Would you take a Voluntary Redundancy?

yessuz

Basically, I hope you guys can give me some insights.

I am not British citizen, but I am from EU. I am 34 years old, with University degree, I got my family here. Me and my wife we both are working parents. We are renting, but we were planning to buy a house this year. However, I might postpone a bit...

the thing is, he the company I work for (10 years), is offering voluntary redundancies, and the compulsory will follow after VR are finished. VR will be same terms as compulsory.

What I see, is that industry, my company is, is heading south and I expect that there could be anther set of redundancies few years later. this is huge, international company, with few hundred million £ turnover a year in UK alone.

When I did my calculations, I realised, that I should get the equivalent of 10 months pay (net) in both cases, including the PILON and other benefits. Maybe a bit more. So it would keep us going for quite a bit even in case of compulsory, especially, if we would reduce our spending to the very minimum. If I would take voluntary and IF if would find a new job quick, I would have quite a big stash of cash for my deposit or savings.

What I am nervous about, is that I have quite good salary, and my wife faced some had time finding her job, which is much less paid than we expected and what my salary is.
in addition to that, I would lose my car (I have company car) and we live in small town, where public transport is almost non-existing, therefore I would need to buy car asap.

I just cannot make my head, should I apply for voluntary and look for another job, or should I try to stick with current position? I feel that I might have quite good chances to survive redundancies. for this time.
I also know, that It might be that I will not get that lump sum of cash later (if I just change my work), and I am not really satisfied with the work I do now.
but I never have been made redundant or lost job in any way. I even haven't got a proper job interview for at least 6 years now (actually, never had a proper job interview in this country). so you might understand my state.

anyone with the redundancies (voluntary especially), what would be your decision/choice?

spadoosh

Recently took a form of vr. I could keep the job but it wouldve involved moving area. Mine was a min wage job though and was of the opinion that it wouldnt be too hard to find a job if need be.

Fortunately i was working two jobs at the time and ended up just going straight into full time with the employer who didnt make me redundant.

How much time do you have to decide?

Im normally of the opinion that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Ie its better to have a job paying consistently that not having a job with a bit of cash around.

In your case i would be applying for as many jobs as you could and get as much experience in interviews etc as possible. You might even get a few offers which would make the VR decision much easier. Also give you an idea on what pay you could expect, availability of jobs etc etc.

yessuz

I have to make the decision within a month

I also agree, that a bird in hand is better than a moose in the forest

El_Torro

yessuz wrote: »

the thing is, he the company I work for (10 years), is offering voluntary redundancies, and the compulsory will follow after VR are finished. VR will be same terms as compulsory.

This seems like the crucial part of your post to me. If the people taking voluntary redundancy aren't getting a better package than those taking compulsory, what's the rush? From what you say it seems there'll be more opportunities for redundancy in future.

Unless of course you really want to leave now. Do you think you'll get a new job within 10 months? i.e. when the redundancy payment runs out. If the answer is yes then why stick around?

sangie595

El_Torro wrote: »

This seems like the crucial part of your post to me. If the people taking voluntary redundancy aren't getting a better package than those taking compulsory, what's the rush? From what you say it seems there'll be more opportunities for redundancy in future.

Unless of course you really want to leave now. Do you think you'll get a new job within 10 months? i.e. when the redundancy payment runs out. If the answer is yes then why stick around?

However, there is absolutely nothing in law to prevent the employer changing the terms in the future, and if the company is failing, they may do so.

yessuz

yes.

basically, we've been taken over. they are doing the "optimisations" now, but we are still on the old T&Cs.
in 2017 we will be working under the new T&C (and no one knows what they are) and therefore we do not know, what the redundancy package (VR or enhanced CR) will be (if this will change).

that's the biggest IF

getmyacttogether2016

If your getting 10 months for 10 years service thats a good deal. I get 1 week for every year of service.

Not that the potential of losing a job is good. I've got redundancy looming over my head at the moment and it's not a nice feeling.