Since the late I980s staff reduction through downsizing has become a popular strategy in organisational restructuring. A feature of downsizing, not associated with traditional redundancies, is the offer of a financial incentive for employees to 'volunteer' to leave their jobs. In Australia large numbers of people have been the recipients of these incentives yet very little is known about how voluntary redundancy impacts on the individual or what happens to people after they leave their jobs. This article presents the findings of an empirical study of 7 I employees from a large Australian telecommunications organisation who took voluntary redundancy between two and seven years ago. The study found that few regretted their decision to leave even when they subsequently experienced negative outcomes.
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