Sophie - a quck trawl suggests that you are becoming a regular contributor to this forum.Not quite up there with the usual suspects like Taxman / VI / SVP or MAD (either in quality of posts or volume)Care to let us know a little more about you?

he is probably someone from the top-consultant team trying to meet the diversity quota so that some public sector employer can start advertising on here. there are no actual women who post here.

coz women suck at computers.

good typists though!

I'm a disillusioned 35 year old man who is currently on the bench and at risk of being made redundant in the near future. Sorry if that shatters any illusions, but it's the truth. I post under the name 'Sophie' because people tend to give friendlier and more constructive responses if they think you're female. Right now, my utilisation is down (through no fault of my own - being proactive can only go so far when you're on a sinking ship) and I'm fearful that my next appraisal is going to be the one where I get the chop. I have a lot of loyalty to my employer, and they treated me well during the good times, so naturally I'm hesitant to leave my boss and immediate team mates in the lurch when they probably most need a bit of loyalty. However, I guess I'm now at that stage where the writing's on the wall and I need to be proactive in looking after number 1 else I could find myself well and truly up the creek without a paddle.

David! is that you?

Yes, sadly it is. The '35' in the post in this thread was a typo, it should have read '45'.I'm very unhappy about my job situation and feel like my boss has been acting 'distant' lately. That can't be a good sign. I love my work but lately the uncertainty has been causing me sleepless nights. I haven't played the 'job search game' for a long time and I'm totally out of touch with where to start. And in any event, changing jobs is a BIG step for me - it's not like just choosing to shop in Asda instead of Sainsbury's, it's something that will fundamentally affect 75% of my waking hours not to mention a whole raft of other life issues. Nonetheless there's some kind of awful guilty feeling that's keeping me where I am... I just feel like I owe my boss some loyalty (after all, he did recruit me 15 years ago and helped lift me out of a slump when I was going through some personal bad times). It's a warped situation but I have nobody to talk to about this and would appreciate any advice you guys have.

If it is a sinking ship, you are costing your boss money while not adding to the top line - through no fault of your own perhaps... Has it occured to you that your boss has been put in the awful position of potentially having to terminate your employment and is quietly hoping that you walk before he has to have that terrible conversation with you. The loyal thing to do is to spare him that situation by getting yourself sorted out...

NO Way wait for the redundency money 15 years is a long time ....

Redundancy is not taxable, and currently you have not been told your going to be redundant.Buy some income protection insurance, make sure that yo will last the next 90 days first.Thereafter if you are asked to leave, take your redundancy, and your income protection for 12 months.Then take a walk, enjoy the spring/summer, have a lkook around you and decide what you want to do, there is a seroius lack of professionals out there with a good head on their shoulders, and there are also too many good heads that have burnt out.Your boss is also more likeley to see himself on the old 'Rock n Roll' than you, as his job is to manage a team, no team, no point.

Any ideas for where I get the best deal on income protection insurance?The one thing I will say about my boss is that he's a b@stard of a negotiator. The kind of guy who doesn't just wait until the 11th hour, he waits until 11.59 and 59 seconds. And then invariably finds out his watch is slow by 2 seconds. Which sadly means I can't just have a frank discussion with him, I'll literally have to go in armed to the teeth with another job set up and ready to go and a resignation letter in my back pocket. Sadly these 'tough' negotiation techniques are so draconian that you actually can't negotiate with him in reality... you just have to make a decision and stick to it.

... and you are loyal to these people why?

My friends and family ask the same question.It's difficult to explain. We work very closely together, it's only a small department. We're like a little family. Heck, I know their personalities and the ins and outs of their personal lives better than I know my old school mates with whom I'm still in regular contact. There have been rough times in the past, when had I worked for any other firm I would have been fired for sure (extended periods of low utilisation) - however they kept me on board. I was hired when I had a really rough time in my personal life - and because of that, I feel like I owe them some kind of commitment in return. I know my bosses wife and kids well... boundaries between work and home have become blurred (yes I know this isn't a good situation to get into, but that's where I am). They keep talking about how we're all in the same boat and I know they've had a rough time of it all too - in fact, even possibly a rougher time than I'm having. They're not perfect, but I do like them as people and I can think of far worse teams to be working with. If I worked for IBM or some huge company, I could just hand my resignation letter to the HR department and be gone the next week with nobody even noticing. However, in this team it would be taken personally and the effect of me leaving really would directly affect the workload and job stability of the other individuals involved. The only analogy I can think of is that in a weird kind of way it would be like getting a divorce from my boss. I really just don't know how it would all go down. To top it off, I really do enjoy what I do. It's just the feeling that I'm on borrowed time and the uncertainty about how it's all going to pan out that worries me. I'm just feeling very confused and lacking direction at the moment.

.. you are all in the same boat until one of the other guys jumps into a different boat, which is bound to happen soon. I have worked for companies where the MD's brother resigned and the MD had to fire a life long friend. I am sure it made for a bit of tension at the time but as far as I am aware, they soon patched it up. Your responsibility is to your real family. Sorry my friend but you have to harden up a bit! If one of your colleagues is approached about a great job, do you think he/she will call you and encourage you to apply as well? If there is only one project left and the boss has to choose between you and a colleague, do you think your colleague will be encouraging the boss to assign the work to you? Come up. To quote (or perhaps misquote) the wonderful film Feris Bueller's Day Off.... "wake up and smell the coffee...."

I’d do what the taxman said. Get your insurance and then just carry on enjoying what you do. Then, shirley, there’ll be no stress as if you don’t get fired then it’s all good, but if you do get fired then you’ve got lots of filthy lucre to take a break with and search for your next job. Wish I was in your position..

Sorry to be harsh/blunt Sophie but FFS grow up. If I had to listen to all that from a candidate I would be seriously doubting whether they even had the balls to pursue an opportunity with my client, let alone would commit to it.People used to believe that when the Titanic went down everyone accepted their fate like docile lambs and stood around singing hymns etc. Nonsense. People struggled tooth and nail to get to the lifeboats, frienships were forgotten in the rush to survive, and loyalties discarded. When the ship sunk it created a vaccum which sucked everything around it down with it.Find the lifeboat and get out now. It's not just a matter of hanging on until you get some juicy redundancy; everyone will be on the market at the same time, with similar skills, and conflicting reports about their performance. Do you want to hit a market saturated by your friends and colleagues, and only then find that in the competition to get a role and pay the mortgage you are competing - at a reduced value - with those same friends, only now everyone needs to pay the mortgage and no one is being that friendly or gentlemanly anymore. Get real with yourself, get out and get a move on.

note - mars's advice is from the perspective of a recruitment agent. i'm not saying he has a 'conveyor belt' mentality to candidates or has a natural preference to see people hopping jobs frequently (it is after all how agents make their living) but take this into account when deciding what to do. also from your previous post you suggested you work for a small department so i assume that means there's not going to be like 500 of you suddenly saturating the job market? i'm not sure the titanic analogy works here - it's more like you're in a small yacht which is going down?

Let me qualify my own post in light of anon's remarks, for the record.1.Yes I am a headhunter. That means it is of little interest to me who is or is not actively on the market and looking for a move. 2.More of a yacht than Titanic? Possibly, but it is naive to take the view that what affects one department stays in that department, however small. Everyone likes to believe they are insulated against the market, in reality most of us are stacked up like dominos.3. What is the point of my trying to unsettle someone to leverage a small department onto the market, especially given that all these posts are anonymous? 4. When I am posting on this forum I give advice as a headhunter and from the perspective that provides - i.e. I am often aware of what is going on and what has and has not worked for people in the past, and can contribute in this respect whereas Sophie (as an example) is obviously limited in his view as he is in the situation and not thinking things through.4. I do not benefit from people moving jobs regularly; instability is a black mark in my book and I will usually shy away from candidates who move too much. Also when I place someone into a role I do so hoping and anticipating they will remain with the company for some time, adding value to the organisation, their own bank balance, and my reputation and standing with the client. And recommend me to their peers.5. No man - or department, firm, etc - is an island. What affects one is often symptomatic of a wider malaise which is affecting - for better or worse - other places. As such you cannot view any dept in isolation. We live in a connected world where everything has consequences - the recent CDO crisis in banking is an extreme example.6. It's wednesday. I'm pissed off with work and felt like being a little excessive in metaphors. Sue me.

I would take Taxmans comments with a pinch of salt. Firstly redundancy payments are not always all completly tax free. secondly since when have you been able to get income protection cover that protects you against redundancy. Ill health yes, redundancy no

Full on income protection? possibly, I am not an expert but you can probably get some sort of protection on mortgage/credit card payments. Check it out definitely. I am a head-hunter and, much as it pains me to admit it, I agree with Mars. A soon to be redundant consultant from a small department who is about to have to start flogging his CV all around the industry is hardly the crown jewels to a head-hunter. Sophie is doubtless a decent candidate who will find gameful employement if he faces reality, gets his head straight and moves on. The most obvious advice, Sophie, is not to do anything too drastic until you have checked out the market. I am sure that if you are any good at your job you will be capable of doing some due diligence and working out your value/options before making any rash decisions.