Alan Pardew is determined to repay Charlton's faith in him by leading them back into the top flight at the first attempt.
The Addicks were relegated from the Premiership after losing 2-0 to Tottenham at The Valley, leaving them five points from safety with one game left this season.
Pardew's appointment as boss at Christmas sparked a turnaround in form and gave the club hope of beating the drop but six games without a win sealed their fate.
The former West Ham boss put aside any question marks over his own future saying: "I've signed a contract here and people here have been brilliant to me and in some ways I want to repay that."
He added: "It's the first time I've experienced relegation and I don't quite know how I'll feel over the next few days.
"I know from when I arrived at West Ham that relegation costs people jobs at the stadium, not the players, management or staff usually.
"It's the people who have worked here for 10 or 15 years. Hopefully we can bounce straight back and re-employ them."
Despite their efforts since Christmas, Pardew admits the table is a fair reflection of the season.
"The league table speaks for itself," he said. "As a season-long campaign, this team is where it's at - there's no politics involved or court cases. This is where it's at."
Pardew's comments on "court cases" referred to the possibility of legal action over West Ham's Premier League punishment for breaking rules when signing Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano.
Pardew, who was Hammers boss when the Argentina pair arrived at Upton Park, wants his former club to stay up.
"I'd love West Ham to stay up because there are a lot of people there I love," he said.
Charlton chief executive Peter Varney wants to keep Darren Bent at The Valley next season when the Addicks push for an immediate return to the Barclays Premiership.
Varney, who also denied any knowledge of a reported takeover being planned, said of Bent's situation:
"You saw the situation with Andrew Johnson (at Crystal Palace), what we'd like to do is try to get back with the strongest possible squad we can but it's impossible to answer that this morning.
"There are all sorts of ifs and buts about Darren, he's an England international and will obviously want to play at the highest level, and I don't know the answer yet. But we've got to keep the strongest squad possible to get back in the Premiership.
"You have all got to stay together. Nearly 17,000 fans have already renewed their season tickets, and did that before they knew what status we had, Championship or Premiership. That shows the faith they have got, for Alan Pardew in particular. We've got to work on that, build on that, and create an atmosphere that gets us back up."
