Redundancy Is A Harsh Fact That Can Be Countered With Courage

Redundancy is a noun meaning a state of being superfluous, especially in one's job. In contemporary culture mention of the word is likely to bring a frown to the face because it is a threat to job security. In large organizations the ebb and flow of economic activity can cause people to be considered superfluous at any time resulting in the thunderbolt of being told that one is redundant.

Being named as being superfluous to requirements is demeaning. When the news gets out it is humiliating because one's peers are deemed more useful and better at their work. People are taken back to their school days, when they earnestly perused team lists, hoping and sometimes failing, to find their name.

It may be a moot point whether the psychological or the financial implications are more damaging in the case of redundancies. Being declared superfluous is the sort of psychological event that can diminish confidence and make the search for alternative employment more difficult. In addition the loss of income can become a worrying issue.

Legislation is in place to protect workers in many cases. Employers who find that they are employing more people than is profitable cannot simply fire them without adequate compensation. This may alleviate some problems for workers but it can be detrimental to the economy as a whole. Consequently it may be more difficult for those who have been discarded.

Companies and organizations that operate in countries where firing is easy are frequently more ready to offer new employment opportunities when conditions improve. This can make it much easier for workers who have been laid off to find alternative opportunities.

There may be little compensation for those declared redundant in the fact that the word has a very wide semantic applicability. Nature produces billions of seeds, baby fishes and insects most of which are superfluous and weeded out in infancy. In the fields of engineering and information the word is often used with respect to items in a machine or system that are not needed.

Redundancy is also an important issue in language. Speech or prose that is loaded with tautologies such as, 'small little' is cumbersome. Meaning is blunted by the use of more words than necessary and good editors will delete some words. Like employers, they must decide which one of the two words is for the chop. Where the axe falls one word will feel hurt and rejected. It must pick itself up and try elsewhere to find a place where it will feel useful and indispensable.

	Redundancy Is A Harsh Fact That Can Be Countered With Courage
	Redundancy is a noun meaning a state of being superfluous, especially in one's job. In contemporary culture mention of the word is likely to bring a frown to the face because it is a threat to job security. In large organizations the ebb and flow of economic activity can cause people to be considered superfluous at any time resulting in the thunderbolt of being told that one is redundant.
	Being named as being superfluous to requirements is demeaning. When the news gets out it is humiliating because one's peers are deemed more useful and better at their work. People are taken back to their school days, when they earnestly perused team lists, hoping and sometimes failing, to find their name.
	A declaration of redundancy can involve much more than a psychological setback. The practical problem of finding alternative employment can be exacerbated by diminished confidence and, in hard times, a scarcity of opportunities. Added to these difficulties may be the difficulties of making ends meet on a reduced income.
	In socialist inclined states there are laws that prevent employers from declaring workers redundant without adequate compensation. This lessens the effects of people being laid off but an unfortunate side effect is the unwillingness of employers to take on permanent workers in the first place. Alternative job opportunities may be scarce.
	They rely instead on temporary or part time workers and this makes for difficulties when redundant workers seek alternative jobs. They may be scarce. However, in countries where it is easy to fire people there is frequently a more fluid supply of new jobs making it easier for those declared redundant to find new opportunities.
	There may be little compensation for those declared redundant in the fact that the word has a very wide semantic applicability. Nature produces billions of seeds, baby fishes and insects most of which are superfluous and weeded out in infancy. In the fields of engineering and information the word is often used with respect to items in a machine or system that are not needed.
	Redundancy is also an issue in language. Tautologies in speech and writing blunt meaning and make a prose style clumsy. An editor who comes across a tautology such as 'small little', must decide which word to delete with a touch of a button. The sign so deleted is in a similar position to a human worker. It must accept the inevitable, but face the future with courage, looking for a new opportunity where it can be more useful and perhaps better off.