It didn't go exactly like that, but it comes down to the same Image Source: funteambuildingactivities.com
Today marks exactly 2 weeks since I’ve been made redundant together with my friend and colleague 
Background
For the past 5 years I have been working for a big international travel agent, that is known and respected all over the world. When I joined the company they/we were on the brink of bankruptcy and the last 5 years have been anything but a stable and straightforward walk in the park.
My background is heavily paved in the tourism industry. My last function in the Netherlands was as a General Manager of 2 hotels, the one being a small 3 star, 61 bedroom hotel in downtown Eindhoven, the other a larger 4 star hotel closely situated near the main trainstation in Rotterdam.
I could tell you stories ... and maybe one day I will Image Source: popcornentertainment.blogspot.ch
At the time that I joined this company/division that I work(ed) for was created to merge markets and processes in order to make things more efficient and less cost heavy. Even in those days each market was still doing its own purchasing and brochure production and it was up to us to synergise these processes. For me it was my first real job coming to Switzerland from the Netherlands and it was very exiting to be part of something ‘new’ and to build a new company and processes from the ground up. It was my responsibility to set up the trading department within the Product Management department and my job was really interesting and entailed quite a bit of travelling.
Back then the company was partially Belgian, Dutch, French & Swiss, so there was a real international feel to it. It was always the plan to add Germany, the UK and other countries as well, but only once things were set up. However in the initial days I had to travel quite a few times to Ghent, Hoofddorp and once even to Stockholm and the UK.
As time went by the Germans joined and started to take over and the whole feel started changing. German became the ’official’ language, things became even more structured and organised and the company started growing as a whole. Also organisationally, the jobs that we had started doing were being merged into new ones and we started to evolve them to ensure that processes became more optimised and efficient. I had started as a Commercial Trader and my next position was Product Manager City Breaks.
That job I did for almost 2 years, however back then I also noticed that the company wasn’t done changing and I knew that I had to grow along. Therefor I thought that changing to our internal bedbank would be a good move as I figured that technology was the way forward and a fantastic experience to take with me, whatever I would do next. So after working as a PM responsible for London, Rome and other smaller cities, I made another sideways mode to become a Trader for this bedbank.
Well, Trader was the jobtitle, but the job itself is more like a Business Analyst. I created my own performance tool to compare, keep-track and analyse the performances of the destinations that fell in my areas of responsibility. Based on this analysis I would then take decisions to either raise or lower my margins, whilst always having my budget in sight. That is/was my key job and accountability. Besides this I was also a Key-Account Manager for one of our biggest clients and I did a bit of purchasing .
I absolutely love what I’m doing, I am very strong in analysing data and I am also realistic and honest. This is both a good thing and a bad thing for an analyst. The good thing is that people rarely surprise me when I’m doing something right or wrong, the downside is that I can see the proverbial ‘thunderclouds’ moving in from miles away … as I had done previously.
The main issue this time was that our division was not part of the ’core’ product of the company. So where the group is concentrating on its ‘core’ product, we were left on the sidelines. No one was purchasing specifically for us anymore, we got less and less products to sell and we were fed the leftovers from the ’mother-company’, if there was any left. Where I had a portfolio of over 150 hotels in a single region a year ago, I now had a portfolio of 150 hotels in total in all my regions.
So without the support of the ’mother-company’ we were left steerless, abandoned and reduced. It was quite obvious that there was no way that this situation could continue. This is one of the reasons why I decided to take my fate into my own hands and work one day a week with my father-in-law and try to re-energise his company.
the Moment
2 weeks ago the news was broken to me. On the 22nd March at 15:28PM I got an e-mail without subject from my linemanager, this is a screenshot of the complete body:
What would you do when you get an e-mail like this? Obviously there was no time to prepare or stall, I had no idea what was awaiting me in the Board Room, but there was only one way to find out. So I made my way over thinking about every possible scenario involving myself and my performance and as I neared the room I said to myself, I’m going to be cool, I’m going to let them do/say whatever they want and I’m taking my time to respond and compose myself. Let them be in charge and take your time to answer them.
After knocking I entered the room and found my linemanager and our HR-person there. At that moment all possibilities open up and all scenarios go went through my head again. I was determined to let them handle the whole thing, so I just stood there, waiting for them to take the reigns. They asked me to take a seat and then broke the news.
Now what
As a family-man, a husband, a father and the main bread-winner my first reaction was off-course ’oh shit, now what? How am I going to pay the bills?’, but then my mind went back to its analytical nature and figured this is probably the best thing that could have happened to me and let me tell you why:
- As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve seen this coming for a long time and with other developments in the company I am fearing for its’ future existence. From my point of view, now I benefit from the fact that there’s still money and they give me a little severance package
- I am already working 20% with my father-in-law and there might be an opportunity to expand on this if I manage to turn the tide and grow the business again
- With everything that’s been happening in the company, combined with the fact that I’ve been getting little chances to develop myself and with no chance to move upwards, I’ve wanted to leave the company for a while now. The work has become repetitive and boring and despite me trying to innovate my work and look to add more tasks and responsibilities to my core-responsibilites, I could not stem the flow or get in with ’the popular kids’. On the other hand personal circumstances and my wife have held me back from looking seriously for another job and switching, So I was between the proverbial rock and a hard place, this is giving me/us the needed push.
- Over the past 5 years EVERYTHING has changed for me; we got married, we had kids, we moved home, i got the Swiss nationality, from that aspect everything went really well for us, but I've never seen a penny (rappen in Switzerland) more than the salary that I got when I started, despite costs of living rising
- Unemployment benefits in Switzerland can go up to 2 years, which gives me a lot of time to find something new and in the mean time I want to utilise the opportunity to do some more courses and maybe even visit a school to add some skills to my portfolio.
I have considered applying internally to stay within the company, however now that they have opened the door for me to leave I am going to take it and jump in the deep end. I know that they're not going to pay me more money if I leave ... they'll probably even try to cut the salary that they pay me now, as they've made me redundant and on top of that I travel between 2,5 - 3 hours a day to get to work, this is something that I really want to focus on reducing. If I worked in Zürich I could get anywhere within 45 minutes that means I could cut my daily commute by almost half.
Not my plan! Image Source: theguardian.com
So there you have it, that's my plan for the foreseeable future. Today I registered for unemployment benefits which I hope to avoid off course. I am also changing my CV and I want to thank 
It's going to be a long, difficult and stressful ride and I want to thank everyone for sticking with me and supporting me. Your help and feedback really helps a lot and make me feel very certain about my future. This is something that I will try to avoid with all my might, my brain needs a challenge:
A big THANK YOU to each and every one of you and if you have advice or a job for me, feel free to contact me either below or through a DM on discord wolfje#6587
Thanks,
Doron
