UPDATED: Hours to be reduced by 50%

Steel_2

Friday morning I told the directors of my decision for option 2 and late Friday my manager told me they had come up with another option for me to consider.

The new option is that they pay me for full time hours while I work part-time, until such time we get enough project work in to trigger full time hours.

While they were talking, there was an intimiation that with option 2 they expected me to repay ALL of the lump sum if we get enough money in for my hours to go back to full time at any point throughout the three months after the agreement. When I spoke, I spoke about pro-rata payments. When they spoke, they spoke about paying the money back. It might seem a slight difference in wording, but to me it's that slight difference that is the crux of the matter.

So I need to get something formally in writing about the repayment option for option 2. Will it be full repayment or pro-rata. So far they have chosen not to answer that question clearly and opted for putting another option into the mix.

I suspect they have probably twigged how much money I could take away with me if my manager and I do not succeed, and are now back-tracking.

The first thing my line manager said when he found out I had decided to go part time was that as we wouldn't have much time to get important work done, our two hour update meetings would have to be conducted outside work on my own time.

Er....no.

getmore4less

As I said earlier(I wonder if they are reading this!) this is the way they could do it.

The problem with this new option is you are still contracted to work full time(effectivly on part time garden leave), so they can recall the hours to do anything, given you are allready getting other stuff this is a distinct possibility.

The advantage is that they still need to pay redundancy in the future at the full time rate, just make sure there is no notice given.

Steel_2

getmore4less wrote: »

As I said earlier(I wonder if they are reading this!) this is the way they could do it.

The problem with this new option is you are still contracted to work full time(effectivly on part time garden leave), so they can recall the hours to do anything, given you are allready getting other stuff this is a distinct possibility.

The advantage is that they still need to pay redundancy in the future at the full time rate, just make sure there is no notice given.

This is the bit that concerns me most of all.

At the end of the day though, they've presented me with options and I've picked the one that is financially advantageous to me.

This option also puts my line manager under the most pressure to perform. He HAS to modify his behaviour in order to win business otherwise I WILL end up part-time permanently. The other options let him dither around from pillar to post for three months, either pressuring me to do hours outside of my contact hoping something else will happen and the money will come from or somewhere else, such as a large company bid for European funding. He needs to have boundaries in place, which he currently doesn't have, and this option 2 stands to lose the company more money (and threaten my plans for the future), which will hopefully pressures the company and my directors to play more of a part in managing him during this process.

Hubby and I have plans for the future (not this year though) that will involve mortgages, and the bank will take one look at payslips with part-time hours on them and knock them back. I have to have three years books to show them to have any freelance income included.

I can't afford to fanny around for the next three months. The project money must come in and I need - and I hate to say this - a whip to beat my line manager with. He needs to focus, stop !!!!ing around, help the company, help me and help himself because he doesn't seem to grasp that he could be made redundant in the future. He thinks he's superman because he avoided redundancy without thinking this could just be the first round in a number of cuts.

He even told me yesterday he met up with one of the board members at a dinner a few days ago and made it clear to him that the company shouldn't merge, it needs to be a much smaller one. Apparently he's been 'poisening the well' (his words) against the merger at every opporunity he gets.

If the company is smaller, our department will go because the CEO has already laid out just what areas are considered important and our department was not included.

He's being an idiot and he's going to cost me my job entirely soon unless one of the options I choose invests everyone - me, him and the company - in modifying his behaviour.

Steel_2

Well, I went back and told the directors I'm sticking with the option I was before and we discussed pro-rata payments. They're going to come back to me with information about that, hopefully today as it is the last day of the consultation.

If it goes through ok, I should start the new hours next week.

Just out of interest, does anyone know what happens with bank holidays and part-time hours?

My husband asked the question this morning and I wasn't sure. I was planning on working Tues-Thurs. He wants me to work Mon-Wed as most bank holidays are on a Monday and I'll get that day off.

I've never considered it from that angle...

I've been told my new holiday entitlement for next year is 11 days, but it would have been 22 plus bank holidays if full-time, which the firm has always taken pains to point out gives people more annual leave.

Any ideas because it's not something I've even remotely considered before, probably because when I was freelance before I got this job I just worked bank holidays if I needed to if the workload was high.

getmore4less

Consultation does not have to just end it can continue while things are still being discussed.

Holidays

B/H also prorata, so it depends on hours/days worked.

if going 1/2 time spread over 2.5 days then 15 days(full time get 30)

It is usualy best not to work Mon or Friday since that fixes most days out of the allowance

but if they are going to pay BH on top of the 1/2 time 11 days holiday then you might be better taking that and hope they don't suss out how to do it properly.

Steel_2

As it says above, this option hasn't really worked out for me, and need some advice on notice periods.

I was given the lump sum payment to break my terms and conditions and began part-time April 1st. I know prior to this I had to give three months notice, but can someone confirm whether this is still the case? There was nothing in the variation of terms I received that said either way, but I assume that means it is business as usual on that front?

I have found out at some point in June/July I will be going back to full time work. It appears the directors had forgotten about a project that the company had applied for funding for at the end of 2010, and it appears that this has come through suddenly and provided the money needed to make the post full-time again.

However, over the last few months the workload has been such that I end up doing some kind of work on those days I'm not supposed to be working, for example today where I'm going to have to work a full day on a project to ensure we get paid for it.

The pressure on me to bring in the work has been immense and I now have stress-related acid reflux as well as a symptoms similar to post-viral fatigue.

The problem has been my immediate line manager who talks a good talk about all the work he's going to get in and has done nothing of any consequence but luanch mammoth winging sessions, leaving me struggling to cope. For this reason I'm applying for other jobs and for the sake of my own health want to leave as soon as possible.

He always had a tendency to be very needy, selfish and immature, which has escalated as I'm not around as much as I was, but I guess while I've been going through this stressful period I have a low tolerance to putting up with it. He is furious he wasn't allowed to be in on the consultations, but his appalling lack of respect for employment law and constant need to have his ego stroked would have made a mockery of it. He's a destabilising influence on just about everything and constantly disrupts meetings.

I found out yesterday from an old colleague that his previous two assistants left after a year and nine months respectively due to his appalling behaviour, so at 2 years I've lasted longer than anyone has so far.

My boss told me his first assistant went off to have a baby, which I now know isn't true. She was pregnant when she left, but left well before the baby was due because of the stress she was enduring.

getmore4less

easier said than done but ignore the pressure and if you do work extra make them pay either in extra money or time off.

looks like they only have you to so the work so they need to be nice if they want the projects done

(it's been 2 months so need to refresh whats in the thread but not now)