What Are Peoples’ Realistic Options When Your Skills Are No Longer In Demand And You Are Facing Possible Redundancy?

It’s a rough time for the whole of the civilised world at the moment . We keep being reminded that the economy is recovering, albeit slowly , from the worst recession in living memory, that is unless you happened to be living in 1929. I don’t know about you but it seems to me that things are only getting worse. The world moves on though and time has gone by and it has to be said that the technological world moves at a rapid rate of knots and yesterdays technology becomes obsolete within a short time and opportunities in the workplace appear to be getting rarer except if you have exactly the right range of skills .

Few organisations have a perfect track record relating to worker welfare. They just can’t afford to these days . The Hire ‘em and Fire em’ way of thinking that is common in the US has very definitely spread across the ocean and if company managers are given the task of downsizing their workforce to save costs then , these days they will nothesitate . Facing up to redundancy can be a traumatic experience. An important point is to consider that it’s rarely personal even though occasionally it could seem like it is. “It’s not personal, it’s just business” was a line from the Godfather but the consequences were still quite nasty then didn’t they?

It’s important to start thinking early on if you suspect that you may be going to get made redundant. Forewarned is forearmed in some respects and the earlier you start thinking of the future the more adequately prepared you will be if and when the axe falls. If your skills are totally out of date or are limited to to your current organisation then the sooner you find out what is selling in the labour market the better. Your employer may be one of the generous ones that will give you help with re-training but if it’s a smaller organisation then this can be of limited value. The point here is that when the rumour mill around the company seems to be telling the truth more often than not then it’s time to look at your realistic options for when you actually get the chop.

If you have a specialist skill or a special interest then it’s not a bad time to consider starting your own business. If you have been in a desk job for most of your career then this can seem daunting but you should have a goodly period to mull this over before your employer lands that dreaded letter on your desk (or sacks you by text, as seems to be the current fashion!)

If you get made redundant and manage to get a financial package out of your former employer then one way of investing your redundancy money is by putting it in a Franchise For Sale investment to get you back in business. In fact Franchises seem almost tailor made for people who have been made redundant. Franchises do demand an initial fee but then again it’s not like starting up your business all on your own. A good franchisor will help you through the daunting start up period during which a lot of solo businesses fail. There is something to be said for the Franchise For Sale type of investment as say you have invested Sixteen thousand pounds in a Home Based Franchise. You are far less likely to walk away from this amount of investment level than if you had merely invested a couple of hundred quid in some items that you can’t shift! If you’re worried about the investment levels needed then looking at a Home Based Franchise should help to keep the costs down by avoiding the expense of maintaining premises and plenty of Franchises tend to follow this system . If you have a fair redundancy package but no business experience than a good look at the Franchise For Sale market is likely to be your best bet.

A further option you could look at is vocational training. There are a raft of courses out there and the governments own organisation LearnDirect has a goodly number of basic to intermediate level course leading to industry recognised qualifications. If you are in receipt of benefits there is a grant of two to three hundred pounds available that can be used to help with the costs of a course that leads to a work based qualification

Tagged with: Axe • business • Career Change • Civilised World • Company Managers • Forewarned • Franchise • Godfather • Important Point • Jobs • Knots • Labour Market • Living Memory • opportunity • Rapid Rate • Realistic Options • Recession • Redundancy • Respects • Rough Time • Short Time • Technological World • Traumatic Experience • Way Of Thinking • Workforce

Filed under: Jobs & Careers

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