The musings of a reluctant house-husband aged 40 and three quarters

I was a marketing manager for a contract hire and leasing company in Birmingham. I had been at the company for 14 years and had a good track record of achieving what was expected of me. I was in the unfortunate position of being made redundant in April 2011 and have been looking for a new job ever since - no doubt much like many other similarly affected souls. In fact 2.62 million according to the BBC (on 16th November 2011) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15747103, the worst unemployment figures since 1994. I am a statistic and it’s important to be counted but believe me, I am not proud of the achievement!

The emotional roller coaster ride of introspection and learning, planning, handling rejection and generally keeping sane has been challenging, entertaining, amusing at times and depressing at others. I have decided to record my experiences primarily to keep busy, utilize some of my skills and as a form of coping strategy because writing is quite cathartic for me.

‘Every cloud has a silver lining’ and ‘things always work out for the best’ ‘everything happens for a reason’ have been quoted to me on numerous occasions and I am sure that they are all true but whilst waiting for gainful employment to resume, I might as well have some fun sharing my thoughts about my new ‘unemployed’ label. My intention is to entertain, maybe generate some debate and of course showcase my talents to employers that have so far overlooked my obvious talents!!!

To start though, I will need to set the scene and to do that I will have to describe some of the more difficult emotional stuff. To be clear right from the beginning; being unemployed has been a real learning curve for me and I am a better, stronger and more rounded individual as a result. I have a better relationship with my wife and kids and have learned a whole set of new skills too. 

Finally, this piece isn’t about losing income, clearly that’s a significant factor in the impact that redundancy can have but most people will appreciate how you have to go about economizing to make ends meet so I won’t dwell on it here.

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