Chapter 93

Walking into work on Monday morning, I felt like there was an unexplained shift in the air. The day started like any other Monday, requests, queries and work came in and between us we divided and conquered them all. We all received a team meeting request for 4pm. We speculated what it could be, but no one was any wiser.

By early afternoon we had cleared all our work as a team. While others sat there gossiping and talking, I asked around other departments to see if anyone needed any help. I hated sitting doing nothing. I needed to be doing something and if it was not my own work and I could help someone else clear their tasks, then to me that was true teamwork.

Just before the 4pm meeting we all gathered together and headed to the meeting room on request. We sat there talking away when the door creaked open and in walked our boss followed by an HR representative. We all looked amongst ourselves with a little fear on our faces. HR meant this was a formal meeting. They took a seat at the top of the table.

Our boss began the meeting, “Firstly, I would like to say what a great job everyone has been doing recently. This team is fantastic. There is a great wealth of knowledge and experience here.”

He waffled on for a few more minutes about how great we all were and how happy he was about the work we were producing.

“I must admit though, there have been some business changes going on in the background which affects our department. This means that the business needs have changed and our team of 6 now needs to be reduced to a team of 4. We have looked within the business and, with regret, there are no opportunities available for transfers. Unfortunately, this means we need to make redundancies.”

We all looked at each other one by one.

HR then spoke, “We understand that this is shocking to hear but firstly we are offering voluntary redundancy. We do need to move quickly so we are allowing your request for voluntary redundancy until Friday this week. After this time if there are no volunteers, we will have to sit and assess the team members, to look at who will leave.”

My mind started rushing, I loved my job, however it was one of the three things tying me here. Through work came my friends and, in this scenario, if no one volunteered and decisions were made, if I was forced to go would I resent them or vice versa if I was chosen to stay?

This could mean potentially losing my job and friends, which would mean the only thing holding me here would be family which I have moved away from before. This could be an opportunity for my relationship with Logan. The problem was I loved my job.

“It is unfortunate that we need to push this decision through quickly, but I can assure you each person will be fully assessed on the quality and quantity of their output. I can assure you it will not be last in first out either.”

As we headed back to the office after the meeting it became very clear, very quickly, that no one had any intention of volunteering. It was also clear that no one had any intention of thinking about volunteering.