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Finding employment after redundancy

IrishManc

I’ve a suspected case of Aspergers, not formally diagnosed, been made redundant in Sept 2019 after 17 years for a major UK supermarket, with over 20 years experience at junior roles in supermarkets at age 49 and currently on Universal Credit - although currently living alone in a council property in Manchester, I have extended family and friends in my home County in Rural Ireland near Dublin, whom I visit frequently

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chiarieds

Hi @IrishManc - Welcome to the community. Thank you for joining & sharing about yourself. I'm sorry to read you were made redundant. Are you looking to get back into work, as there's some information here on Scope's website, which I can give you a link to?

Please do also say if you have any queries. as there's usually a member of the community that can help/advise.

janer1967

Hello and welcome to the community, I can empathise with your situation. I was made redundant from a major supermarket 6 years ago after 30 years service in a senior management role.

It was the only job I had ever had I worked my way up from cashier. I did find alternative employment after a while but it was really daunting as all my experience was with this one company.

Have you spoken to your work coach about getting some support to get back into work or have you considered if it would be better moving back nearer your relatives.

Nice to see you have joined us and have a good look around and feel free to join in any discussions

IrishManc

Thank you both for your replies - I’m getting some support and applying for vacancies, trying to apply for at least one job per day while on UC and attending interviews, focusing on local area - despite minor hiccup with broadband at home, I do find planning jobsearch each day daunting and conversely, while it appears at first glance that online jobsearch activity is easier, the fact that everything is online these days actually makes it more difficult, regardless of IT skills level or anything else, personal qualities, etc - one thing that I have found of critical importance is that any jobsearch activity must never be carried out alone nor unsupervised, one always needs a second pair of eyes on that screen, one to one, regardless, in all cases, because important details can be missed when doing a job application and this is even more important in the initial stages of redundancy because of the creeping psychological effects of redundancy to physically go in person with a family member or friend who knows about these things to citizens advice and local council housing officer who can point in the right direction, as one must never assume that one knows what one is doing in the early stages and we all need to understand and accept this reality

janer1967

Welcome back I am glad you are getting support and agree it is daunting now everything has to be done on line

It may be worth registering with some employment agencies as they hold your details on file and contact you if there are any suitable vacancies dependant on what you are looking for I could recommend Reed, but there are plenty out there on the market.

I agree it is good to have someone with you if you can to help with other aspects of becoming redundant like housing officers and citizens advice.

Keep us updated on how you are getting on

IrishManc

I’ve certainly uploaded my CV to all the jobsearch sites and to the retail recruitment websites as my experience has mainly been in supermarkets but the retail recruitment agencies never get back to you in my experience - having email job alerts for all the supermarkets seems to be a better option for me so far, rather than just off other websites which turn out to be for call centres which is beyond my skills and experience

IrishManc

The Coronavirus has also made job searching for even part time and temp vacancies in my local post code area for “essential” supermarket jobs much more difficult and only one of these local supermarkets in my local area after the lockdown accepted a copy of my CV in person - the Sat before The lockdown I attended supermarket interviews outside my postcode area as per my UC claimant commitment as normal but because I’m totally reliant on public transport and public transport has been significantly scaled back, even for Essential journeys, I’m in the position now of having to turn down these job offers if they are not within walking distance, as I can’t be walking to or from shifts anywhere late at night especially to and from the city centre, it’s too dangerous

littleacorn

Lets be realistic here! I was made redundant 5 years ago while working in "safeguarding vulnerable people" and have struggled to find work. I needed part time no more than 10 hours per week because of my disability. This has been impossible as the jobs just dont exist! Yes I could work on a checkout or in a pub when they were open but not t
he job for me with my experience. 5 years later I am still unemployed but give my time as a Trustee for a couple of disability charities. I always look for employment but have given up hope now.

IrishManc

littleacorn said:

Lets be realistic here! I was made redundant 5 years ago while working in "safeguarding vulnerable people" and have struggled to find work. I needed part time no more than 10 hours per week because of my disability. This has been impossible as the jobs just dont exist! Yes I could work on a checkout or in a pub when they were open but not t
he job for me with my experience. 5 years later I am still unemployed but give my time as a Trustee for a couple of disability charities. I always look for employment but have given up hope now.

I do agree, especially given the latest lockdown, which is going to go on for up to 6 months and possibly longer, yet some jobcentres are under the impression (Illusion) that there are lots of these “Essential” supermarket jobs still available, but the reality in my experience is there are none in my postcode area, they are not accepting hard copies of CV’s in person, telling people to apply online and register for job alerts (which I have done with all of the supermarkets) and most online jobsearch websites have search results totally unrelated to postcode area and/or are totally irrelevant to search terms entered, even during this pandemic where If you have been unemployed for longer than 6 months, you have no chance of even getting a part time, zero hours, fixed term or temporary supermarket job - because of public transport restrictions and despite attending interviews just before the lockdown in areas outside my postcode area, I will (very reluctantly) have to turn down these job offers if they do come through, as I’m totally reliant on public transport - online working from home and getting to grips with tech at my age despite my supermarket experience is daunting - what does worry me is that if people while on UC are still expected during this lockdown period to still apply for totally unsuitable jobs outside of postcode area (and unsuitable in other ways) are going to get sanctioned regardless, is going to create a really serious situation for many people - more needs to be done by government and employers, even where a serious economic recession is looming as a consequence of this virus - more support at local level is needed and not just left down to everything being online - our city centres are clearly becoming more unsafe and as a consequence of this, when out shopping for essentials and attempting to drop off copies of my CV to those few supermarkets who will accept them during this lockdown, I have seen a worrying rise in the numbers of homeless people in our local area who clearly cannot handle the benefits system nor the online element of it - I witnessed homeless people collecting people’s trollies in the car park so they could collect the pound coins out of them just to buy food drink and cigs

littleacorn

Have you ever thought about working for yourself and using your transferable skills? If so now is a good time to look into it and do your research!

Chloe_Alumni

Hi @IrishManc, today we have a Q&A with our employment service.

Here is how you can ask a question: https://community.scope.org.uk/discussion/70126/q-a-with-career-pathways-today-1-april-2020