Last week I ran the first of a series of free online events with wine. You could either buy some wine from Petersons (a small business in Singapore I have chosen to support) or BYO wine. 14 people joined and it was fantastic to see everyone’s faces on Zoom with their wine and beer glasses in hand.

The session covered how we can think about change and some things we could think about, if we are worried about losing our job, how to plan to lose your job (yes not a great thing to think about but better to be prepared) and what you can do if you lose your job. I’m going to use a personal story to illustrate how things can go well, or not so well as the case may be….

Back at the start of 2016 (which could have been a great year, just like 2020 could have been a great year) I was offered a promotion and moved to the UK to accept it. I packed up my very happy life in beautiful Singapore and put it into a 40ft container and sent it across the seas. My two boys aged 8 and 5 at the time and my husband hopped on a plane soon after. And my parents moved from Australia a month later to join us and help look after the kids so Arran and I could work. We found a beautiful house in Harrogate to live in and the most lovely school for Aiden and Charlie to go to (which reminded all of us of Hogwarts).

Two months into our new adventure and as we hung the last picture up in our beautiful house, I was told that my company no longer needed my job…..sigh.

Let’s talk about change and choice. Stephen Covey has a great model to think about change. He talks about the circle of concern and the circle of influence and that proactive people spend most of their time in the circle of influence. During “Wine O’clock” we talked about how easy it is to get caught up in the circle of concern (or maybe it should be called the circle of worry).

Lying awake at 3am worrying about CoVid-19 and whether you will continue to have an income helps no one. I know this because back in 2016 I lay awake a lot. I worried about what we were going to do next as a family. I worried about negotiating my severance package. I worried about whether we could stay in the UK….you get the picture. None of this stuff helped.

As soon as I moved into the “circle of influence” and “circle of control” things got better (well mostly). I did things like:

• engage an employment lawyer to represent me (who was actually hopeless at negotiating anything but that’s another story….)
• researched UK work permits (we were basically stuffed and couldn’t work in the UK at least for 2 years), and
• started applying for jobs and working out where we could to move to.

Preventing losing your job may or may not be possible but you can get ahead of things. Every time in my human resources career when I have been involved in making roles redundant it was very clear that things in the business and the economy were not going well. Don’t be in a bubble people! If there is a global financial crisis or a pandemic (as the case may be) it is going to affect most businesses. Yes there are some businesses who do better during these times, but it’s not hard to work out if it’s going to affect the business you own or work in. Generally you should try to keep tabs on how your business makes money and what makes them successful and how they are tracking. Listed companies need to post their results online and most good businesses will regularly give update to their employees on how they are going.

So, get busy thinking about how your business is doing whether your job at risk. Generally organisations have a duty to consult with employees if they are going to make job cuts. You can flip this by thinking about what you could do to either cost your employer less money for a period OR things you could do in your business to improve revenue and/or profits to help the business stay viable.

Some ways you could save your business money include (which squarely put you in the circle of influence):

• Taking reduced benefits or paying for part or all of benefits yourself. You could think about insurances or allowances you may be receiving
• Could you work less days? Could you work a 9 day fortnight or a 4 day week reducing your salary costs by approximately 10% or 20% respectively
• Could you take a pay cut for a period?
• Could you take some holiday/annual leave? This reduces the accrual organisations need to maintain on their balance sheet. Could you take some leave without pay?
• Could you work on a contract on a needs basis?

Work out some options that make sense for you and go have a conversation with your manager. What’s the worst that could happen?

On tough days at work I often fantasise about not working and lying by the pool with a cocktail. The reality of losing your job is very different. Yes this is kinda morbid exercise but is hugely helpful because:

• It’s best to have a plan in case the worst happens.
• It helps stop the 3am worrying about stuff you have no influence or control over, and
• It’s easier to work stuff while you have a job.

I did a bad job of this when I moved to the UK despite knowing the business was under stress and being involved in many cost cutting activities. Don’t be like me.

So how do you plan to lose your job?

Start with what your company owes you in terms of notice and severance. Notice is the period of time the company needs to give you until your job ends or is the equivalent amount of money for the same period. This should be in your employment contract.

Severance is money that the company may pay you as compensation for losing your job. Depending on where (Country or jurisdiction) and who you work for (small or large business), you may be paid something or nothing. Sometimes this information is in your employment contract but more often it’s found in government legislation or company policy. You may need to do some hunting to find this or ask some questions. It’s important to know your legal rights. When you know your notice and severance payment you can work out an immediate financial position.

Then, will your company offer any outplacement (support to help you find another job) or an employee assistance program (which can help with the psychological shock and sometimes financial planning services). Generally only larger organisations can afford to provide this assistance to employees losing their job.

Think about if you have the right to stay in your country, if you lose your job. So this applies to expats. If you are an Australian working in Australia, or an American working in America you are fine. If you are an expat working in a country where you require some sort of company sponsorship or work permit you need to consider what happens if you lose your job. Will you have to leave the country? And in what time period? Are there different ways you could stay in the country if you lost your job? For example in Singapore, if you are on an employment pass, you could consider applying for a personalised employment pass which gives you a longer period to be unemployed and stay.

You can also think about negotiating a period of gardening leave where you are technically still an employee, but you don’t work, so your work permit would not be cancelled for a period. This was something I was able to do in the UK so my family and I could stay and the kids could finish a term of school.

Then what?

Document all your outgoing costs. What could you do without? What could you cut? What could you delay paying? Then look at your savings or investments plus your notice and severance payments. What is your financial position? How long can your survive knowing all this? Then think, what changes do you need to make? Do you need to find somewhere cheaper to live? Do you need a flat mate? Do you need to sell anything (like a car)? All of these things are under your control to manage. What can you put in place now in readiness and what conversations do you need to have with others in your family?

Finally, start building your networks. I am often asked to meet people who are worried about losing their job, or have lost their job and have worked at their company for many years and have a limited network that could assist with securing a new role. It's best to be nurturing your networks before you need them. You might like this post on networking to get a job.

You could lie on the floor or lock yourself in the bathroom and cry for days (which is therapeutic and probably worthwhile for a short period) but at some point its best to get into the circle of influence and control.

So what can you do?

Start with your termination payment. Do you have any leverage to negotiate this? Could you ask to be paid over a number of months (at full or half pay) instead of a lump sum? This may help you manage your finances while unemployed. What is the tax payable? Is your termination payment liable for tax?

How will you invest in your future? At the moment there are many fee and reduced fee online courses. What of these could help future proof your career? What could you learn that would make you more employable?

Update your resume and LinkedIn profile and reach out to your network with your “story”.

Can you get your side hustle happening? When I was in the UK unemployed for 4 months I got my website I-develop-me up and running and wrote three chapters of a book!

Protect your mental health and do some fun things every day.

What else would you do?