Redundant at 24 and 364 Days
As this is my first medium post, I am going to as straight forward as I can. I’m not the most outgoing about who I am, so this is a real big step for me to be this truthful and open.
As you can probably guess, yep I was made redundant, but that is not the reason I’m writing this. The real reason is what happened to me after that day, and I now feed empowered enough to share my story.
I’m not going to lie, but it was difficult… and not many of my colleagues even knew the real me (even after 20 months in the role) as I was still trying to find my own identity even at the age of 25. Having ‘come out’ less than 8 months prior (now that was a weight lifted off my shoulders) I was still trying to find my footing with this new identity — of which I still didn’t know where it would lead me or who it would lead me to. Then WHAM! 1 day before my 25th birthday, i was shown the door.
Having worked at this Digital Marketing Agency (which won’t be mentioned by name) for 20 months, I felt that I had started to make something of myself — it also being my first full time role and in a sector that I had limited knowledge about, but I persevered because I was enthusiastic about being given a chance by the hiring managers.
My role was very niche simply because I was the only technical (developer) consultant at the company at that time. So immediately became the ‘go-to’ person for all the code and tech questions from other consultants and account managers. And boy, was thrown in at the deep end! There were mistakes I made in the beginning (I’m not going to deny that) and I very quickly learnt from them, but I was not prepared for the repetitive nature of the work I would be doing for that 20 months…. But enough back story…
As mentioned above, it was hard. It really took a toll on me, and I’m not ashamed to say there were few dark days in the weeks after being let go. But being in the minority where it is 6 times more likely that you’ll have depression and twice as likely to suffer from anxiety compared to the rest of the population, and where 46% gay men between 16 and 27 have contemplated suicide, being made redundant certainly didn’t help with the pressures of finding who you are.
…I’m not ashamed to say there were few dark days in the weeks after being let go…
Now writing this just shy of 5 months since being made redundant, the hurt is still there, but I’m managing it better. Thankfully other businesses were able to see how my skills can be a benefit to them and have managed to find some part time work to keep me going.
I guess where I’m trying to go with this is that within the professional business world, all the focus is on the clients and not enough time is put into getting to know colleagues and managers. Stop to have a chat some times, ask the quiet person in the lunch room how their day is going. You might be surprised about the new friendships you make out of a simple conversation — and this is coming from a huge introvert!
This is something that not a lot of people are comfortable enough talking about, let alone men. So start a conversation, and let’s help each other out. Talking about it does help and you don’t have to go through anything in life alone.
If you need help or someone to talk to, please contact one of the following organisations:
Beyond Blue: 1300 22 46 36 - www.beyondblue.org.au
Lifeline Australia: 13 11 14 - www.lifeline.org.au
Stats mentioned in this post sourced from: http://lgbtihealth.org.au/statistics/
