Redundancy dilemma

needtoknowasap

Hi
Just been offered a redundancy package from employers, just over 9 years service and working out I'll get just over a years salary.
Will be losing out on a few perks and benefits if take it.
Has anyone taken redundancy and regretted it?
Have 2 kids under 3 so won't be able to survive long without getting a job of some kind as husband and salary less than 30k

Avatar MIA

needtoknowasap wrote: »

Hi
Just been offered a redundancy package from employers, just over 9 years service and working out I'll get just over a years salary.
Will be losing out on a few perks and benefits if take it.
Has anyone taken redundancy and regretted it?
Have 2 kids under 3 so won't be able to survive long without getting a job of some kind as husband and salary less than 30k

Well, you can survive more than a year surely. A year's salary in redundancy is more than a regular salary due to the way it's taxed (quite a bit less).

Only you really know how easily you can pick up a similar paid job.

needtoknowasap

Avatar MIA wrote: »

Well, you can survive more than a year surely. A year's salary in redundancy is more than a regular salary due to the way it's taxed (quite a bit less).

Only you really know how easily you can pick up a similar paid job.

Living in Midlands and not a lot of similar paid roles around within reasonable distance. There have been several redundancies in the company already and this time only a garuntee of 2 yrs before any further reviews. I'm on a decent salary for the area I live in and get paid maternity sick leave etc along with half price insurance products. I just fear if I don't take the package now it may not be as good the next time around

CeilingFly

Difficult choice.

Maybe do up your cv and have a meeting with an employment agency and see what options there are.

Then with this information, make a decision.

Teyla Emmagan

Are you planning on having another child? Because if not then the maternity doesn't matter. If you are, better get pregnant now before the 2 years runs out.

Would you not be saving a fortune in childcare by staying at home with the existing 2? Enough to stretch it out to 2 years maybe before you need to find a new job? Most people with small kids would leap at the chance to stay at home for a bit. Doesn't sound like there is long term stability in your job anyway.

Fann Linn

My sister in law left a multi national a few years back. She was in a specialised role in QC. She got a great package, paid a lump of her mortgage, did up the kitchen and got new windows for the house plus had the customary one good holiday.

The kids are grown up a bit now and although it would be perfect for her to return to work there are no roles locally which would pay her as good as she was getting.

True, there are jobs available in shops, hotels, etc which would pay a wage, however, she feels that its better for her to stay at hone now than go to one of the above jobs.

She's not a snob, but just in the happy position that her husband is in an equally good well paid job, so she doesn't really have to go out.

She does feel however some loss in leaving a good job which paid well and also gave her some great perks including health insurance and frequent travel to the US parent company.

On the other hand however she didn't have to worry about childcare etc and she did leave themselves debt free with a very managable mortgage.

Examine all the options carefully would be my advice, and if you have a decent car now there's no need to buy a new one!

Good luck.

daheff

OP -sorry to hear of this.

So if I were in your situation I'd look at it like this

1 If you take the redundancy, how likely is it that you will get another job (regardless of salary)?

This is key question. If you don't think you are likely to get another job then don't take the redundancy.

2-Assuming you can get another job, how much is the difference in new salary vs old salary? If its not too much, maybe the redundancy will make up the difference between them for a couple of years (ie new job is 30k, old job was 35k. Redundancy is 35K. )If you had 2-3% payrises for a couple of years it would bring the new job salary close to to the old salary level.

If the differential between salaries is huge, then stay where you are.

3- Assuming money is all the same (roughly speaking), could you get a new job with conditions (ie commuting etc) that would be reasonably acceptable to you?

4- Would the potential new job be as stimulating/interesting to you as the old one? or would it bore you to tears?

Not sure which is most important factor for you, but i suppose like a lot of people money is a key factor because of bills you'll need to pay.


If you stay on and get let go in a couple of years time with the next round of redundancies would there be as many available jobs around (maybe if theres suddenly a lot of workers available with your skillset in the locality it might be more difficult to get a job then...eg 10 into 5 wont go).


best of luck with it....hope I never am in that situation (unless the payoff is like a lotto+2 win!!)

Clareman

I've gone through redundancy twice, once I started a new job straight away, the other I had a bit of a wait finding a job.

Advice I would give would be

• Always remember it's the role that's being made redundant, you're not getting fired
• Start looking for a job now, it will give you an idea to see what's available and where
• Don't change your kids routine
• Don't spend the package
• Sign up for job seekers immediately
• Stay in your current job as long as possible

You mention 2 kids under 3, that might mean pre-school next September, are you ok with the drop off and collection for that? There's some great upskilling courses through springboard, with a year's salary in your back pocket would that be an option for you or your partner? Have a think about the amount of money you will be getting and how much you can save every month and the see how long it would take you to save the redundancy, it's a brilliant oportunity and with jobseekers you have a little bit of a cushion, I think with 2 kids you'll be getting ~€250 a week