Making The Most Of Redundancy (Or Any Free Time) and Learning The Benefits of Balance
In the era of furlough and free time, Georgia Green shares her experience of managing your mental health in unprecedented circumstances …
“Last year, at the age of 24, I was made redundant from my first ‘proper’ job out of university, after having been there just over a year.
Anyone who’s been through the slog of applying for jobs as a graduate will know the long and painful process all too well - and the elation that comes with finally landing a job in your chosen industry. ‘No more internships for me!’ I thought, as I bounced my way along to the first day of my new job as an editorial assistant for a magazine - the most entry level position for any aspiring journalist. Once in there, I even started working across another title - one person doing two jobs, surely I was invaluable here now. Not quite.
The problem with the publishing industry is there’s not a lot of money where there once was a lot. Print magazines have been replaced by blogs, social media and influencers, and budget cuts are being made across the board. About eight months after I started, my colleagues and I were called into a room to be told that, due to various things I’d never even thought of or been warned about at university, like contracts and budget cuts, one of the magazines I worked on was possibly going to be acquired by another agency.
To cut a long story short, after months of agonising waiting, we were eventually put into a TUPE process and moved to a new agency along with the mag. One month after starting at the new agency, I was told I was being made redundant - a month later I was gone.
“Over the next seven months of my redundancy life, I mulled over these questions again and again and again. Because if there is one gift to come from being made redundant, it’s the gift of time”
I was told it wasn’t personal and I knew that. I wasn’t the only one, either - other people also lost their jobs, but it didn’t make it sting any less. One of my initial feelings was how unfair it was. While I was technically more experienced than when I was last on the job hunt, having been in the role for little over a year meant I hadn’t had much chance to progress and it was probably going to be just as hard to find a job as before. I also had the conundrum of what sort of job to go for next. Should I continue to pursue the world of print journalism, knowing how risky and uncertain of an industry it is? Or should I branch out into digital, marketing or copywriting? Maybe I should have a go at freelancing? Or perhaps I should sack it all in and start up in something completely new?
Over the next seven months of my redundancy life, I mulled over these questions again and again and again. Because if there is one gift to come from being made redundant, it’s the gift of time. Whether you’ve recently been made redundant, furloughed or are working from home, thanks to Coronavirus, many of us have suddenly found ourselves with more free time on our hands than we’ve had since we were children. In our modern world where we rush, rush, rush from one thing to another, we’ve always wished for ‘another hour in the day’ - but it turns out too much of it can actually be quite terrifying, isn’t it?
So, having not long come out of redundancy (I’d been in my new job for exactly three weeks before we started working from home), I feel I can impart some wisdom on how to handle so much free time.
Because free time can be both a blessing and a curse. While redundant, I had the time to really weigh up my options, to step back and look at what it is I enjoy and what I wanted to do with my life. I had the time to create a website and online portfolio for myself, something I had been meaning to do for ages. I had the time to hone and craft my covering letters and CV to perfection, spending a whole day on just one application if I wanted to. I took on an internship, despite knowing I was overqualified to be an intern, but I had the time and no one was hiring me, so why not? I didn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn, nor did I have to commute for two hours of every day. I took up old hobbies like running and blogging and started new ones like pottery, something I had wanted to do for years.
“Don’t let social media convince you that you need to have taken up three new hobbies, read 27 books, home cooked every meal from scratch and baked a thousand loaves of bread by now. ”
But having ample free time also meant I had far too much time on my own, left with my own thoughts to swirl and scramble around my brain. I would go down weird rabbit holes, wondering if I should retrain as a masseuse, a teacher, a personal trainer, a yoga instructor, a potter… The options were, apparently, endless. I also had far too much time to be critical of myself, to think up myriad reasons as to why I wasn’t getting any interviews or responses to my pitches. Equally I had too much time to feel sorry for myself - neither of these practices were healthy.
It can also be extremely hard to find motivation. There’s a reason most of us respond to deadlines. People always think ‘if only I had the time I would get X, Y and Z done’, but when you’re gifted with days upon days of free time, with no deadline in sight, it can be very easy to think ‘I’ll do that tomorrow’ over and over again.
Not having a job to go to everyday led to a sense of purposelessness. What was I contributing to society, if I wasn’t working? Combined with my control freak nature, I came to place an inordinate amount of value on things like making dinner or completing a run. It was my way of taking back some control and being able to say I had achieved something that day, which, a lot of the time, did actually help. But on the flip side, if I didn’t do as well on my run or I messed up the dinner, that would equally bring an inordinate overreaction - enter harmful thoughts like: ‘I can’t even make a simple dinner’ or ‘what was the point in even getting up today?’
The aimlessness of every day had a huge affect on my mental health. I was often irritable and snappy; I would traverse between having loads of energy to absolutely none at all; surges of ambition and drive would suddenly give way to complete despair and hopelessness.
However, if there’s one trick I learned, it’s that it’s all about balance. You’ll have down days and that’s ok. Don’t be afraid to wallow in it a bit - stay in your pyjamas, watch five hours of Netflix and order take out. Just because you have all this free time, it doesn’t mean every minute of it has to be productive. You won’t always have the privilege of lying in until noon on a Tuesday or working from home in a grubby sweatshirt and unbrushed hair, so indulge in that perk while you can.
“For many of us, this is arguably the only time in our lives we will have as much free time as we do right now, so take a second to embrace a slower pace of life and let yourself indulge in the privilege of boredom.”
But, as the old saying goes, you can have too much of a good thing. If every day is spent lounging around becoming one with the sofa, the novelty wears off and it will begin to affect your mood. For instance, you’ll only really enjoy takeout if you’ve made yourself a home cooked meal the last few nights in a row (side note: don’t underestimate the power of cooking - there are so many benefits to making a meal from scratch and it doesn’t have to be anything fancy or complicated to reap those rewards). Or, after a few days of wearing leggings and baggy jumpers on repeat, it can be a great mood boost to spend some time picking out a nice outfit, applying a bit of make up and straightening my hair. Balance.
The same goes for what you do with your time. Some days are made for staying on the sofa all day, but you’ll only truly appreciate doing that if you spend the next day going for a walk, baking a cake or learning a new hobby - personally, I’ve taken up macrame, which is a great way to pass hours at a time.
Don’t let social media convince you that you need to have taken up three new hobbies, read 27 books, home cooked every meal from scratch and baked a thousand loaves of bread by now. Equally, if you want to do that, please don’t let anyone make you feel guilty for doing so - you do you. Everyone responds differently to stress and there’s no point in shaming others for not responding in the same way you do. But please do remember my rule of balance - for many of us, this is arguably the only time in our lives we will have as much free time as we do right now, so take a second to embrace a slower pace of life and let yourself indulge in the privilege of boredom.
Listen to your body - do you need a rest? Or do you need to get up and do something? In my experience of redundancy, if I had spent a few days not doing very much, the chances of another ‘nothing day’ improving my mood were slim. Likewise, I knew I would eventually be working again and would miss being able to watch Gossip Girl in the middle of the afternoon, so I made sure I did plenty of that, too. Balance.
This is a weird, unprecedented time, so let’s be kind to ourselves and each other. When the pressure is removed, you might be surprised at what you do (or don’t) get done. Both options are ok.'“
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If you’d like to see more from Georgia, you can find her on Instagram at @gee_green_ or visit her portfolio here!