Given choice of quitting or being dismissed

CFC

Well you've done it for 15 years so you're clearly not rubbish at it. What is clear that something about this role doesn't suit you or the way your mind works. You need to analyse what the issue is so you don't get in the same situation somewhere else.
Only you can decide what the best thing to do actually is. The benefits people will not be sympathetic to 'resign or be dismissed' as a reason for leaving. If it was me, if there was any possible way I could afford to resign, even doing temping work to keep my head above water, I'd resign. Employers are very wary taking on folk who have been dismissed after a year.

pinkshoes

I'm slightly confused! To put the question bluntly are you:

1) genuinely cr*p at your job
2) in a position that is beyond your ability, or
3) overworked and thus not able to cope?


If 3, then I'd hang in there and perhaps claim unfair dismissal for not providing sufficient training.

If 2 or 3, then I'd hang in there, and find something else ASAP, then quit.

Could you negotiate an excellent reference from them if you quit? You could always tell prospective employers that you had to leave due to family problems requiring you to be at home for X months...

hcb42

you need to push and get a compromise agreement with as long a period of pay as possible..and agreed reference and reason for leaving etc.

they will want to find a solution as much as you do so aim for 3 months PILON....with agreed references etc and pray you can get something before then. It sounds like you would get something before then and remember any "redundancy" pay is tax free - implications for that word of course, but not impossibe

getzls

I had a friend who was in a job and was offered to resign or be sacked. She was there about three months and resigned. She was worried about the dole refusing her money. I told her to tell them she thought it would look better for any future employer if she resigned rather than being sacked. They accepted that and got her money ok.

CALGACUS

Thanks again for your suggestions.

I can confirm that it's a large prestigious company, but my manager has supplied references for others and has told me that they provide the start date, end date and reason for leaving. So there would be a record of it for future employers.

Gardening leave or PILON sounds like the best solution. Whether the company would be in any way amenable to that is another question. I suppose that I'll just have to ask and find out.

I don't have any secondary income to fall back on. In fact, when the last company I worked for went under, the job market was pretty stagnant, so I went back to university for a year at my own expense in order to get a postgraduate degree, and in the process amassed some debts that I've been working at paying off over the last year, but still have hanging around my neck.

I think that I'll go to the CAB tomorrow and see what they say, and then on Wednesday I'll talk out my options with my manager and HR, bearing your advice in mind. I can find out what the full dismissal policy is, were I to force the company to pursue it, and see if we can find some sort of compromise agreement.

As for whether I'm:

1) genuinely cr*p at your job
2) in a position that is beyond your ability, or
3) overworked and thus not able to cope?

I think it's a case of 2, but have been worrying that it might be 1:undecided. As another poster suggested, it's possible that it was a square per/round hole situation, at least that's what I'm hoping.

Thanks again for all your thoughts and advice, it's been incredibly helpful, and has helped me in assessing my potential options.

Cal.

CALGACUS

getzls replied to the thread just as I was submitting my previous post:

I had a friend who was in a job and was offered to resign or be sacked. She was there about three months and resigned. She was worried about the dole refusing her money. I told her to tell them she thought it would look better for any future employer if she resigned rather than being sacked. They accepted that and got her money ok.

That's what I was hoping. It's something that I'll check with the CAB tomorrow. If I can get some confirmation of this, it would probably be the best option.

getmore4less

I think you need to try to understand what is is about this job that is causing the problem.

You say the help has not helped, why?
What if anything would have helped?

System

You say that you have been a programmer for some years. From what you have said this job sounds more like a systems admin role with possibly some hardware as well. If so then it sounds totally wrong for your experience.

November5th

It sounds like your employers are being pretty cool about this and will negotiate with you which is great. They seem to be very understanding of you looking for a more suitable role, there is no way I would dream of going down a tribunal route when they are being so reasonable. At least they didn't make some rubbish up to get rid of you and really hurt your career!

Focus on getting a new job because this one wasn't the right fit and allow your present employers to help where they can.

paddyrg

Sysadmin is very different from coding, different skills, pressures, timescales, etc. As you well know, when people hear you're in IT they just hear 'something with computers', and assume it is all the same. I used to migrate multi-million entry database systems, with all the appropriate staging, transformations, etc in between - couldn't change a graphics card if you'd asked!

Sounds like you're just in the wrong 'bit', as you look around, look to capitalise on the skills you are confident in. Go now to jobserve.com (pretty much 100% of IT jobsare on there) and search, start the process of finding the right role.

I brought an ex-teelecoms consultant in to replace me at one job - massive pay cut for him, but he wanted something closer to home. People change jobs the whole time for all sorts of reasons. A new employer is unlikely to hold it against you if you are frank.

Or do as I did and quit IT - I make a load less money now, but use more of my previously burnt-out brain!