A funny old year

It’s been a funny year so far. Having written about keeping it simple six months ago I now revist those words with the benefit of six months hindsight.

I can remember rumblings of discontent this time last year but paid little attention to them, for the past ten years I’d been in steady and reliable work since I graduated in 1999 – so why should I worry? I’d worked for myself, as a freelancer with agencies and representing myself and two years ago ended up in a full time job.

And then January arrived and work became painfully slow. Clients stopped calling, projects were put on hold and the directors at my company started to spend more time behind closed doors. What was even more surreal was that in a company of over 100 people only part of our business seemed to be affected. I work on Employee Engagement projects and even though our work load dropped off, the other offers in our company had more work than they could handle. Eg. In previous years I’d seen digital designers suffer, this year saw them travel unscathed through the financial meltdown. An example of learning from past mistakes of over employing and over stretching oneself.

In mid February the thirty or so people who make up my team were called into the board room and told we would now be entering a ‘redundancy consultation process’, ie two weeks to to justify your existence as an employee. It was probably the most stressful period I‘ve had to go through and I regret that it meant my troubles at work spilled over into my home life. Thankfully my partner was good listener, an intelligent adviser and extremely understanding.

The benefits of talking to partners, friends and family I can’t stress enough. Through talking about it I learnt a lot of my friends were or had gone through similar processes – for better or worse. And these aren’t just designers, every industry was/is being affected. It was a thought provoking time.

And when your standing on the edge, not knowing how things will fall one is forced to think hard and think fast about what one wants to do and where one wants to be. I’d long been thinking about pursuing a different direction (photography, printmaking, interactive design, writing, carpentry, cookery, travel, etc) and these interests started to form the basis for my next steps. I was all but convinced that my time at this particular company was over so mentally I was well prepared to move on and by investigating alternative occupations it showed me that there are always solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems. It even made me realise what I liked (and to some extents had taken for granted) about my current job; I valued the interaction with my colleagues, the opportunities to work on large scale projects and the lifestyle presented by the location of the office.

As it turned out I wasn’t made redundant. Several of my friends were though and I can only guess that it must be a terribly shocking and frustrating moment to be asked to leave a job you’d grown used to working in. The theft of financial security in these days of high consumption can only equal fear and trepidation and a destruction of one’s own confidence. And for those of us remaining I detect a conflicting and complex set of emotions. Gratitude from having been spared the axe, resentment at having to be dragged through the process in the first place, caution that the entire episode will be repeated.

So what have I learnt from this? I now know the importance of having a grand plan, a goal or a destination to aim for. Just like a lighthouse, in times of trouble it’s reassuring to have a marker to steer towards. It’s important to be constantly prepared, to have a safety net to fall back upon and a well stocked locker to get you out of trouble should the need arise. So I guess it’s all about being aware of what’s happening around you and recognizing the warning signs when they start to appear. And being in as flexible a state as possible so as to be able to adapt to changing circumstances with as much personal control as possible.

Footnote: this is very much an employee’s viewpoint. I am under no illusions employers undergo as tough if not tougher set of emotions and experiences. If I could offer advice to them it would be this: make the process of redundancy as quick and transparent as possible. Doubtless hard to do under the employment laws but perhaps less damaging in the long run.