After being laid off, a recruitment professional is caught between traditional HR and recruitment agencies. His story, plus 10 tips for surviving a lay-off. This is Part 2 of a two-part series from HRGateway.com.

HRGateway, a UK-based publication, asked readers to share their lay-off, also called redundancy, stories: how it made them feel and whether it changed them as HR professionals. Anonymity was offered to all who took part for the sake of their careers and the companies for which they work and have worked.

Caught between HR and recruitment

"I do recruitment - mostly IT - and this was the third time that I have been made redundant, in fact, it was twice just last year! The other time was in November 2001.

"The first time the company that I worked for - doing in-house recruitment for a mobile commerce company - went into liquidation and I viewed it as a learning process. There were no concerns in my mind about getting a job so I just spent time seeing the processes and how it all affected those people around me.

"The second time was from a Managed Service company working for a big blue chip IT firm. As I was being made redundant from my firm, and as the client was also making redundancies it was very different from the previous time.

"Again I was confident in my abilities — falsely as it turns out but that is due more to the market rather than my skills — but seeing the process of the blue chip following strict HR guidelines, I was glad that I was leaving so quickly.

"The blue chip had never made redundancies and so it was a shock to staff. But because of the consultation period, you could really see how staff morale was affected and it made you wish that it was a simpler thing to do. It’s far better knowing straight away so that you can get your life in order.

"I have since moved to another part of the country and still do not have work. The main issue for not being able to find a job is the current economic climate.

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