Falling Down

Redundancy Pushed This Guy Off A Cliff. Climbing Back Up Taught Him What A Man Needs To Feel Whole

- Luke Richards

I loved my job. It’s not the easiest line of work to describe succinctly, but I managed a sales team in the area of brand protection, with ASX Top 100 companies as clients. It was my first foray into sales and it was highpressure. But I found the need to hit targets exhilarating. Until everything went south.

It’s an old story. The company I worked for was bought by an American company, which set about maximising its investment. It was a process of pulling out weeds, you could say – and I was identified as a weed. But while they pulled me out, they didn’t discard me. Not immediately, anyway. What they did was move me off sales into a lower-paying, largely robotic role. Everything I’d loved about my old job was gone. I wanted to tell them to shove this new position and walk out. But I couldn’t. Married with two boys under three, I was our family’s sole breadwinner and worked in a field where openings were scarce.

Soon enough, though, my dilemma was settled for me: at my first performance review under the new management, I was let go. I couldn’t accept the reasons they gave me for my redundancy. And that’s what upset me the most. I’m a realistic guy. I understand business. But they were operating from a playbook that didn’t reflect reality. This was costcutting, pure and simple.

A part of me was glad to be out of there. But relief doesn’t make mortgage payments or put food on the table. The stress brought on by redundancy at my stage of life – I’m 45 – is off the charts. My severance pay would cover us for a couple of months. I felt as though I was careening towards a brick wall at breakneck speed.