Graham
It's a tough one. One of my mates has just taken voluntary redundancy from a company he's been with for thirty years; it wasn't the redundancy that hurt, but the fact that the pension fund has been put into liquidation too, so the gold plated final salary pension that kept him there for so long has gone up in smoke.
My dad took early redundancy when IBM first offered it (and the terms were very generous). His colleagues who stayed all ended up getting the heave ho on the bare minimum. He was bored within 3 months, so applied to do some voluntary support work for MIND. When they asked him why he thought an ex submariner turned computer company executive could help the mentally ill he told them they obviously hadn't met many sailors. He then passed his city and guilds in social work and was taken on by Hampshire council as a social worker. He worked at that until some busybody in HR worked out he was 77 years old and they made him retire. He then took up prison visiting (but only on a voluntary basis).
I hesitate to offer any advice as I've been self employed for practically all of my working life (and am therefore probably unemployable). Some say I've just spent the last 18 years up the pub....I just hope that if you do end up taking the plunge that you find something interesting and fulfilling that helps to keep the wolf from the door.
