If you haven’t heard these 5 words before chances are you will one day – “Your role’s been made redundant”.
Before you start to panic, plan an around the world trip or click apply for your next job, stop and do these 4 things before anything else.
1. Run the numbers (budget)
Whether your payout is for a month or almost a year, sit down and do two things:
- Check to make sure your payout is correct and that you were taxed correctly. Not sure how? How much Redundancy Pay (Fair Work Ombudsman) and Redundancy Payments (ATO) will give you the info you need.
- Work out how long your payout will last you. If you already have a budget in place, this will be fairly easy. If you don’t, you’ll need to work out how much you need each month to live on.
It’s easy to get caught up in what big ticket items you could buy but working out how you’ll need to spend your money smartly is essential. That’s not to say you can’t go on that round the world holiday – just make sure you’ve got enough to cover you when you get back!
2. Take a break
Once you’ve worked out how long your payout will last, take some time off – whatever you can afford. Even if it’s only a week or two, you need to take some time to process what’s happened. Unless you took a voluntary redundancy, chances are it’s all come as a bit of a shock. Now is not the time to rush into anything.
3. Make a Choice
How often in adult life do you get to sit back and think about what you want to be when you grow up? Many of us end up on a career path by chance rather than pure design. This is the silver lining of redundancy – you now choose what is next.
Before you go out and start applying for the same job you were doing, think about what it is you really want to do. I don’t mean pie in the sky fantasies but look at what you want to do in the next chapter of your life.
4. Stocktake your skills and experience
The market will have changed since you were last on the job-hunt and a stocktake of your skills and experience will help you identify any gaps. Once you’ve done a this, you can look for a course which will bring you up to speed with what you want to next.
What we do often defines a big part of who we are. Being stripped of that through redundancy can be an emotional rollercoaster but remaining calm, focussing on these practical steps and choosing to see the silver lining will help prepare you for your next chapter.
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