Along with probably just about everywhere in the UK and probably lots of other places around the world, my company is talking about redundancies. We're in a consultation period where they first work out the process and then decide what "roles" they've got too many of and then talk to the at risk list (that's my own term) before sending people out the door.

We had a bit of a chat about it in our team huddles this morning and there'll be lots of various types of communications over the next few weeks. I'm not too worried about it all at the moment in my usual que sera sera way (plus rail is one of those areas thats looking pretty positive so I'm about as well positioned as I can be) but thought I'd record some of my thinking here as the weeks go by.

There's a whole staff meeting on Wednesday afternoon which I'm not sure whether to attend. I don't think I'll really learn anything or be able to influence anything but on the other hand I wouldn't want to look like I didn't care about the whole process. Part of me thinks there's nothing I can change, the other part thinks if there's an opportunity to be involved in a process you should participate fully. We'll see.

It must be very difficult to be the people who are having to decide what "shape" the business needs to be after this process. You can't afford to keep everyone but you want to be in as good a shape as possible when work picks up again. And the very people that currently have nothing to do will be likely to be the ones you want working on postponed projects in say 18 months time. This is when our leadership really needs to get it right and I don't envy them. Crystal ball anyone?