Resignation and PILON advice

AdviceSeeker6

Hi all,

I have been working in my current job for 7+ years and am looking for some advice on handing in my notice - please bear with me as this is a somewhat complicated situation. The contract I initially signed was for one company, however I actually worked for an offshoot company, which only became official in 2015 (ie. I got paid by the new company name, although I did not sign a new contract). This company are currently developing a product which is not yet licensed, and is of a sensitive nature in terms of competitors.

I will be giving my months written notice (as per the original contract I signed), but I would like to request that I receive payment in lieu of notice. There is no clause for this in the contract, and I would like to know how to go about doing this, or if I even have any right to do so. For clarification, I do not receive any benefits, shares, or pension in this job, and I have 1.6 days holiday entitlement remaining.

To help explain my situation better, I am in a managerial role - and to complicate matters I am the only person in my department (although this department is currently not active). Obviously I do not want to leave the company in a difficult situation, but I am currently not doing the role in which I was hired to do. For the past 5+ years my manager has pushed me into an IT-based role, despite me having no IT qualifications or experience. I have expressed my concerns about this numerous times, but unfortunately I work for an extremely small company with no HR personnel, and my only superior is this manager. This discord has caused me a large amount of stress (which caused me to be signed off last year), and plays a large role in me leaving. However I have no interest in pursuing these issues further - I simply want to leave the job smoothly and on good terms, whilst making sure I receive the wages I am entitled to, without enduring anymore unnecessary stress.

Due to the nature of my work, and the fact that I am not technically qualified to carry out my assigned duties anyway, I feel that PILON would be an acceptable option, and I would like to request this in my resignation letter - does anyone have any advice on how I could handle this, or please correct me if I'm mistaken? Other members of staff that have left the parent company have been put on garden leave, which I would be happy to accept, but I don't believe it is appropriate to ask for in my resignation letter. If I am required to work my last month, then obviously I will try. But realistically, I fear that I will end up ill again due to the stress, which is unfair to me and will have a knock-on effect for me starting my new employment (for the record my new employment will be a complete career change, and not even remotely similar!)

I apologise for this large post, and thank you in advance for any advice you can give, or if you can point me in the right direction

bargainbetty

You have the right to ask, but they have the right to refuse.

Word your resignation to include the final date of your employment and your understanding of any holidays/overtime due to be paid in that time. You are perfectly within your rights to state that you would be willing to accept garden leave if required to do so.

Do not say that you want to leave without working your notice, as they may take you at your word and you will not be paid for the period.

Your qualifications and suchlike are immaterial, as is your reason for leaving of your belief that it would make life easier for you.
You are contractually obliged to work your notice period if you wish to be paid for it, unless they suggest otherwise. No harm in putting the idea in their head, but don't tell them you want out early or you may get what you wish for.

Andy_L

Considering its you giving them notice rather than the other way round why would they want to let you walk out tomorrow and pay you a months salary?

They might if they think that keeping you for a month would harm the company, eg you "acquiring" intellectual property or clients. Otherwise the best you could get would be for them to let you leave without giving any notice

AdviceSeeker6

Thank you for the response - I just wanted to know if I had a right to ask (I don't understand these matters, so don't want to come across as an idiot, or dig myself into a hole I can't get out of!)

bargainbetty wrote: »

No harm in putting the idea in their head

This is precisely what I want to achieve! Obviously I won't be going into too much detail about why I am leaving in my resignation letter - I have aired my concerns to my manager on numerous occasions. I simply want to move on, and preferably avoid the illness route again. It's not that I can't be bothered working - it's that I simply cannot give anymore. I don't envision any issues with me leaving as I have been an invaluable member of staff in my 7+ years, but this also makes it a catch-22, so I just want to make the whole thing as smooth as possible.

AdviceSeeker6

Andy_L wrote: »

Considering its you giving them notice rather than the other way round why would they want to let you walk out tomorrow and pay you a months salary?

They might if they think that keeping you for a month would harm the company, eg you "acquiring" intellectual property or clients. Otherwise the best you could get would be for them to let you leave without giving any notice

Due to the nature of the company and the sensitive data surrounding it, it would be standard procedure to put a leaving member of staff (certainly in my position) on garden leave. To put it bluntly - I know where the bodies are buried. Although I must stress that I am not the sort of person who would be vindictive, nor am I leaving for a competitive company. But that being said, they can be somewhat 'exploitative' when it comes to taking what they can get, and considering how small the team is, it is very likely that they would work me into the ground for the remaining month.

The original contract I signed requires a months notice, so I don't believe leaving without giving any notice would be an option? Again I'm not sure what my best course of action is here.

Cheeky_Monkey

AdviceSeeker6 wrote: »

Thank you for the response - I just wanted to know if I had a right to ask (I don't understand these matters, so don't want to come across as an idiot, or dig myself into a hole I can't get out of!)



This is precisely what I want to achieve! Obviously I won't be going into too much detail about why I am leaving in my resignation letter - I have aired my concerns to my manager on numerous occasions. I simply want to move on, and preferably avoid the illness route again. It's not that I can't be bothered working - it's that I simply cannot give anymore. I don't envision any issues with me leaving as I have been an invaluable member of staff in my 7+ years, but this also makes it a catch-22, so I just want to make the whole thing as smooth as possible.

I wouldn't worry about that if I were you - I'm sure they coped fine while you were off sick. Afterall, no-one is indispensable or irreplaceable no matter how much they like to think so.

If you need a reference, you need to think hard about working your last month if they don't agree to PILON as it wouldn't be a very good idea to go off sick again during your notice period which, I believe, is what you are hinting at.

AdviceSeeker6

Cheeky_Monkey wrote: »

I wouldn't worry about that if I were you - I'm sure they coped fine while you were off sick. Afterall, no-one is indispensable or irreplaceable no matter how much they like to think so.

If you need a reference, you need to think hard about working your last month if they don't agree to PILON as it wouldn't be a very good idea to go off sick again during your notice period which, I believe, is what you are hinting at.

Oh, I'm under no illusion that I'm indispensable, irreplaceable, or in any way special, don't worry! And they coped just fine when I was off sick.... they collected the work in a nice big pile, and left it all on my desk ready for when I came back.

Yes, I'm saying I will need to go off sick if I work my notice period, but I don't need a reference. Although I don't like to leave anywhere on bad terms.

Bogalot

You might not need a reference now, but how do you know you will not in the future? I would seriously question the impact of you going sick for a month.

AdviceSeeker6

Bogalot wrote: »

You might not need a reference now, but how do you know you will not in the future? I would seriously question the impact of you going sick for a month.

Thank you for your advice, and I completely understand the point you are making. I'd like to say that I'm not feigning illness - this is something that I have battled for years, and has been exacerbated largely in part by my job, and has triggered my decision in changing career. A lot of thought has gone into this, and I have been advised to do so by my doctors. I would obviously like to avoid going down this route too much, which is why I'm looking for alternative ways to approach this situation. I don't want my mental health to be a defining reason for my resignation, nor do I want it to impact on my future employment.

getmore4less

The three most common ways to exit are

immediately
garden leave
working

the mistake some make is they ask to go early and employer says yes and they don't have to pay notice.

if they don't want you working anywhere then they may go for garden leave, the xtra cost over PILON is some more holiday pay but they can factor that in with the time and accrued unused and in your case it could save them money over the PILON option.

If you want paying then being prepared and ready to work is the safest option and let them make the moves to negotiate early exit or garden leave.

That should be post notice discussions.

AdviceSeeker6

getmore4less wrote: »

The three most common ways to exit are

immediately
garden leave
working

the mistake some make is they ask to go early and employer says yes and they don't have to pay notice.

if they don't want you working anywhere then they may go for garden leave, the xtra cost over PILON is some more holiday pay but they can factor that in with the time and accrued unused and in your case it could save them money over the PILON option.

If you want paying then being prepared and ready to work is the safest option and let them make the moves to negotiate early exit or garden leave.

That should be post notice discussions.

Thank you, this is a very helpful response! I haven't left a 'proper' job before (they've always been part-time whilst I've been in education), so I didn't know a lot of this. I don't want to be in breach of my contract, and would never leave without notice. I do think that they will want to negotiate something like garden leave, but how would I approach this in my resignation letter? I initially said PILON because I thought this was the more correct term to use, (I thought garden leave was if the employee was dismissed) but I may be wrong? Basically I wanted to gently suggest that I would be open to this, and considering the nature of the company, it would be an option that I'd like to discuss.