Voluntary redundancy tips?

[tyred]

I was made redundant from a job I held for many years last year. A change of company ownership towards the end meant I hated it as the new people were horrible to work for. It was a relief to close the office door for the final time when they closed down our office.

There is no doubt life was a lot more peaceful without the daily round of office politics and having a bullying boss shouting down the phone at me every day. However, redundancy money doesn't go as far as you think it will (I didn't actually get what I probably was entitled to but took the offer as the stress was making me ill and also the company was on the verge of bancruptcy and I didn't want to end up with nothing at all). I also spent 7 months trying to find another job, every day with my head stuck on employment agency websites or buried in newspapers and reading every ad and notice in shop noticeboards etc, daily emailing CVs, the weekly trip to the post office with yet more application forms to send back. It is all very tiring and stressful.

I would be very reluctant to leave a job without anything else lined up. Being unemployed is not funny and doesn't do your mental health much good either.

 

[Tin Pot]

I feel I have done ok without much of an education, but I do wonder how much better I could have done with the education my kids had.

+1

I was probably set back five years career wise by failing to get into Oxford. But career isn't everything.

 

[screenman]

+1

I was probably set back five years career wise by failing to get into Oxford. But career isn't everything.

I never consider I had a career, as I have since I was 19 run my own businesses.

 

[marinyork]

I feel I have done ok without much of an education, but I do wonder how much better I could have done with the education my kids had.

That's a bit like saying someone born in England in the 1340s or 1350s (if they survived) did very well for themselves and could have done better than someone born in the 1380s .

 

[screenman]

That's a bit like saying someone born in England in the 1340s or 1350s (if they survived) did very well for themselves and could have done better than someone born in the 1380s .

The kids went on to get degrees and one a masters, I could have maybe done the same in the seventies, had I not been a twat.

 

[Crackle]

A levels mean nothing, I know people with them who can't boil an egg and people who never went to school who can strip engines to bits and re build them. Think I know who's more useful than someone who knows about Shakespeare.

Life ... is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

 

[marinyork]

The kids went on to get degrees and one a masters, I could have maybe done the same in the seventies, had I not been a twat.

So you've said a great many times. I'm sure you could have done a degree, as I'm sure that's the case with many other people.

A lot of parents are scratching their heads and thinking why are my kids doing worse than I did despite them working much harder than I did and studying far more than I ever did. In other words when you were born matters a lot in these matters.

 

[screenman]

So you've said a great many times. I'm sure you could have done a degree, as I'm sure that's the case with many other people.

A lot of parents are scratching their heads and thinking why are my kids doing worse than I did despite them working much harder than I did and studying far more than I ever did. In other words when you were born matters a lot in these matters.

Amongst my close friends most of the kids have gone on top bigger and better things than their parents, luckily we live in a great country full of opportunity.

 

[marinyork]

Amongst my close friends most of the kids have gone on top bigger and better things than their parents, luckily we live in a great country full of opportunity.

That's very unusual (depending on when they were born).

https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/8593

Even the land full of opportunity, the US, goes on endlessly about how baby boomers did far better than their parents, but that's no longer the case.

 

[screenman]

That's very unusual (depending on when they were born).

https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/8593

Even the land full of opportunity, the US, goes on endlessly about how baby boomers did far better than their parents, but that's no longer the case.

I find it often is helpful to see things from personal experiences. So maybe I just have an unusual group of friends.

 

[Milzy]

Most of my friends are hard working but their off spring are lazy down and outs. Recently at work we've had young people in on good money for easy jobs and they just walk out because they'd rather go get stoned. The youth of today are soft lazy *****!

 

[screenman]

Most of my friends are hard working but their off spring are lazy down and outs. Recently at work we've had young people in on good money for easy jobs and they just walk out because they'd rather go get stoned. The youth of today are soft lazy *****!

Can we just add the word some in there.

 

[marinyork]

I find it often is helpful to see things from personal experiences. So maybe I just have an unusual group of friends.

My personal experiences tie in very strongly with what is discussed in the US and here economically/academically. I don't see things statically either, since when I left as an undergraduate getting on for a decade ago, it's now becoming culturally the norm to do a postgraduate master's degree (wasn't then), something which has become very noticeable the last 5 years.

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

I find it often is helpful to see things from personal experiences. So maybe I just have an unusual group of friends.

I'm not seeing it amongst my friends and relatives either. Amongst those of my own generation, born in the 60's, there's a few who have achieved higher station than their parents but most have achieved the same. Amongst their twenty and thirty something sons and daughters however, I'm seeing none who look set for higher station, a few who look set for the same, and most looking set for worse.

 

[User33236]

I'm not seeing it amongst my friends and relatives either. Amongst those of my own generation, born in the 60's, there's a few who have achieved higher station than their parents but most have achieved the same. Amongst their twenty and thirty something sons and daughters however, I'm seeing none who look set for higher station, a few who look set for the same, and most looking set for worse.

I too was born in the 60's, albeit towards the very latter end, but myself, my two sisters, and my group of close friends have all done significantly better than our parents.

My son has the potential to go on to do better than me once he completes his PhD and gets a job.