Redundancy

How quickly do things change.

Three people at work were made redundant yesterday. Yes, although that appears to be an everyday occurrence in these troubled economic times, these three retrenchments really came out of the blue. Management had told us that they weren't going to cull Sales staff. Yesterday, they made three Sales Development Managers from the Recruitment team redundant. Two of them I knew personally, as Martin use to be an Agency AM, and Missy was Lizzie's boss. It was an absolute shock to the both of them. For the rest of us, the news shook us to our core, as we all looked around the office asking ourselves - who's next?

Missy had a toddler and was pregnant with her second child. She had a mortgage and was the breadwinner of the household as her husband was a Qantas baggage handler. She had a few months to go before her maternity leave but was already making plans for when she goes on leave. One hour long meeting on Tuesday morning and her world was suddenly turned upside down.

Her situation really got me thinking about the "what if?" What if Merv or I lost our jobs? What if we had a mortgage? How would we cope?

Merv and I want to start our lives together and move into our own place next year. In light of recent events both within Fairfax and on the macroeconomic scale, I am more determined then ever to save as much money as possible over the next year. The housing market is predicted to tumble next year (2009) and we're hoping to buy our 1st home then. I'm also determined to borrow as little as I need, and pay it all back over the shortest possible term. I don't ever want to be in Missy's position (which I'm finding out, is not foreign to a lot of Australians in this current economic crisis) - out of a job, mortgage and kids.

My last few posts have all been about the struggles of others in my world. It's like the skies are reminding me just how fortunate I am.

I need to give back.