It’s a question that, following redundancy, many job applicants stumble around hopelessly with as they attempt to convince interviewer that they wanted to leave when in fact they know that redundancy is more complicated than that.

It’s true that many people in this situation are ready to leave at time that redundancy hits them but discomfort derives from knowing that given choice they would probably not be sitting in that room at that time. Even if true, many candidates still believe that redundancy equals failure in eyes of many interviewers.

Sadly, this is almost always a long way from truth. Redundancy does not visit untalented. Indeed, it is often more able who find themselves in this position, many times by design.

In fact, redundancy is just one way by which people leave an employer. The world of work is changing rapidly and human resource requirement is changing equally fast. The capabilities required by an organisation last year may differ significantly this year. There’s no need to be ashamed if your employer can no longer use skills you offer. The answer is to move on to an organisation where you can add value and to keep your skills up to date so that you are never caught with skills that are no longer required at all.

THE CHANGING NATURE OF WORK The job for life has gone. These days I work with people who are leaving high street banks and even civil service following re-structuring. Many have been with their employers for upwards of twenty-five years and now find themselves entering job market for first time since leaving school. When they joined, these employees would have been fairly safe in knowledge that if they’d wanted to spend their entire working life with organisation, they could have done so.

Whatever causes - technology, demands of shareholders, global industrialisation – it is clear that organisational change happens now more quickly than ever. Change happens because organisations need to remain competitive and efficient and it therefore tends to be driven by operational need (cost reduction) or from a marketing imperative (increased revenue). If it is operational efficiency that is driving change it may well be that whole layers of management or functional areas are removed, perhaps to be outsourced.

This inevitably leads to greater pressure on those that remain who often find themselves with an increased workload. Furthermore, morale is quite often on a downward slope during period leading to redundancy announcements; performance is often poor and bonuses are reduced.

The first wave of redundancy may be voluntary. Who would volunteer for redundancy? It’s usually more talented and confident people. Those who are not happy at work and believe they can find a better job outside. Many people in this category were going to leave anyway. Here’s a chance to leave with a pay-off as well! Did you consider, while worrying about how you were to explain redundancy, that you might be amongst a group who consider themselves to be more capable than most?

Not everyone can volunteer for redundancy. However, it’s rarely case that individuals are singled out on basis that they are performing poorly. For those that are made compulsorily redundant, it is important to remember that it’s nothing personal and it’s not about performance. If a whole department shuts down in order to cut costs, there is no consideration of talent that will be lost. It’s possible that some people will be re-deployed elsewhere, but not finding an alternative role does not equate to being unwanted. It all comes down to whether or not your capabilities are required by re-designed organisation.

Note important point there: it’s your capabilities that are under scrutiny, not your talent. You may be best PR manager organisation has ever employed. You may have helped raise profile of organisation so that rarely does a week go by when your company is not mentioned on TV or in national press. However, that won’t guarantee that you keep your job if decision has been made to outsource all PR activity to an agency.

The “flattening” of organisations also increases desirability of redundancy. Knowing that where there might previously have been two or three people competing for next job up ladder, with flattened structures there may now be ten or more people reporting into a single line manager. All of a sudden chances of promotion are greatly reduced and desire to leave increases. Are you still uncomfortable about idea of being made redundant?

If not, why is it that in so many plc Boardrooms number of female Directors can literally be counted on fingers of one hand, while number of men run into thousands?

Many believe it has become even harder for women to win promotions and hold on to them and that not only is glass ceiling still very much present but women are also aware of hitting it at an early stage in their careers.

Many career orientated females believe that they could break through glass ceiling and make it to top of their professions, however, they acknowledge that in so doing they would have to sacrifice much of their personal lives.

So it seems that throughout Europe, women are only advancing into senior management grades quite slowly, despite legislative changes designed to create a more level playing field, such as EU’s Social Protocol covering equal opportunities like equal pay and sex discrimination.

Having it all?

Research shows that for a female international manager, lifestyle choices are even more difficult than those facing domestic female managers. The obvious problem is that travel, lack of time and exhaustion interfere with – and seriously diminish- family life.