Stressed about losing jobs

LegacyUser

First of all, this may seem silly and paranoid to most people, but both my partner and I are really getting stressed about losing our jobs. We both work in the public sector. We both understand we are very lucky and we both also work very hard. We don't lead extravagant lifestyles, we have a modest house and don't have expensive social lives.

We are both willing to take pay cuts, work extra hours, take on more responsibility, retrain, deploy, basically do anything asked of us.

But we feel completely overwhelmed by all of the media coverage and reckon it's only a matter of time before we are made redundant.

This is really affecting our family life. Are we dwelling on this too much?

mikemac

Switch off from the media

The likes of Joe Duffy would drive you to depression with their tales of misery.

Do keep well informed but realy, there is a lot of hysteria out there.
The place to get information is your HR dept or maybe your union rep.

And realy, maybe stay off certain areas of boards where some posters have a lot of names for public sector workers.

unregistered wrote: »

We both understand we are very lucky

You are not lucky to have a job. You took the time to apply for it and you kept it. So don't be grateful to anyone.
Other are unlucky to lose theirs, that doesn't make you lucky

dolphin city

why are you listening to it - switch it off and listen to music. Anyone listening to this every day needs their head examined. First of all how on earth can you understand it - its all a pack of gobbeldy gook which is basically saying we are screwed as a country - not you personally, but everyone. So you are in the same boat as everyone else. You are ruining your lives listening to this every morning instead of getting on with your life now and enjoying it. If you do lose your jobs in the future you will be in the same situation as everyone else but why are you making yourself sick now. Plenty of time for that feeling if and when you lose your jobs.

Stop listening to it -

LegacyUser

Stop listening to the news.Stop buying the paper, and if you are, stop reading places like the Economy section of this forum.

And OP - I've lost my job. Construction Engineer. And my OH is in the same line of work, he's still going, but it's from month to month. The world has not ended for us. Box clever - save as much money as you can. We are similar - modest house, not an extravagant lifestyle, one car (and a company van which would be gone, should redundancy occur, and which we don't use outside work hours). I'm not saying it's an ideal situation - it most certainly isn't - but I do feel your pain. Construction was going down the tubes for the last 2 years, it was a matter of "when", not "if" in my case. I hate the position I'm currently in, but we're able to pay our bills, and we have some idea of what we're doing next, within a certain time frame, if I can't get a job. i couldn't care less that you're PS, by the way...I made my choice to go into the private sector and I don't regret it one bit.

If it's bothering you that much, sit down and talk about what you would do should either of you lose your jobs.Contingency plans. Have you any options for free-lancing, making money by teaching or grinds or something? Can you go abroad and if so, how would that work? Would you both go, would one go first, etc. If it makes you feel better, have a plan.After that, stop listening. The only certain thing is the past. Nobody knows what will happen in the future.

Sleepy

unregistered wrote: »

But we feel completely overwhelmed by all of the media coverage and reckon it's only a matter of time before we are made redundant.

This is really affecting our family life. Are we dwelling on this too much?

Unless ye're in positions where you're adding no value to the organisation you're a part of (e.g. low-level management in an admin section of the HSE) there's next to no chance of you being made redundant. While I'd be strongly in favour of wide-sweeping reform (including redundancies) in the Public Sector as a whole, I'm not in government and none of the major parties have the balls to implement the changes they waffle about on Newstalk.

It's 2010 rather than 1970, there's no such thing as a guaranteed job for life any more but you're certainly in the closest thing to it. Your jobs are as safe as they can be in the current environment. Even with an IMF intervention, if your position is one where you're carrying out real services for the public (e.g. teacher, guard, nurse, fireman, revenue collection, NTMA, Refuse Collector, Rates Collector, etc.) your job would most likely be safe although your conditions and salary would certainly change.

In short, you're worrying far too much about this. There's very little you can do to affect the situation beyond working hard, doing your job correctly and taking on any extra responsibilities offered to you in work to solidify your position as one of the least likely to be looked at for redundancy members of your respective teams/departments.

Even if worst comes to worst and you were to get made redundant, you can at least be comforted by the thought that the redundancy settlement would be far in excess of your statutory entitlements and, may actually be high enough that should you obtain work elsewhere within 6 months or so of being let go, you'd be financially better off from it.

LegacyUser

Guys,

OP here again. Thanks very much for the sound advice and for also helping me to see this more clearly. I'm going to take all of your advice on board and just get on with the job and life.

Best of luck to all.