The Countdown to Unemployment Thread

I'll have a look at what my pension is looking like soon. In all honesty though it's one of those automatically enrolled pensions and I've never really bothered with it. I pay the minimum in and even if I paid more in my employer won't.

After tax, N.I and pension my take home pay is just 18k a year or £1500p/m. Bills, mortgage overpayment and savings amount to me putting £850 in our joint account. The £650 that's left covers fuel, food and the rare day out. I still have a bit left over each month but other than having the mortgage paid asap I'm still unlikely to retire early if at all.

Sounds standard for recruiters tbf. Probably filled the role.

Got an interview on Tuesday for the same role I'm doing now but with a salary increase however more travelling. I'm going into it with zero fucks so if I get it, great and if not, not fussed.

So after the feedback process they have realized I'm actually kind of a big deal and have reversed their decision. Early retirement was just a beautiful dream. Seriously though this past 4 weeks have been awful and I'm pretty depressed at the idea of continuing in this job now. They've absolutely destroyed my motivation. I'm gonna do the absolute bare minimum going forwards.

In this case a simple conversation between our director and either me or my boss would have been enough.

They (badly) rewrote the redundancy policy at our place after this happened to an entire department a few years ago. They wanted a headcount reduction of 100 and did it in such a fuckheaded way they had nearly double that gone by the time the dust settled. By then rumour had got out how things were going so it was impossible to replace them with quality candidates.

It took nearly a year to get back to even vaguely normal service.

Can't really blame someone for handing in their notice shortly after a consultation period. I've done the same in the past and would've taken voluntary redundancy if it was an option (I even said as much to my boss), but it wasn't so fuck 'em!

It's pretty obvious that people will start brushing up their CVs and applying elsewhere when redundancy rumours start, so should never be unexpected.

My greatest ever work victory was securing another job during the consultancy period and giving the new place a start date of a month after it closed. It was a good feeling to know I was either going to leave the meeting with a lump of cash in my pocket or, at worst, just hand my notice in then and there. They laid me off and I theatrically fist pumped. My boss got so mad he spent the rest of the meeting childishly bad mouthing the place I was moving to.

Tangentially, he is also on 'the list' of people who I would fuck with if I wont the lottery. Like set up a rival company, undercut him and drive him out business. I dont know how people say they would get bored if they were rich.

So… I got the offer: nothing signed yet, but contract is in my hands

A friend of mine is being made redundant so if anyone needs a blind senior perl programmer let me know.

I turned down at work this week the promotion that I was basically a shoe-in for. Wasn't a straightforward decision as it is a strange feeling turning down a pay rise, but a few days later I already realise it was entirely the correct decision. A small pay bump for a whole heap of extra nonsense, especially as the old boss is somehow staying on 1 day per week, so effectively you'd be his lapdog for a year till he fked off. Totally stupid conceit.

So now I am basically the most senior person around, which is perfect for doing wtf I want (within a few small limits), whilst I upskill and search for a much better job.

Submitted my first application just now which felt great, just to get the ball rolling.

I am a few hundred quid less well off each month than I could have been but feel farrrr more at ease with the situation that otherwise. Thoroughly looking forward to the day I can hand in my notice.

Excellent news. Hope it goes well for you! Well done for putting yourself out there and persevering!

Fingers crossed for you!

When I got made unexpectedly redundant a few years ago (company went bust), I actually went back to work, finished what I was doing and saved it before I shut down my computer and left. I think it was shock.

I really hope things are ok for you Lizard!

Thanks for the support all.

Well, 3:30 now and no email. Not out of the woods until the full proposal is unveiled tomorrow afternoon.

Though you'd think upper management would confirm that the emails had been sent, right?