I was informed I was being made redundant a couple of years ago. They gave a three month 'consultation period' followed by three months official notice; so I faced 6 months of knowing that I would eventually be out of a job.
By the end of my first week of notice, the rest of my team had been let go and my own duties were so restricted that I would arrive in the morning and fulfilled by tasks within 20 minutes.
I then had nothing to do for the remaining 7 hours and 40 minutes of my day. Internet was restricted, iPods and the like were no allowed. I had to simply sit and do nothing all day every day.
Why did I not just leave? Simple, I'd worked for that company for 13 years, and if I completed my notice period they would have to pay me one months salary for each year I worked there. I tried to negotiate gardening leave. That was rejected. I tried to negotiate reduced working hours in exchange for a reduced salary also a no go. I wasn't allowed to help out on other teams as they were worried that I'd classify it as 'retraining' and therefore challenge the redundancy.
My day was insane. I learnt to meditate. I smuggled in e-books formatted in word documents interspersed with fake graphs. I made a 'choose your own adventure' game in Excel. I planned a backpacking round-the-world trip and I wrote many long rambling stream of consciousness passages and lists in Word.
Being paid to sit and do nothing sounds like some peoples idea of heaven. It isn't. It is soul crushing in the extreme. The monotony truly gets to you and you become stressed beyond belief.
The day I walked out of that office for the last time it felt like the world had been lifted from my chest.
Log in to comment