Making the Most of Your Free Time
Printed from www.survivingredundancy.ie Copyright © 2012
Is your interview technique good enough to help you get a job? Click here for details of help availbale from Surviving Redundancy
What you can do to keep busy and motivated while looking for a job
Voluntary work abroad
Since the early nineties, the volunteer market has grown to a total of 1.6 million volunteer tourists a year. The main destinations for volunteers are Latin America, Asia and Africa. Together these regions account for almost 90% of the locations offered by volunteer service organisations.
Although this is may not be an option for a lot of people due to family commitments and personal circumstances, it is a very real possibility for others.
Depending on what stage you are at in your career or in your personal life, the option of volunteering abroad for 6-12 months is something that many people are considering. Apart from the feel good factor, cultural integration and educational experience guaranteed by such an opportunity - volunteering abroad will ensure you are kept busy and, most importantly, motivated while you take time out to consider your career options.
A long spell of unemployment can be a difficult time, so putting your energies into an overseas volunteering project is one of the options you could consider pursuing in the short to medium term.
Can I use my skill sets?
Yes. If you are an IT professional, for example, there is ample opportunity for you to use you skills and expertise teaching people in developing countries the basics of using a PC.
Have a look at this website, Camara is an Irish charity who deal specifically in this area:
Many other charities such as GOAL require the expertise of qualified accountants and other finance staff for their overseas offices.
Where to start?
There are a number of Irish based and overseas volunteering agencies including:
- www.volunteerabroad.ie
- www.vso.ie
- www.abroaderview.com
- www.i-to-i.com
- www.volunteer.ie
- www.activelink.ie
- iccl.ie - Irish council for civil liberties
- nwci.ie - National women's Council
- outhouse.ie - LGBT community resource centre
- volunteeringireland.com - Nat. development agency
- volunteeringoptions.org - Advice on getting started
- outcomers.org - Dundalk LGB group
- commonpurpose.ie - Community Leader programme
- womensaid.ie - Support and information against violence
- angrypotato.net - LGB online forum
- friendsoftheeldery.ie - Combatting isolation
- communitytimebank.org - Facilitating involvement
- queerid.com - LGB online forum
- unicef.ie/volunteering.htm - Information on overseas
- volunteersouthdublin.ie - News and placement service
- gaire.com - LGB online forum
- ica.ie - Irish countrywoman's association
- marriageequality.ie - Campaign for marriage equality
- ageaction.ie - National network of organisations
- gloria.ie - Dublin's LGB Choir
- foe.ie - Friends of the Earth Ireland action group
Local Community work:
There's nothing to say you need to look overseas to find voluntary work - some people are of the view that charity begins at home after all!
The same principle applies to volunteering in Ireland and in your local community as it does overseas. The idea is that as well as contributing to society in the wider sense, you will also be contributing to your own well being. Those with family commitments will be able to participate in this if they volunteer close to home. Being actively involved in voluntary work has been shown to help overall health, life functioning, one's sense of optimism and control. All the more important when you're faced with the difficult situation of redundancy.
Where to start?
- www.volunteer.ie
- www.volunteeringireland.com
- www.focusireland.ie
- www.dubsimon.ie
- http://www.cancer.ie/fundraising/volunteer.php
- http://www.dublin.ie/youth/volunteering.htm
Travel
If you weren't one of those people who took the time out to travel after finishing their degree or professional training/apprenticeship - perhaps now is a good time to seize the opportunity?
Facing redundancy gives you the option to stand back and assess what other life goals you would like to achieve over the next couple of years.
Your career is obviously high on your list of priorities and if you secure another position soon after being made redundant all the better. However, if not, consider taking this time to travel and explore the world.
Two senior capital markets managers we spoke to recently in London have moved to the Alps for the 2008/2009 ski season and have secured work in a local bar. It's unlikely they'll make as much in après ski tips as they did from their city bonuses... but what they will do is keep busy, motivated and positive until they decide to come back to the corporate world.
Where to start?
Career Break
If you've been working in your chosen career for a number of years or have received a decent redundancy package, perhaps this is a good time to consider taking a career break to pursue something you've always wanted to do.
This is different from changing career or retraining in an alternative professional area. A career break is used by many to step back and take time out to pursue a hobby or interest, or indeed to spend time with their young children.
Where to start:
Going back to college and/or Retraining for a new career
You've been working in your chosen career for a number of years now. You've enjoyed the highs and lows of your job over the past decade, but there's been a niggling feeling at the back of your mind for some time now telling you that you need a change.
Perhaps you've gone as far as you can go in your current role? It's no longer challenging? You feel if you change career or up skill, you could earn more money in the long term? You want a better work/life balance?
If you've been made redundant and you have doubts about your current chosen career path, this could be the optimum time for you to consider going back to college to retrain for a new career.
Whether you're a solicitor who wants to retrain as a teacher, or a teacher who wants to retrain as a solicitor there are a range of options and courses out there for you to choose from.
Where to start:
Is this option financially viable for me?
What courses are available - full time and part time?
- http://www.nightcourses.com/returning_to_education/introduction.html
- http://www.indexireland.com/reference_and_education/universities_colleges/
- www.careersportal.ie
Alternatives to redundancy
There are a number of positive alternatives to redundancy which are worth considering.
Reducing hours/job sharing
Job sharing is an arrangement whereby two employees share one full-time position. It is a flexible alternative to part-time work which benefits both the employer and employee.
The duties and responsibilities of the job are divided equally amongst the employees.
The most common job sharing arrangements are five half days per week, 2½ days per week, 2 days one week, 3 the next or working one week on, one week off.
The flexibility of this option may suit people who wish to improve their work-life balance for personal or family reasons.
Taking unpaid leave
Unpaid leave or sabbaticals or career breaks have become increasingly popular in recent years with more and more people deciding to take this option in order to complete some travelling or voluntary work or for personal or family reasons.
A number of companies, public and private, offer employees the option to take a career break, usually up to 2 years, after being with the company for a certain amount of time.
The benefit of taking unpaid leave is that your job, or at least a job within the company will be there for you upon your return. Most companies will not guarantee that your exact job will still be available but they will accommodate you with a similar job as far as is possible.
Early retirement
Early retirement is usually taken to mean retirement before the age of 65. Early retirement occurs when a job requires that you retire at a certain age (eg Gardaí), because the employee chooses to take early retirement or as an alternative to redundancy.
Early retirement permits employees to draw their occupational pension early (at a reduced rate) but also permits them to continue working elsewhere on either a full-time or part-time basis. In order to qualify for early retirement you must be at least 50 years of age and have an enhanced pension.
Although people with private savings or personal pensions that have performed particularly well may be able to retire before their contractual dates, the term 'early retirement' is more commonly associated with membership of the employer's occupational pension scheme.
By taking early retirement employees can draw their occupational pension while continuing to work in a full-time, part-time or consultancy basis and earn a wage from that. It represents the opportunity to make a change in your career that you may not have been able to do before.
Parental leave
The Parental Leave Act 1998 and the Parental Leave (Amendment) Act 2006 entitles parents to take parental leave from employment at any stage until their child is 8 years old. In the case of a child with a disability, leave may be taken up to the time the child is 16 years old.
Parental leave is available for each child and amounts to a total of 14 weeks leave per child which can be taken all together or in 2 separate blocks. Both parents have an equal separate entitlement to parental leave.
Where an employee has more than one child, parental leave is limited to 14 weeks within a 12 month period, unless otherwise agreed by the employer.
Those taking parental leave are not entitled to pay from their employer while on leave nor are they entitled to any social welfare payment. However taking parental leave does not affect other employment rights. For example, time spent on parental leave can be used to accumulate your annual leave entitlement.
In addition to the obvious benefit of being able to spend time with your child/children you have the security of having your job to go back to upon completion of parental leave.
