Mark Stafford on his Redundancy Journey

I wasn't prepared and it was sort of a shock and I was just numb and I actually remember he said to me you're taking this so much better than I thought you would. You know because I'd been there for over 20 years and I just went I just don't know how else to be. Like when you've got a front-facing role like that and everyone identifies you and relates you to the job you've had forever, I'd lost a whole uniform, a whole me, you know and I was like so what am I now.

And that sort of scared me that I allowed myself to get to that stage where I'd become this thing. I had two people that were really important to me through the first couple of weeks. One was my sister, and she was the emotional outlet that sort of helped heal the heart side of things and then I had a mate of mine Rowan and he was the practical guy. He says right let's get your ducks in a row. I said I'm not ready to do that, he said okay. He'd leave me for two or three days and go right now we need to get some sort of you know. So, he was the logical and my sister was the emotional and that's sort of all I needed and I realized quite quickly I just needed, it was so important that you just had an outlet to talk. I didn't need answers, I didn't need solutions, I just needed someone to share the space with.

It's almost like your circle of friends reduces greatly because a lot of your daytime social interactions were at work and you're not at work anymore and I don't see them anymore. And so the special friends become even more special and celebrate that you know.

My maths teacher in sixth form had four massive portraits on the four walls of the classroom and one of them was big David Bowie. I was a massive Bowie fan, and I wanted to buy it off him. And he said no you can't buy it, come back after school and I'll teach you how to paint it. Okay so I went back after school probably two nights a week for a month or so and painted a Bowie. That's the only painting I ever did and then lost my job and I thought maybe I'll give this a dart. I went and got some proper gear, it gave me a smile and it's really important to find things that still make you smile whether it's a game of golf, throwing a frisbee to your dog, or think about the things that make you smile and go and do them. Don't think it'll heal you, but it'll just give you a break from your tedium of what the hell's going on.

2020 – I don't care what happens in the future, 2020 is going to be the hardest year I've ever had, but I'll have it, you know, and I'll make it. I might stack shelves for a while, I might pick avocados, I'll probably last a day doing that. It's just, I think, acceptance, perspective. People that survive the cull will be so much more grateful for the job they've got and that's awesome.