how the company handled the redundancy will impact how an individual reacts and how quickly they are able to accept the situation, remain positive and move on. Research has shown that the emotional impact of a redundancy can reflect the stages of grief people experience with a major loss such as a bereavement. These stages are; denial, anger, bargaining, depression and eventually acceptance. Helping individuals to move through the stages to acceptance in a redundancy situation requires an additional stage which is exploration (Blau & Devaro), which is situated after depression and prior to acceptance. Some individuals may find it difficult to move on from the depression stage and may need professional help and that is okay – it is okay to ask for help.
We may look at others who are able to cope with setbacks such as redundancy and other problems with apparent ease. They are demonstrating their resilience, whereby they experience the distress and grief the same as others, but they handle them and look for solutions rather than dwelling on the problem. Now some people have these abilities naturally but can learn to become more resilient – Yes!
- Try to refocus your thoughts – look for solutions or opportunities.
- Take responsibility for what happens next and don’t blame others for what is happening in your life.
- Take control back and decide how you are going to respond to situations.
- Get support from people you trust – don’t bottle things inside, talk to others.
- Focus on what you can control, not on what you can do nothing about as this is just wasted energy.
The first step in helping you to start to look more positively can be to review and capture your career highlights! Write down at least one (but preferably more where you can) example of your;
- best working relationship;
- key achievements;
- work strengths/highlights;
- key talents and skills,
- memorable feedback you received;
- tasks/projects you have really enjoyed;
- a manager you enjoyed working with;
- your key learning.
If you take the time to do this exercise, the outcome will be ‘Your Career Highlights’ and this can help you when it comes to writing your CV and preparing for an interview.
If you need support, do contact me and we can have an initial consultation, free of charge where we can chat about your circumstance and how I might be able to help you.
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