My Approach to Life Post Redundancy
Redundancy!
So, almost three months ago now (Tuesday March 25th to be precise) I was made redundant/let go/sent down the redundancy chute by Ocado Technology. I thought I’d detail how I’ve approached life post redundancy on the off-chance it might spark something useful for someone else.
Approach to Life Post Redundancy
Before I worked at Ocado Technology I worked at Timetric, and before that I had some “wilderness years”, doing a bit of work for & with the lovely people at Refined Practice, being freelance, and at times really not earning much at all. At times I found this period without much work & structure quite difficult, but I did learn a few things that I've tried to put into practice in the following approach:
Keep a Detailed Daily Diary
A day, a week, a month passes and then two things can happen in your brain 🧠: (1) your brain identifies that time has passed, and then (2) asks "what on earth you've done with the time?" and in particular "why haven't you achieved more?" (particularly if you're partial to social media - more on that below). So I've been keeping a detailed daily diary which at least allows me to see that the days do not just blur into one montage, and that I do in fact actually achieve things.
Being Sociable - Seeing People
No-one wants to end up like The Oatmeal cartoon below, so I've made a very conscious effort to see people: go for coffee, volunteer, join things e.g. www.bravestarts.com, go to a cafe - as regularly as I can.
Keeping Physically Active
Doing something regularly - helps me in so many ways: a little bit of social interaction, clearing my mind, requiring that I structure my weeks to plan the activities, manage money (more on that just below). Above all, just makes me feel good.
Manage the Money
Kind of obvious, but doing things like - analysing your monthly burn rate, calculating how long it will last, allowing for unexpected expenses - all helps give confidence and a realistic sense of the time that is actually available before money becomes a really pressing issue.
Be Kind to Yourself:
Involuntary redundancy essentially can mean your life goes from living at 110 km/h to 5 km/h in an instant: it's a rapid change, there's almost "emotional whiplash". There's alot to very suddenly get used to, so give yourself a break: such a "rapid unplanned disassembly" of your work life really takes some time to adjust to.
Structure, Focus, Overwhelm, Distractions and Social Media
The sudden increase in free time has at times been overwhelming: “I have so much time, I could do so much!" and then "Why haven’t I done very much?”. Also the volume of potential distractions is huge: coffee, biscuits, life chores, the news, social media vortex, etc. So I'm trying to give myself a little bit of structure through breaking the time down into chunks of at least 30 mins/max 60 mins, hopefully without distractions (take watch off, put phone out of reach). And social media is truly the devils 👹 work.
Trying Something New
Accepting that either or both of (a) figuring out what I want to do next (b) finding any work associated with (a) - will take some time, whilst that's all being worked through in my 🧠, I've intentionally put myself in situations that are either new, and/or ones where I'm a complete novice. Why? To get a different perspective on my situation, learn something new, and see how I manage in different environments.
More on the things I've tried in the next post, What Have I Done in the First Three Months Post Redundancy and What's Next?