Would you take voluntary redundancy during a pandemic if it meant you could move back 'home'?

juliebunny

I'm really struggling to make a decision here and would value anyone else's experience or views?

Our company is having a Voluntary Redundancy programme. I currently work in a big City but am from the country (200 miles away). I've lived here since I was 18 and am now 51. I have been working at home since march and it's been very lonely. Most of my good friends have married and moved away over the last few years and whilst I have a great job and friends who I see, I don't have anyone I would call 'close', and I'm single. I don't particularly like the town where I live, although it's not particularly bad, I just never felt like it was 'home.' Moved here because of a previous partners family connections.

Following a family bereavement I'm now questioning my life choices and we have a VR opportunity at work, which would allow me to move back 'home' to be near my remaining family and I have a couple of friends there still as well, one of whom is very dear to me and excited at the chance for me to move back. The VR package would pay for the move and give me a cushion for at least 6 months.

The problem is that I haven't lived there for such a long time, it's a small seaside community with limited job opportunities (almost zero at the moment!) although I do believe things will pick up when the economy does as there is a city within 40 minutes drive where I could work.

Am I crazy to be thinking of leaving a good job, with a great pension, during a pandemic/recession or is family/friends and home all we really need in life? I would likely move from a professional job into something much lower paid, but I would get a nicer home in a nicer area there. Also, what would it be like going back to a hometown that I ran away from all those years ago because it was boring with no prospects? I'm older now and value a quiet life - I don't need nightclubs now so I guess it's a whole new world?

I'm going round in circles!

Sandtree

Unfortunately this is one for you to figure out... but you knew that already.

Has your employers given any indication of what the new world order will look like? Some companies have announced working from home is the new norm others are saying they expect people to start coming back into the office routinely. A few people I know have chosen to do their "working from home" from somewhere else other than the normal home be that overseas for better weather or in the country for better scenery etc... obviously could have been a good opportunity to trial what its like being back in the old town if in slightly odd circumstances. Could there be an opportunity to WFH in your current job from the seaside town any maybe only have to go into the office once a fortnight or such? Certainly there is enough talk about employment become less geographically relevant.

You mention redundancy only giving a 6 month window even with the presumably lower living costs, have you thought what you'd change in your lifestyle to reflect the lower income? Do your retirement plans change or is the money already all in the bank for that?

My mother left her home town at 21, married several years later and moved around a bit with my fathers work. We settled down in the midlands (150 miles from her home town) a lot later (when I was 5), stayed there after my father died 9 years later but when I hit 20 she retired and decided to move back to her home town as I was off at university and she had friends in the Midlands but felt she'd have more connection with people "back home" where a lot of her sister's and brother's family still lived and 2 of her old school friends.

For her it was a mixed bag... one of the two school friends died shortly after her getting there but she saw a lot of the other one for a while then the novelty wore off and it became less often and then she moved away to be nearer to her kid for grandmother duties. Similarly with family, she fell out with her sister and her sister's kids (all in their 40s by this time) towed the family line and so she's be left with her one niece from her brother. Now she travels down to the Midlands to see friends but these are getting rarer as she gets older & people die off or move away.

She does still like being back home, and I think ultimately she doesnt regret retiring there (it freed up a reasonable amount of capital) but it isnt what she expected. Naturally we'll never know how it may have turned out had she stayed in the Midlands.

Personally, I liked my home town growing up but its changed a hell of a lot, almost no one I knew is still there and whilst I am not sure I'll ever be a "Londoner" I don't have anything pulling me back to the midlands - I can see the rose tint of the glasses.

Fireflyaway

In your situation I'd go home. If you can live cheaply to give you as much time as possible to find another job and find affordable accommodation etc. Also be willing to find work that's lower paid or fewer hours than you would ideally like. Basically be prepared to be flexible. If you don't go I think you would always question what it would have been like! There doesn't seem anything holding you where you are and I suppose you could move back if somehow you find you made a mistake. Not wishing to be morbid but my auntie was planning some changes in her life. She was fed up with her job and had saved hard all her life and finally decided to take early retirement. A few months before she achieved it, she died in a road accident. None of us know how long we have and your plan doesn't sound irresponsible or risky. Go for it!

AskAsk

stay where you are.  i am of the mind that while you can still earn money and you need it, which you do as your VR only last 6 months, you should earn as much as you can as you never know when you won't be able to earn any more.  move back home when you retire and don't need to make any more money.

rach_k

I'd stay.  Once things have stabilised - or we see what the new normal is like - you can look for a job in your home town and then resign once that's sorted.  I don't suppose there's anything stopping you looking now, although you said there's not much there at the moment.  6 months sounds like a long time but if you're desperately searching for a job, it'll go quickly!  Personally, I'd prefer to forgo the redundancy money for the extra security of waiting and lining up a job before you move.  

BrassicWoman

If it was where my heart was, and I had family to support me, I'd go. The world situation shows that life is too short to be somewhere you don't love. At 51. you may only be 4 years from a works pension.

onwards&upwards

If lockdown has taught us anything its that the people we love and care about are actually much more important than houses, jobs, social status, shops, restaurants  or pretty much anything else.  

If your firm is offering voluntary redundancy now, involuntary may not be that far behind anyway, and you tend to get a much better package if you opt in.  

What sort of job/career will you be looking at after the move?

JReacher1

Is it possible you can do both? Move back home but continue to work for the same employer.  If you’ve worked from home since March can you permanently work from home? 

mark55man

take the money and cry all the way to the bank. I think you will find you can spin the money out longer than you think.  

but be careful if you are defined by your job, as you will lose that as well - think about how you are going to spend the extra hours

Savvy_Sue

If you could spend, say, a month 'at home' while still WFH, I'd definitely give that a try. 

And honestly, I don't know what I'd do. We moved about 20 years ago, and while I still miss 'there', I know it's not home: fewer and fewer people would know us. Plus I saw my parents move in retirement to a completely new place: they were near one of my siblings but were the 'wrong' side of town for regular contact. They settled in better than I ever expected but there were still things they missed (and moaned about). 

BTW, Sandtree, I think I will always be a Londoner, but I could never live there again ...   

One other thought, if you DO decide to move back, get yourself stuck into things independently, don't 'just' hang out with friends and family. If you sing, join a choir; if you walk, join a walking group. 

Mojisola

Savvy_Sue said:

Plus I saw my parents move in retirement to a completely new place: they were near one of my siblings but were the 'wrong' side of town for regular contact. They settled in better than I ever expected but there were still things they missed (and moaned about).

It's probably easier make the move at 51 than for julie to wait until retirement.