I had a similar experience in a previous job. We were a medical science research group funded by government grants, and our 5 year funding cycle was coming to an end. We had secured funding for another 3 years, but it was the exact same amount that we were granted 5 years ago - so technically less due to inflation, etc.

To get around this, they cut a few roles and downgraded most of the remaining ones. The remaining roles paid less, had largely similar responsibilities (but extra workload from the cut roles), and less intellectual freedom. If we wanted one of these roles, we'd all have to apply and compete with each other (and external candidates too). On top of this, the whole team would be moving from a city centre location with good car and public transport links (and was a walkable distance for a lot of us) to a site outside the city with worse links.

I made the obvious decision to look for a new job elsewhere. The loss of our funding was classed as redundancy so I'd get about a month's pay if I turned down redeployment at the university we were based at. There were no jobs of interest there, so a few months before the end of the contract, signed the redundancy paperwork. This came with a clause that I couldn't be employed there again within 2 years of taking redundancy, which was fine as I'd been eyeing up a couple of jobs in another city. Everything would have been fine, except for the timing of the contract end...

It was the end of March 2020.

Covid and lockdowns were here, and suddenly everyone stopped hiring new staff because they could barely manage their current workforce in the "unprecedented times". So there I was, stuck in limbo. Couldn't get a new job, couldn't go back to my old one. I couldn't even get a temporary job in retail or hospitality because, well, they weren't open.