Redundancy (again) and Retirement

[Peter]

Hello? Hello? Hello?
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me...



Since I no longer live in Surrey, it would be fair to say that this
post doesn't really belong here. I apologise to anyone who doesn't
like it. On the other hand:
(a) I've seen next to no activity here for several years, so I
wouldn't be surprised if nobody reads it; and
(b) it's a follow-up to some posts that I wrote here in 2009 and 2010.



Redundancy can be a truly horrible experience, or the best thing ever.
I know, I've experienced both. Presumably, it can fall anywhere in
between, but I've only seen the extremes.

If you saw my long-ago posts, you'll know that I was made redundant in
November 2009, and eventually got a job here (Salisbury) in April
2010.

I was over 50 when I lost my job, and in a very specialised field.
Mergers and acquisitions over the previous 30 years meant that there
was a decreasing need for people in my field. The period of
unemployment would have been fine if it hadn't been for the constant
worry about where my next pay cheque was coming from, and when I'd
even get one. I was able to do pretty much all the job hunting I could
in an hour or two on Monday morning. The rest of the time was my own.
I had exactly two interviews in that period.

The second interview was here, for the job that I got. The first was
in London. Obviously, I didn't get that job. In hindsight, I'm not
unhappy about that, because
(a) the pay was a lot lower than I had been earning (and also
significantly lower than for the job that I did eventually get);
(b) I'd have had to spend a lot of money on a season ticket from
Reigate to London;
(c) I'd have had to spend a lot of time travelling to and from London
on packed trains; and
(d) I discovered at interview that the man who would have been my
manager was an utter twat (IMO).

I the event, my redundancy payment wasn't anywhere near to exhausted
by the time I started the new job.

I said at the time I started the new job that I thought that five
years in it would be enough. (My sister remembers me saying that to
her.)

After renting a house for a few months, I was able to sell my Reigate
flat and buy a house here. I had no mortgage to pay off, and none was
needed for the purchase.

Roll on to November 2014. It was announced that the board had accepted
a takeover offer. Well, it was immediately obvious that the proposed
new owner would have absolutely no need at all for my department - we
were competing directly with a similar department that they already
had. We could see then that we should all expect redundancy.

The takeover duly completed in April 2015. Reorganisation of the
merged company started at the top and worked down. On the whole,
preference seemed to be being given to the buyer's existing staff. No
surprise.

I was eventually given my notice in July. By that time, I had no work
to do, and was typically taking my Kindle into the office, and
spending my time there reading. Others in the department were in
similar positions. It wasn't unknown for paper planes to be flying in
the office. In spite of this, we were all told very clearly that we
would be required to work out our notice periods (three months in my
case). I kicked off, and threatened to raise a formal grievance about
this. I wasn't objecting to the principle of having to work: I made it
clear that if I had work to do, I'd be perfectly willing to do it.
Rather, I was complaining about having to come in to the office only
to be bored stiff. Anyway, my manager was a decent chap, and took my
point. He agreed that I could take garden leave, provided that I'd
come in and work if needed. That was fine by me. As it turned out, I
wasn't needed again (no surprise here).

My employment terminated in October 2015. I'd been there 5.5 years.

The redundancy settlement was very generous: 5.25 weeks pay per year
of service. There was also some money from untaken holidays, a "good
leaver bonus" (effectively a proportion of the bonus that I'd be
assumed to be due the following March/April), and a tax refund that I
could claim (because I'd only had about half my personal allowance for
the year). I knew how much I needed to maintain my then current
standard of living, and the total would easily last me at least
fifteen months.

I also had a pretty good idea of how much pension I could expect from
my various schemes at different dates. (I'd been getting early
retirement quotes for a few years, and could extrapolate the numbers.)
If my redundancy money lasted me fifteen months, I reckoned that my
pension from that time would give me the same net monthly amount.

I duly had my pension brought into payment at the end of February
2017. In the event, I'd underestimated the amount, and so I ended up
getting about £50/month more net.

In addition to the financial settlement, we were given credits to
spend with an outplacement agency. Credits are converted to time with
their specialists, or in workshops or on other services. The number of
credits we were given depended on our grade. I initially thought that
they'd be all about helping us to find new jobs, and would therefore
be of no interest to me. However, it turned out that they did offer
coaching to those planning to retire, and I took advantage of it. I
spent a very productive morning with one of their coaches in a
"rent-by-the-hour" meeting room near Southampton Airport. I also went
to an all-day workshop on financial management at their office in
Maidenhead. In the event, I didn't learn anything there, but I don't
regret it. (If memory serves, I spent 10 out of my 35(?) credits all
told.)

The end result is that I've been happily retired for a couple of years
now.

I'm glad to say that, as far as I can tell, all of my former
colleagues found suitable jobs reasonably quickly. Some even finished
and had jobs lined up to start the next working day.

Peter.