Resilience and Redundancy

It's stressful being made redundant. When organisations "restructure" and colleagues are made redundant, it affects everybody in the organisation - not only those asked to leave. The survivors also experience trauma, but of a different kind. This trauma is known as Survivor Syndrome.


There are four specific stages of Survivor Sydrome:

Relief

Being thankful that it wasn't you.


Guilt

Wondering if you really deserved to keep your job when others had to leave.


Envy

Wishing that you HAD been made redundant, because they all got a large settlement.


Resentment

Being annoyed that you are now expected to take on extra work for the same pay.

The worst thing to say to a survivor is. "Be thankful that you still have a job." Most survivors are not thankful, they often feel guilt and resentment.

A survey of nearly 450,000 people from 116 organisations showed that Survivor Syndrome can limit the potential savings of redundancies by reducing the performance and attendance of the remaining employees and increasing staff turnover.

The survey showed that of those that remain employed (ie the survivors):

• 67% have lower morale
• 53% have reduced motivation
• 65% take more "sickies"
• 65% report increased stress levels
• 17% leave the organisation soon anyway