# Leanne's story: being made redundant in 2015

- **Episode:** [13](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/13.md) (2022-11-22)
- **Type:** other
- **Tags:** redundancy-story, personal-experience, career
- **Time:** 16:12–19:20 (start 972s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/13?t=972](https://truthliesandwork.com/13?t=972)

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[16:12] Leanne Elliott: But come back
[16:13] Al Elliott: Yeah, come back. Definitely come back because Nudge isn't as good as this. So come back. I'll cut that out. Keep that in
[16:19] Leanne Elliott: So while this is a huge media story, it's also a human story. We will be offering some advice and support for those who have been affected by the layoffs, both at Twitter, at Stripe, and the other tech companies. But also, if you're just listening and you're going through this, Stay tuned, we've got some tips for you
[16:40] Al Elliott: Okay, so I think there are— there's a lot of people who are qualified to talk about this, but Leanne's not only a business psychologist, but she also went through redundancy. What, about 7 years ago, was it?
[16:48] Leanne Elliott: I did. I was made redundant back in 2015. I kind of saw it coming, but not entirely. It was one of the most challenging experiences I have ever been to, emotionally, psychologically. It was a real real strain. Dr. Candace understands this, and she helps explain what we go through in this state
[17:11] Al Elliott: It's really hard because people will go into a panicked state once they find out that this is going to happen. And when people panic, it's hard to get them to think rationally. So there's almost like needs to be a cooling down period as well for that prefrontal cortex to get back online and be able to use that rational side of our brain. So I have a question then. So redundancy is clearly a traumatic and emotional experience. Is there a particular scientific or psychological reason why this is?
[17:42] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, so I think, you know, Dr. Kahn has mentioned our brains don't like change. They don't like to feel uncomfortable. They don't like uncertainty. A little bit is good, too much, not so much. So when we, we feel this, this threat, you've heard of the threat Or what's better known as fight or flight. So fight or flight means that the brain and the body is getting ready to deal with a threat and basically send energy to those parts of the body that will help protect us, whether that's to run or whatever it is we need to do. So specifically, fight or flight arouses the amygdala. Now bear with me, I'm going to go a bit neuroscience on you, but I'm going to take it slowly, okay? So the amygdala is the part of the brain that controls our emotions and our motivations. This arousal triggers a physiological reaction. Our heart rate increases, our digestion slows, our immune system is suppressed, cortisol, our stress hormone, increases, and the blood vessels in our muscles dilate. As a result, blood flows away from our prefrontal cortex. This is where we do all of our considered thinking and planning and manage our emotions. It just leaves us. It leaves us. What are we left with then? Well, We can't think as clearly. We become anxious. We view lots of different things as threats, including people around us. Our psychological capital, or our ability to be hopeful or optimistic, goes out the window, and our stress levels go through the roof. It really is a physiological and psychological reaction that happens when we're in this threat, threat state when we're made redundant. It is a debilitating psychological reaction