Taking a gamble...

I'm really not the gambling type but I have just bet a year's salary that I'll still have a job in a year's time. Every single member of the council which employs me (with the exception of teaching staff) have been offered either voluntary severance or early voluntary retirement. If I was over 55 I'd get the chance of a lump sum plus my pension. As I'm only 49 I would just get a redundancy payment based on my length of service (27 years!) This amounts to about a year's salary (but tax free).

The gamble is that as the library service up and down the country is being decimated, I might find myself made redundant anyway in a year's time, on much less favourable terms.

If other jobs were available I might have considered going. But there is so little in the way of work around here. And my pension is at least 6 years away still. We also have two children to put through university.

So I'm staying put and hoping I'm making thr right decision. I'm also hoping to keep the photography business going and if possible build it up so if the worst happens, I have something to fall back on.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about this decision, though.