Are you suffering a downturn in business? Need to downsize? Well, lend me an ear, and I'll tell you a tale, a tale of what not to do ... with a hint on what you can do.

I've witnessed quite a few redundancies and been made redundant no less than thrice. The biggest farce I recall was a wave of what we called voluntary redundancies in the 1980s. It swept the steel industry at the time only to find that, well, the people who opted voluntarily to move on (a voluntary redundancy) were those that were confident of finding one jobs, the most employable people. The ones who stayed were those least confident that could find another job, the least employable. It was unilaterally considered a bad move after the fact and after the first wave, it became voluntary redundancy on approval!

Whence it came

To be clear, I recount the tail of my own redundancy. But to understand it, we need to understand its context, and from whence it stems.

A small to medium business, that in the 22 years I worked there in its various names and guises, wavered between about 10 and 30 staff members at a guess. I was hired, on the back of a few years working in the field of training course design and delivery and management system installations across a global customer base, to design and deliver a training course for this business in a field of science new to me, that had been sold for delivery in 12 weeks but didn't actually exist yet. Always up for a challenge, I took home a text book from which I read cover to cover (the bible of this science) and for my first day, met my new boss at the airport, for a trip to Malaysia where he was presenting the product and felt this would be as good an intro as any.

At that point, I wanted to reduce my travel (I'd been on the road for most of a decade by then and for two years prior to taking this job, in aeroplanes every weekend to deliver a training course, and install systems across the world and had enough and wanted to be there for my daughter. So I did a job swap in house, with a guy we'd hired into Quality Assurance, and so began my sojourn there.

In time, I dropped to a 4-day week wanting to be a present father in the life of my daughter, and we grew our business to purchase another, and then start a new blue sky division that would produce a new product into a new market to diversify our interests and protect the business against the vagaries on one product in one market. Along the way, I progressed to managing the Customer Support, Quality Assurance and Documentation needs across three business teams with teams of about a dozen individual support staff, testers and writers.

To fund this blue-sky product, we courted venture capitalists, and so had a glorious time of growth. Alas, internal conflicts and mismanagement also ensured we were running out of money and time and nowhere near an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and I moved into project management tasked with delivery of a v1 MVP before we ran dry.

I pushed for significant reforms to sales and marketing (pricing reforms, reseller network growth, marketing and growth of passive sales - we had grown to this point on direct sales, rebranding with new brochures and conference and trade show bling and uniforms for our staff). I secured only some of that before my colleague decided he didn't really know what a CEO did all day either or, better said, and more honestly, decided that it wasn't for him, resigned and became a school teacher (which I dare say did not include a pay rise - which to my mind is a touching measure of what it means to be doing something you love - he's loving teaching to this day, and was a pretty good CEO too I should add).

A new CEO on deck (again with my recommendation and support) I did ultimately execute all those reforms and then turned to focus on the business relations as the global partner manager, growing our internation reseller network and empowering them to sell more rapidly, and courting the hardware suppliers we sold on the back of for OEM style deals.

I would much rather be called into a meeting to discuss the plan of moving to quality assurance, and have the business needs and priorities on the table before the deal is finalised before it is a fait accompli and a formal redundancy with what can only be seen as a rather impersonal and concerning - decision made behind my back. At this point I was reporting directly to the CEO - a position I was almost offered at one point - and had been working closely with him for 5 or more years and had what I felt was a personable and friendly relationship. Such an unexpected, surprise delivery of dry formal decision made behind my back was most unwelcome in that context.

I did however, appreciate action on the front of my efforts to negotiate a return to the development team and creative expression and the offer of a place in that team and also credited them with solid efforts to keep the remunerative impacts modest and minimal. All the same I had two young sons now and found that on a 30 hour week that I was rushing everywhere all the time so I asked if as part of this transition I could drop to 25 hours a week, 5 x 5 hour workdays. That was granted.

I had just got this to the point of good enough, and a desire to present new tools and methods first to a select group of receptive folk and then with some luck to the whole team. Tools for increasing the rigour and efficiency of our QA efforts and first moves into full automation of our UI testing (big job to do well and would need full team buy-in).

December was approaching, and our half yearly reviews and I was going to table the possibility of a roll out and presentation, to sound that out, I felt the time was right, work sufficiently mature and the team culturally ready.

My goal was to present this and seek an exit from the business at some point. I had done my run on quality assurance here now and was keen for a change, a new adventure. I had been looking on and off for other opportunities for years and my poor wife had always to remind me that I had a job most people dream of. I had 5-hour work days on a good rate, could come and go mostly as I pleased and work fairly autonomously. What's not to love?

Redundant again

(sung to the tune of

Still, I also know that gentle movement is better than not, so I did ride my bike into the office (late, because I was working the afternoon shift anyhow on account an egagement in town that night) - I commute on a bicycle BTW. I put in a days work (at my standing desk). Leaving the office late-ish, and just putting my helmet on by the front door, still doubled over a little with stiff sore back and wonderig how wise it was to ride in, my CEO pases me on the way to his car and thrusts a letter into my hand (I bet you know where this going ...).

I get an invite to Monday's meeting on Teams. Ironic, given I have no access to Teams. Described with "This meeting scheduled as per my letter. Please let me know if you’d prefer in-person.". I replied "I'd rather come in thanks." and did. Whatever goes down here can be done looking me in the eye, not over a camera or worse a voice link. Just how many steps can we take to dehumanise this I wondered?

As per the letter this meeting was for them to provide the full context of the redundancy and to afford me the opportunity to propose a redeployment.

The reason was amusing. And no surprise. I might even have predicted it. But still the tight adherence to minimal legal obligations here and the language twists that demands amuse me, I admit.

To put that into context there is no way that a QA role is redundant in this business. There are 4 other staff employed on QA. As it happens though because that blue-sky product failed and our venture capitalists basically lost their money, they wanted to grab the money and run - time to sell the business while the cash cow was earning.

We started this process at the time that I moved into Sales and in fact I was on the team driving it and gave the project its name, Bacchus (a pun on "back us" and the Roman god of revelry and wine). But in all the years since, we had come close once or twice but never clinched a sale.

All of which I'd want, nay need, to make a credible and serious propsal for a redeployment. I reckon I'd find one, no guarantee they'd take it but to pitch one I'd need to do the business analysis which after 5 years in QA I was a little blind to (mushrooms as they say, kept in the dark and fed ...). So no, I had no capability to pitch a credible redeployment opportunity, thanks for invite though.

The redundancy includes a mandated 5 weeks of notice. But they are happy to pay that out, I don't have to work it if I don't want to. But if I want to have some time for a handover it's available. Again, I look at these guys (two of them in the meeting I waived my right and invite for a support person) with a cocked eyebrow. You're saying you'll pay me regardless and I can come in and work here or spend my time looking for another job? Um is that a real question? I told them I could use a day maybe two to document all I'd done and have some hand over meetings and/or presentations and I would like to do that.

I told them again, that it would have been trivial to have a meeting before this letter, as colleagues and friends. We could have come to an agreement we could have timed it better, I'm fine with moving on, I have no need for redeployment, but here we are on my birthday discussing my dismissal, a mere week after a positive RSVP to the staff Christmas party. Merry Christmas Scrooge.

They recoiled a little "It's you're Birthday!?". "Nah, it's tomorrow". They relax visible. I retort "That's all right then I guess". I let them know, here I am 22 years in, much of it in senior management, a sharehlder of the business, and you shove a letter into my hand and lock me out of all the systems, like I'm a spy, thief or vandal or emotionally unstable. "It's not personal, just the 'process'".

It's not personal? Catch-22 my friend. The fact that in a workplace of under two dozen colleagues, with a guy you've worked with for a decade, who recommended you to the CEO position, who's been here 22 years and calls this place family, your precious "process" can't flex a little to make it personal. That is personal. That you couldn't be bothered making this process more personal for me.In refusing to make it personaly, you have made it personal.

I had to take a week off for this bad back anyhow, but then come in and clear my desk. I asked if I could come in on the Monday after and my CEO wrote:

Under the circumstances, and given your views about the redundancy process and our workplace (dehumanising, hostile, treated like a statistic), I do not believe that it’s appropriate for you to attend the premises during normal work hours. 

Agan, WTF? He read the feedback on his "process" right, but it has actually nothing to do with the workplace or anyone in it, including him. Let's be clear, this is a lovely man, and a great colleague, a wonderful salesman and CEO. We simply differ on the relative priorties of "process" and "humanity" in a small business where everyone knows one another, we're all family. But shrug. Evidence in hand, dehumanising and hostile. So I had to come in out of hours.

I also asked about coming in for a day to document my assets and present some materials as a handover - given I'm technically employed for 5 weeks (the notice period). His reply:

To re-confirm, your last day of employment here was Monday 11 November and you have been fully paid in lieu of notice period. You are not “technically employed” ...

Rule 2: Because you followed Rule 1 and met first, never treat them like a threat, or a danger, like someone who's going to steal from you or vandalise you, unless you assess a genuine risk of just that. Which is one more reason to follow Rule 1, to assess the risk of and emotionally unstable repsonse. Never suppose someone is a risk, never mind someone you know very well isn't, someone who is a member of the family, a colleague, friend, shareholder, invested in the business.

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