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Hello All,

Wondering if I could have peoples advice on a choice I have to make.

Basically, I work in a well-known telecoms company that is going through a big rough patch. Redundencies are going to happen and I have not had much experience as I have only been there a year. They want to get rid of about 10-20% workforce in our division.

I have two options:
1. Volunteer for redundency - I will get six months salary to leave.
2. Wait for compulsary redundency - Will be much less (<1month).

I would take option 1 in an instant if the job market in the uk looked positive - but it looks sucky and getting a job will take probably quite a long time and my skills are not instantly transferrable. So I am torn between the option of staying (have a job with money) or leaving.

Any thoughts/suggestions? Just for reference I left university a year ago.

Thanks,

Recoba

stick with the job and look for something new at the same time, being unemployed and running out of money is a real drag .... i'm in that situation right now

First of all, my sympathies for your employment situation. I recently quit my job and just started a new one last week. However, I was fortunate enough to have marketable skills and a college degree which enabled me to get another job fairly quickly. In fact, my employment terminated with my original job on a Friday and on the next Monday I was starting my new job in a new field (an entry level position, but my wife and I are not strapped for cash and I am hoping that my credentials can get me on a fast track for promotion). I joked with her on the Saturday between that it was the first time since graduation that I had been unemployed.

Here's my advice: Don't quit one job if you don't have another lined up. It's almost always better to be employed while looking for work than unemployed and looking for work. Prospective employers will wonder why your aren't employed at the time you apply, and you won't be as desperate to take the first thing to come along.

Corallary to the above advice: If you see the writing on the wall and your options are being bought out with a farily generous severance package or being pink-slipped and given two weeks pay plus a box for all of your stuff, take the severance package.

If your employer is offering six months wages, my advice is to take it. If you get a job quickly, you'll have some extra cash to pay off debts, sock away in savings or blow on yourself. If the job market is so depressed that it's hard to find work, you'll have some sort of cushion to fall back on while you continue your job hunt. If the job market is really bad, take the six months pay and subsidise your material needs with another income (ie-fast food, waiting tables, retail, etc.) until you can get a full-time job.

Best of luck to you.

Take the money and run .... and as soon as you reach home start looking for a Job with all means available to you...

Just my 2c ....


Beldin

I'd have to agree with all that advice...start now, and look for a job for as long as possible before you absolutely have to make the decision. Hopefully you will be able to find something, though I don't know what timeframe you are working with. Good luck!

Extra info

Hiya,

Should have included this earlier but I was busy at work

Just to say - I have a week to make a choice.
9 people have to go out of 100.
I am about the most junior (barring 1 or 2)
The other guy who started same time as me was 'advised' to take the money and leave.
The 6 months salary is tax-free!
Further job cuts could be in the offing (with no enhanced money) later.

Any more opinions

Thanks,

Recoba

Not a great choice either way. As Kam suggests, spend some time over the next week looking for another job, and keep an ear open to see if you are likely to be retrenched. Make the decision as late as possible.

I don't know about your tax rates, but 6 mo. tax-free would be equivalent to about 10 mo. wages here.

You have my sympathy for your problem, and best wishes whatever choice you finally make.

Before you start making definitive choices.
I think you had best talk to the person who desides who stays and who goes. Or someone who knows what they are taking about, someone high up. Just step up and talk to him, even if you don't know him.

If that doesn't work you could check how many persones have left before you must make the desision. If 9 people have already left, then you are PROBABLY in the safe zone. Aks if you are!

In the end, you have the best insight in your chances of staying.
If you think the chance of staying is small, take the money.
Then you have 6 months to find a new yob.

Hope this helps,
Good luck.

Rob-hin

Basically, it seems to boil down to: if you take the redundancy you get an extra 5 months of paid leave to look for another job. There are probably other factors to consider, for example whether you will actually be made redundant if you don't offer - just because someone else got the chop doesn't necessarily mean anything to a boss who's looking for quality.

I agree with HLD. Its always easier to find a new job when you already have one.

Get looking now and take the voluntary ASAP, if you can.