For some people, redundancy is another word for opportunity, writes David Wilson.
Have you ever been fired? Given the high employment rate, the chances of getting axed seem low – but you never know.
According to the International Monetary Fund, if a second severe global downturn occurs, growth in the Asia-Pacific region could fall by up to 4 percentage points.
But if the unthinkable does happen and you find yourself without a job, don’t panic. After the initial devastation, you may find redundancy is a fillip – a stepping stone to a new career path, or even a dream job.
Here, three job-loss victims explain how they dealt with the dreaded pink slip and bounced back better than ever.
Herbal healing
Sunshine Coast-based Vicki Taylor, 44, worked for a US investment bank in London, the US and, finally, Sydney. The well-paid work proved ‘‘extremely stressful’’ and more than nine-to-five because Taylor was stuck on the phone most weekday evenings, or on a plane to New York, Beijing, Bournemouth or elsewhere.
Last July, she was made redundant after her job was shunted to Hong Kong for cost-cutting reasons – ‘‘probably my travel expenses’’, she says.
‘‘I didn’t take it personally,’’ she says, adding that she did worry about what she would do because she had not attended an interview in more than a decade.
If you work in the corporate sector, she warns, it is ‘‘highly likely’’ that you too will be made redundant at least once.
‘‘I was lucky for 16 years but it eventually crept up on me,’’ she says.
After recovering from the shock, she took it as a signal to make a fresh start. In February this year, drawing on business skills gained in banking and herbal knowledge acquired through travel and study, she opened a shop in Caloundra selling herbs and spices.
She says she loves sharing her knowledge of enlivening everyday cooking with herbs and spices and has no regrets.
She is glad to have her life back and work in a field that inspires her.
‘‘It’s all good,’’ she says. ‘‘I sleep better and no longer suffer bouts of anger or depression from working ridiculously long hours.’’
She says that she’s reliant on her husband for money but she no longer needs to shop for handbags or shoes every week.
TV trap
After studying at Melbourne’s RMIT University, producer Julie Chandler was working for a television station in Tamworth.
Because the station sold airtime ‘‘and something needed to fill that airtime’’, she thought she was safe. ‘‘I should be right,’’ she told her family, adding that the station would never cut her department.
Soon after, she learnt that her department was in fact to be shut down on July 1, 2009, and her ‘‘permanent’’ job was to be terminated after less than two years.
‘‘I felt shocked because of my conversations with my family about it. And I was also really annoyed. Because I’m not from the country, I thought what the hell am I going to do if I don’t work in production?’’ the 31-year-old says.
She pondered moving back to the city but that would mean her husband would need to leave his well-paid Tamworth job.
So instead, she launched her own production company, which covers everything from rodeo commercials to political campaigns.
She describes losing her job as ‘‘a blessing in disguise’’.
‘‘I’m so glad it happened,’’ she says. ‘‘There’s been a lot of ups and downs but overall, I wouldn’t change it for anything.’’
She says redundancy taught her a vital practical lesson – ‘‘how to run a business, something I would never have done had I not been made redundant’’.
Energy jolt
Self-employed Sydneysider Gillian Smailes, who is in her late 50s, worked as a ‘‘channel manager’’ for an energy retailer.
Smailes had been with the company for a little less than 10 years and was on a ‘‘blissful’’ five-week European tour when her boss emailed saying he needed to call her and asking what time would be convenient.
It transpired that she had lost her job, which ended on July 28 this year. She was stunned by the news.
But the remoteness of her location, Britain at the time, made it easier for her to step back, reassess her career and muster the courage to start her own business on the back of a rough outline that she had been ‘‘kicking around’’ for more than a decade.
Now her friends tell her she has never looked so relaxed.
‘‘Being made redundant was the best thing that ever happened to me,’’ she says. She adds that she is very aware of how many businesses fail in the first year.
She is still living off her redundancy payout but nonetheless feels glad that she no longer devotes more than a third of her life to the likes of shareholders, board members and the chief executive officer.