So, it’s over. We’re through. This is it. I’ve been made redundant. My last day with the company was the 31st of January 2020.
Two days before that, I had a photo taken in the office. It was me sitting on my chair smiling. What was I smiling about? Money? Maybe not.
That’s the thing. What I’ve learned about life is: You either laugh or cry. You can’t do both at the same time. At least you can’t do it without switching from one emotion to another.
So, the question of to laugh or to cry? I chose to smile.
Being made redundant is never easy, but trust me it does get easier. How do I know for sure? Because this is my bloody 3rd time! I won’t be surprised if it isn’t my last. No hard feelings. I’m not putting on a brave face. Don’t believe me? Let’s do a reality check.
None of us has a career trajectory that is a smooth straight line like an airport runway. Well, we don’t call it a trajectory if it’s completely flat, do we? Everyone is bound to have some ups and downs in their career path – it may be a winding road leading you to somewhere flourishing, it may lead you to no where – a dead end. It’s an uncomfortable truth when our career takes an unexpected turn – a downturn. But trail and error – it’s only a normal process.
Job job job. It’s not always fun and games. Here we are. We have this free market promising opportunities for profit making. Unless you run a charity, every company will want to have a piece of the pie. Of course, not all end up making money. Some will win, some will lose. The winner takes it all. And the loser? Bears it all!
When a company is going through a process of restructuring due to profit loss, inevitably, staff cutting (along with cost cutting) is often on the card. Assuming it’s done ethically and legally, anyone who’s got laid off, should receive an amount of payout based on their years of service and unused annual leave etc.
Since it’s written in a contract and agreed by both parties, they (an employer) have the same right as you (an employee) to terminate the employment under some prescribed circumstances. It’s the same in my case, no point of getting too upset or too uptight about being made redundant. Think about it, there’s no such a thing as life term employment anymore.
Laugh or cry, after all is said and done, where do I go from here? Wouldn’t it be nice to have another job lining up somewhere and know exactly where I’ll be heading? Not quit! This time, I’m going to embrace uncertainty and be totally OK with it.
My reason for waking up in the morning before and after the redundancy hasn’t changed, except, I’ll take more time to feel what I feel, take it slow, look after my health, get some decent sleep going forward.
You can see it’s important to stop and smell the roses, but that’s not all for me. I want to remind myself, don’t forget to be grateful for: Those before you who planted the roses…
There’s a 3 week gap between this post and the last on my blog. It’s the biggest gap by far. During this period, I’ve mainly focused on doing my last job (it sounds weird to say my last job) and the handover stuff as well as job hunting. It’s taken the bulk of my time and energy, leaving me with no spare moment to sit down and write.
I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you to a small number of readers. I’m glad you’ve kept coming back to check my latest blog post. I don’t know who you are but your loyalty hasn’t gone unnoticed. Well, since I’m going to have so much time on my hands now, I’ll have no excuse but start to write more regularly.
Lastly, as I said to my colleagues in the farewell message: Till our paths cross again, watch this space! Good luck and all the best…
Keep smiling!
Ted Tsai 