Voluntary redundancy question

md2012

Hi all, I have a question regarding voluntary redundancy, I guess only I can make the decision but I would be interested to hear other peoples opinions.

In a nutshell my firm is downsizing to just 150 jobs from the total of 390 and have asked for volunteers for redundancy. The vast majority who are volunteering are currently working shifts so have been offered a very attractive package, most if not all are taking the voluntary redundancy offered.

My gut feeling is that in my current role I would most likely be one of the 150 to retain my job however the offer of voluntary redundancy is also available to myself. I have been mulling over for a month but am unable to make the decision.

I have no dependants but I do have a mortgage with 26 years to run, I left school at 16 and started work immediately with the company I work for currently, I started as a production operator but have managed to work up 4 levels and now have a job I quite enjoy, my current role is quite demanding and I feel while I left school with few qualifications I have gained valuable experience in a number of different roles at my factory.

While employed, I have performed the following roles.

Production operator
Machine operator
Admin assistant, taking calls, updating spreadsheets, preparing reports etc.
Line leader - supervising 12 operators
Warehouse man
Service and spare parts (my current job) mostly involves taking customer orders, entering on SAP, dealing with customer complaints by email, sourcing and ordering new packaging for new products...and loads more.

My salary is about 20k which as afforded me a reasonable lifestyle I guess, but I do have a credit card debt of 13k which I find I'm struggling to clear. I have been offered around 23k redundancy package which I'm finding extremely tempting as I could clear my debt and still have about 10k left over.

One other thing I should mention is that I have a really poor relationship with my boss and while I have stuck things out for over 4 years each day seems to get harder and harder...as I said earlier I like my job but find my boss impossible to deal with and we are both pretty much at the stage where we find it hard to talk to each other....it's a small department of only 3 people so it's kinda hard to avoid each other. When considering my redundancy offer I find the fact that I would be away from him would be very attractive to me.

On one hand if I accept, I could clear my debt and have a fresh start, maybe find a job I would enjoy, but on the other hand I am petrified of being out of work, unable to pay my mortgage or scared to a lesser extent of having to do a job on minimum wage which would definitely result in a lifestyle change.

I guess what I'm asking is that has anybody else had a similar dilemma and how did things work out?

Thanks for reading I posted here as tomorrow is the deadline for accepting the redundancy package.

getmore4less

What's the chance they will survive even with these cutbacks.

Why is the business needing to make these changes

Will it recover...

Last out no package.

md2012

What's the chance they will survive even with these cutbacks.

Unsure about that, at the moment they manufacture 2 different products but after the redundancies there will be just one, there are rumours that the company are just seeing out contracts but nobody knows for sure


Why is the business needing to make these changes

It's a global company and they have decided to move all manufacturing of solar panels to japan, it's a Japanese company I work for.


Will it recover...

Again, I have no idea, they have a history of downsizing and then closing completely across Europe

Last out no package.

Really? So if the place closes completely I will not be offered anything, even after 24 years service?