Dilemma - Resign or Wait for Redundancy ?

James44_3

Hello,
I’m in the midst of a dilemma. In the first part of year the entire office was told that we were all at risk of redundancy.
Taking heed I like most applied for other jobs fearing the worst. I heard nothing for 6 months and then out of the blue got an interview for a job. To cut a long story short I’ve been offered the job.
Whilst all of this was happening I was told my likely end date was end of December. Throughout the entire interview process I was entirely transparent with agency dealing with it. My goal throughout has been to try and minimise the gap between being made redundant and finding other work. My company is still unable to give me an exact end date. I don’t really want to jeopardise the money that I would get from redundancy.
This I feel leaves me 2 options:
1. Refuse the job offer and stay until such point that my company makes me redundant, then hope I can find another job.
2. Accept the job and loose all entitlement.
The annoying thing is that the new company might wait until December but that is proving tricky as my company will not make a commitment regarding my end date – Saying “December, but might be brought forward or back”.
Would I be within my rights to say after 7 months of being ‘At Risk’ that they either give me an end date in writing or remove me from being at risk.
My ideal solution would be to receive immediate notification of my end date so I can go to the new company to give them a solid date of when I would be able to start.
Would really appreciate anybodys thoughts on this.
Many Thanks,
James

bumpoowee

Suppose it depends on your personal circumstances and how much redundancy money you would be entitled to? How confident are you that you would get another job if the job offer fell through?

James44_3

Difficult to say really, I'm worried if I refused this I don't want to be classed a time waster.

Resigning would have fairly large financial implications, on the other side the job I've been offered pays about the same and is with a good company and is doing a role which I would like.

Its sods law that if I resign then come December the redundancies will happen and I would have thrown away a big chunk of money.
Do you think it would be wise to approach my HR dept and talk it through with them? The company is by no means unreasonable.

bumpoowee

James44 wrote: »

Difficult to say really, I'm worried if I refused this I don't want to be classed a time waster.

Resigning would have fairly large financial implications, on the other side the job I've been offered pays about the same and is with a good company and is doing a role which I would like.

Its sods law that if I resign then come December the redundancies will happen and I would have thrown away a big chunk of money.
Do you think it would be wise to approach my HR dept and talk it through with them? The company is by no means unreasonable.

Yeah I guess you won't know what the 'right' course of action is until after the event, leaving now and losing your payout would be the safest course of action (lowest risk of being without a job) but staying and trying to get the payout could leave you better off financially if it goes your way, however is riskier.

Personally I'd be reluctant to speak to your company about it as they may take it as you are going to leave the company anyway so why waste money making you redundant - but thats just me I'm naturally cynical and negative about these things!

If it was me if the redudancy payout was enough (eg 6 months wages or so) I'd be tempted to wait it out and see if you get made redudant, on the assumption that I'd be able to find another job in time to still have benefitted from being made redundant (eg before 6 months are up, if you get 6 months wages).

Have the 2nd company given you any indication of when they need you to start by? I'd assume since they are recruiting they have a gap that needs to be filled and they can't leave it there indefinitely.

James44_3

I share you cynicism, and that is one of my concerns. I want to be able to say to my company, “...you are going to make me redundant in December so just commit to it now”. But like you say show your hand and they might force my hand by delaying the redundancy until March for example.

As I applied for this role 6 months ago I’m guessing that they now need it filled sooner rather than later.

If it wasn’t so cheeky I’d be tempted to ask the new company whether they would like to make a small contribution to ease the financial consequence of me resigning. I’ve not asked this because I have a suspicion what the answer would be.

I would need to check with HR but I believe it wouldn’t be an enhanced package. Taking into account gardening leave I guess it would equate to 3 months pay which sounds allot but would soon go if I failed to find any work.

bumpoowee

James44 wrote: »

I share you cynicism, and that is one of my concerns. I want to be able to say to my company, “...you are going to make me redundant in December so just commit to it now”. But like you say show your hand and they might force my hand by delaying the redundancy until March for example.

As I applied for this role 6 months ago I’m guessing that they now need it filled sooner rather than later.

If it wasn’t so cheeky I’d be tempted to ask the new company whether they would like to make a small contribution to ease the financial consequence of me resigning. I’ve not asked this because I have a suspicion what the answer would be.

I would need to check with HR but I believe it wouldn’t be an enhanced package. Taking into account gardening leave I guess it would equate to 3 months pay which sounds allot but would soon go if I failed to find any work.

Yeah I'd agree with what you've said. I think all you can really assume is that your current employer will look out for it's own interests, your prospective employer will look out for it's own interests and that you need to look out for your own interests.

If your propective employer is particularly keen on you and you have shortage/in demand skills you may be able to chance asking them for a contribution, however I wouldn't risk it in any other circumstances, particularly if you risk being out of work.

In the current climate I would tend towards taking the new job and losing the payout, as it is an employers market at the moment (in general, some industries may be an exception). Job security is hard to come by at the moment. Again I think this comes down to how confident you are that another employer would want to give you a job.

brightonman123

have you had any written terms about timescale etc? may be worth making discreeet enqiry as to what they would offer for going voluntarily, 'shou;di find a find before final date'..

also would be less stress for you AND them. but oif new job is better money, i would go now.

mrcow

Can you try putting in for voluntary redundancy now - with a four week notice period? Just an idea. If you've been put under threat, they should let you know pretty easily if they can let you go.

bendix

It's a no brainer to me. Given the poor redundancy benefits in the UK (you don't mention how long you have worked in your current role), I wouldnt be hanging around for some small payout if a longer term job was offered to me.

A bird in the bush is worth two in the hand.

The only exception I would make is if I was confident (no, SURE) that any redundancy payment was going to be at least worth 6 months salary.

mancitychick

I agree with bendix. Especially as it took you 6 months of applying for jobs to get offered this one. Could you risk not getting a new job for at least 6+ months after your get made redundant??

I think it is unfair of your current employer to keep you all on "at risk" for so long.

Good luck with what you decided, however if it was me I would take the new job now and I wouldn't ask them for any financial contribution because you resigned from your current job either!

James44_3

Thanks for the all of the responses. I must admit I’m now leaning towards accepting this new role.