Redundancy for the FIFTH time in 22 years. HELP!

livewire82

I'm a 40 year old man, married, with 2 children and a mortgage.
I've had awful luck throughout my career (a variety of design, print and marketing) jumping from one redundancy to the next.
I found out last week that it's happening again... for the FIFTH time.
Whilst it's often not personal, being told time and time again that your role is being removed is soul destroying.

To give you some background, here's how each of the redundancies occurred:

Number 1
September 2003
Age 21
Length of time at company: 2 years 6 months

Number 2
August 2009
Age 27
Length of time at company: 2 years 10 months

Number 3
August 2014
Age 32
Length of time at company: 3 years 5 months

Number 4
November 2014
Age 32
Length of time at company: 3 months

Number 5
December 2022
Age 40
Length of time at company: 6 months

They've all hurt but Number 5 is the first one I've suffered since starting a family. I've had a period of 18 months job searching without a successful appointment before but even then, my overheads were relatively lower. Now I have extra mouths to feeds, a bigger mortgage and it's happening during the worst financial crisis I've seen in my lifetime. I feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders. Whatever I do, it always seems to get taken away from me.

I'm not entirely sure what outcome I want from posting this message...I'm lucky enough to have family and friends who have offered support and reassurance but in all honesty I'm tired, I'm angry, I'm frustrated. Right now I feel like I don't have any more strength to carry on. I hate the world I live in, there is depressing news everywhere we look... I'm really struggling to see the good in anything right now. I know I should be straight onto looking for a new job but I've lost trust in everybody. Particularly as with my latest redundancy after only 6 months of employment, I feel like I've been lied to from the start.

I'm also interested to know, can anyone out there beat 5 redundancies?... Bearing in mind I've average 1 every 4.5 years and of those 22 years, 8 of those have been self employed so technically I couldn't have be made redundant!

MikeJXE

No one wants to beat that record but you should learn from it, is it the industry you should be in ? You're young so don't look back look forward, retrain into an industry more secure. 

livewire82

MikeJXE said:

No one wants to beat that record but you should learn from it, is it the industry you should be in ? You're young so don't look back look forward, retrain into an industry more secure. 

Strictly speaking, I've already retrained into a new industry. I have 15 years in one, decided it wasn't quite me, then setup my own business in something I wanted to do, ran into financial difficulties doing that, got an employed role for 6 months and now here I am.Whichever way I turn I feel like I'm met with a brick wall infront of me.
Retraining is easier said than done. I have bills and debts to pay so I can't just simply start at the bottom and work my way up. What I've been doing for the last 5 years is what I want to continue doing. But right now I've lost faith in everything and feel like I'm at rock bottom.

Abbafan1972

Hi there.  Sorry to hear your news.  I think my redundancy history is 5 times - my 1st one in 1997 after 8 years being at the same place, which was my 1st job after leaving school and the branch I worked at was closing, my 2nd redundancy was not much longer after that and the company was going into administration. 

It is horrible, especially at this time of year.  My last time being made redundant was when the Covid pandemic had just started and I had only been there for 6 months.  It turned out to be a good thing for me, as I worked with a real bully at this place and I got a call out of the blue from an agency and I did a temporary admin job for almost a year, before getting into my current permanent job. 

I don't know what sort of industry you are in, but it could be something to do with that?  Make sure you get your CV on as many sites as possible to get your skills out there and there may be something just around the corner for you.

Sorry I can't be of any help, but I do feel for you and hope it all works out.  I know it's easier said than done, but try to think positive. 

livewire82

Just to say thanks to you all who came responded to my initial post. As always, grateful of the support and advice on here.

My last day with my current employer is on December 22nd. Since being told about my redundancy, I've been on it with unrelenting job applications. With recruitment seemingly quietening down for Christmas, I think I'd be best to focus my attention on researching any financial support I might be entitled to.

Whilst I am a redundancy veteran, my personal situation now is different to how it was previously. I have 2 children, a decent sized mortgage, my wife only works part-time and on top of that, the cost of living has increased.

So I'm after some advice on where to start. Should I start with the Citizens Advice Bureau? the Job Centre? My mortgage provider? HMRC?

With dependents, I believe I'm entitled to universal credit but to be honest, I've never claimed benefits before so I not sure what I qualify for or who to ask. Naturally, I'll take whatever I can get. My main concerns at the moment are paying for my mortgage, council tax, energy and food. I also have 2 credit cards and a loan which I need to make repayments to.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Abbafan1972

I'm sure someone will be along to advise on benefits etc, but I would definitely contact your mortgage/credit card providers etc and anyone else for a payment holiday to give you some breathing space.

It would be better that than falling into arrears with them. 

Good luck. 

MovingForwards

If you fill this in, you'll see what you'll be entitled to:
https://www.entitledto.co.uk/

If you are waiting for final pay, holiday pay etc, don't submit a UC claim until after it's received as it will be deducted from any UC award.

Londoner_1

I experienced this twice, April 2008 (fallout from international credit crunch) and april 2014 (co decided to close the dept), both times managed to find something in 1 month.  Now dont give  a hoot if im let go as take my time for next job.

gwynlas

Please let us know how you have got on. i have only been made redundant twice first time I was able to work for an agency then gained a short term contract leading to permanent roles. The second time led to early retirement, had not been prepared so had some financial hiccups but releaved overall.

Yankee24

My husband is 5 times in a 35 year career - includes one time he walked out of a job, and an insolvency.   I think it is the way of the world I some industries-  he was publishing and prof services.  It was so bloody hard when we had kids….  I was just thankful I was an equal breadwinner.  Still sucked. The thing that irritated me most was his initial refusals to take temp work.  Too proud.  Agrees now that that was so selfish and really put more stress in the situation and on our marriage. .  

Brie

I had 4 rounds of redundancy with one company (I managed to side step the first 3 times) and another 4 with my last company - again side stepping until I decided to take the money and run.  The scary thing about the last company was the first redundancy was announced less that 3 months after I joined.