This time last year my sister-in-law was made redundant, with a finish date of 31 December. This year, it's my brother's turn, with the same date.
What a low down dirty rotten trick to make people redundant just after Christmas. It's the most expensive time of the year, the worst possible time for job hunting and it generally sucks. Why couldn't they wait just another month before dumping their soon to be ex-employees in the crapper?
It's no surprise, though, as there have been various failed take-overs of the company he works for and somewhat unpleasant rumours going round for months, but it's still a bummer.
Hopefully he'll manage to find something faster than me, though. Fingers crossed.
Having been through this more than once, both for my own job and for my dad's job, I have to say that this approach is at least a bit more humane than some of the alternatives. My father was once laid off (made redundant) on December 28. The explanation was that they didn't want to ruin his Christmas. By that time, of course, there's no opportunity to scale back on presents and return items that are more expensive than would be prudent for an unemployed person. That was the worse. By comparison, my layoff on December 13 was almost a mercy, given that I had been waiting for the axe to fall for six months at that point. My family, having been through many bouts of unemployment over the years, was very graceful about the relative paucity of presents that year.
That said, losing a job sucks no matter when it happens.
ralph
Yeah, that's a very good point about the timing, Ralph. I'd not thought of it like that.
I have to admit, I hate being unemployed over Christmas. I really should be used to thin festive seasons by now, as I've had many of them, but every year I promise myself that next year I'll be in a position to splash out and treat everyone and every year, to my great disappointment, I'm not.
Still, at least this year we're all in the same boat in my family, which does make it easier.
I am made redundant on 31st December. But I've known about it for ages. Can I get away with giving cheap Christmas presents – or even no presents at all?
paul
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