Thinking of quitting job

mark15571

Hello,

I realise this is a tough time for a lot of people and many are worried about job security, so I don’t want to sound selfish.
I have been in my current job just over 3.5 years. I took took the job after redundancy whilst in London and moved back to my home town. This past few weeks, I’ve been subjected to some not so nice comments and has made me feel really low. We don’t have an HR department as such and the person who does that role is also the office manager and accountant and is in fact one of the people making comments. I’ve never experienced bullying before, so not sure how I deal with it. I haven’t really enjoyed working there any way and no that there isn’t any room to progress.
So, to my point. I’m seriously thinking about quitting. I’m 48, I have £15,000 saved. I’ve saved hard these past few years. I took on my old family home nw that both my parents are no longer here and don’t have a mortgage or rent to worry about. My outgoings are about £500 to £600 per month. What I’m considering is going to set up on my own. I have done freelance internet marketing in the past and would look at this again. I have been told to consider either claiming, whilst setting up, or going part time.
I’d be happy to get opinions on this. 

Many thanks,
Mark

gettingtheresometime

I have no idea of whether you're being sensitive or not over these comments but my only though is that it might be an idea to do actually see if there's a market for your service before you actual resign.

Savvy_Sue

What you'd be able to claim might also be restricted by whether you resigned. If you did, you might not get anything for six months. 

Dox

mark15571 said:

Hello,

I realise this is a tough time for a lot of people and many are worried about job security, so I don’t want to sound selfish.
I have been in my current job just over 3.5 years. I took took the job after redundancy whilst in London and moved back to my home town. This past few weeks, I’ve been subjected to some not so nice comments and has made me feel really low. We don’t have an HR department as such and the person who does that role is also the office manager and accountant and is in fact one of the people making comments. I’ve never experienced bullying before, so not sure how I deal with it. I haven’t really enjoyed working there any way and no that there isn’t any room to progress.
So, to my point. I’m seriously thinking about quitting. I’m 48, I have £15,000 saved. I’ve saved hard these past few years. I took on my old family home nw that both my parents are no longer here and don’t have a mortgage or rent to worry about. My outgoings are about £500 to £600 per month. What I’m considering is going to set up on my own. I have done freelance internet marketing in the past and would look at this again. I have been told to consider either claiming, whilst setting up, or going part time.
I’d be happy to get opinions on this. 

Many thanks,
Mark

You have been told...by whom? Someone who understands what might be available to you and how/when you could claim?

When you talk about going 'part time', do you mean you would quit your current job and work part time, work part time in your current job and part time in your freelance activities, or what? Would your current employer allow this?

Asking for opinions based on a couple of paragraphs is quite an ask, but you do seem a bit vague about what you might do, how you might market yourself and where your clients are coming from. The market as of now is grim for freelancers of any description, let alone ones who don't seem to have a ready book of contacts and clients. Internet marketing has never been an easy option and is almost certainly vastly more difficult than when you last gave it a go (what went wrong when you freelanced before?).

middleclassbutpoor

You have £15k in savings - you have £500-600 outgoings.  Based on £600 gives you 2 years 1 month to get a job or build a business that will pay your expenses. 

If you quit your job - sounds like you are not in immediate danger. 

If you back yourself to do something you have done before and set up on your own - 2years should be plenty. 

£600 a month = £7.50 an hour on a 20hr week - You could easily pick this up at any point I would imagine if you have a skillset that is transferrable. 

Not sure why its even a question really given what you have said.  What is stopping you? 

tacpot12

With £15,000 in savings you will not get much by way of benefits, and anything you earn will further reduce the benefits.  That said, if you are claiming Universal Credit (UC), you will get credits towards your state pension and it can 'passport' you to other benefits such as free prescriptions and dental care (depending on your actual income), so it would still be worth claiming. Note that after 12 months, you will be expected to be earning 35hrs times the national minimum wage per week, and if you still have substantial savings this will mean that you will not receive any payment of UC, so UC might only give you help for 12 months.

Bullying is really unpleasant, but one way you reward bullies is by reacting to their taunts. If you ignore them, they might stop, or more likely, switch to picking on someone else. They might also start to bully you more, in which case you can raise a grievance. You can get help from ACAS if your grievance doesn't stop the behaviour, and ultimately you can take the employer to an Employment Tribunal. As one of the people doing the bullying is effectively the HR person, you need to send your grievance to the director with responsibility for your area (or the director with responsibility for HR if you can identify which director this is) and include in your grievance letter why you haven't followed the normal grievance procedure.

Keep a log of what is said and when; be prepared to share this to become public, and consider sharing it with anyone whole the bullies are also picking on. Don't keep the log on any work computer. Your mobile phone is a good place of it providing you have a passcode on the phone. I would also suggest that the log is kept in an app on the phone that requires a second password.

Resigning immediately might be an overreaction. I think I would try to tough it out for a couple of months to see if you can convince them that you are not a pushover and won't go without a fight. 

Brynsam

middleclassbutpoor said:

£600 a month = £7.50 an hour on a 20hr week - You could easily pick this up at any point I would imagine if you have a skillset that is transferrable. 

'Easily pick this up'. Easily said, but you still need clients - and no client is likely to take you seriously if you are charging below the NLW. If you put such a low value on yourself, you can bet your life they will; and many will simply decide that you are 'too cheap'. How would you provide for your retirement on that sort of pittance?

Far too many people dream of being their own boss without ever doing the serious research and preparation needed, which is why so many small businesses fail within a year. OP says they've 'done freelance internet marketing' before, but clearly it wasn't successful enough to make a career out of it when made redundant. What's going to be different now, in a climate which is so much tougher? 

The comment that 'This past few weeks, I’ve been subjected to some not so nice comments and has made me feel really low' makes me wonder how well OP would cope with difficult, demanding clients. Is it really workplace bullying going on now, as suggested, or simply that the current situation is getting to everyone - especially OP - and making it harder to cope? If so, working for yourself may not be the answer, because it takes much greater resilience to handle everything on your own. It needs to be a positive choice because you want to do it, not an escape route because you don't like where you.

Comms69

mark15571 said:

Hello,

I realise this is a tough time for a lot of people and many are worried about job security, so I don’t want to sound selfish.
I have been in my current job just over 3.5 years. I took took the job after redundancy whilst in London and moved back to my home town. This past few weeks, I’ve been subjected to some not so nice comments and has made me feel really low. We don’t have an HR department as such and the person who does that role is also the office manager and accountant and is in fact one of the people making comments. I’ve never experienced bullying before, so not sure how I deal with it. I haven’t really enjoyed working there any way and no that there isn’t any room to progress.
So, to my point. I’m seriously thinking about quitting. I’m 48, I have £15,000 saved. I’ve saved hard these past few years. I took on my old family home nw that both my parents are no longer here and don’t have a mortgage or rent to worry about. My outgoings are about £500 to £600 per month. What I’m considering is going to set up on my own. I have done freelance internet marketing in the past and would look at this again. I have been told to consider either claiming, whilst setting up, or going part time.
I’d be happy to get opinions on this. 

Many thanks,
Mark

I never understand why people think HR is there to protect them; HRs primary function is to make sure you're sacked legally. Unions protect employees, HR sacks employees.

Well you can comfortably survive for 12+ months, so why not?

middleclassbutpoor

Brynsam said:

middleclassbutpoor said:

£600 a month = £7.50 an hour on a 20hr week - You could easily pick this up at any point I would imagine if you have a skillset that is transferrable. 

'Easily pick this up'. Easily said, but you still need clients - and no client is likely to take you seriously if you are charging below the NLW. If you put such a low value on yourself, you can bet your life they will; and many will simply decide that you are 'too cheap'. How would you provide for your retirement on that sort of pittance?

Far too many people dream of being their own boss without ever doing the serious research and preparation needed, which is why so many small businesses fail within a year. OP says they've 'done freelance internet marketing' before, but clearly it wasn't successful enough to make a career out of it when made redundant. What's going to be different now, in a climate which is so much tougher? 

The comment that 'This past few weeks, I’ve been subjected to some not so nice comments and has made me feel really low' makes me wonder how well OP would cope with difficult, demanding clients. Is it really workplace bullying going on now, as suggested, or simply that the current situation is getting to everyone - especially OP - and making it harder to cope? If so, working for yourself may not be the answer, because it takes much greater resilience to handle everything on your own. It needs to be a positive choice because you want to do it, not an escape route because you don't like where you.

I think you have misunderstood me and I possibly could have been more clear in what I meant. 
If the self employed work failed to take off, - To get the £600 a week employed would be the equivalent of less than the min wage on a part time role - i.e. you would only need a min wage job to go back to and be OK. 

TELLIT01

After the pandemic I suspect there are going to be many people seeking new jobs and, at 48, you will potentially not be the pick of the bunch.  Think carefully about chucking in your job in the current environment.  If you feel you can, I would suggest sticking it out until this is over and then look for a new job.  There is a view that it is easier to find work when you are in work.

Masomnia

Comms69 said:

mark15571 said:

Hello,

I realise this is a tough time for a lot of people and many are worried about job security, so I don’t want to sound selfish.
I have been in my current job just over 3.5 years. I took took the job after redundancy whilst in London and moved back to my home town. This past few weeks, I’ve been subjected to some not so nice comments and has made me feel really low. We don’t have an HR department as such and the person who does that role is also the office manager and accountant and is in fact one of the people making comments. I’ve never experienced bullying before, so not sure how I deal with it. I haven’t really enjoyed working there any way and no that there isn’t any room to progress.
So, to my point. I’m seriously thinking about quitting. I’m 48, I have £15,000 saved. I’ve saved hard these past few years. I took on my old family home nw that both my parents are no longer here and don’t have a mortgage or rent to worry about. My outgoings are about £500 to £600 per month. What I’m considering is going to set up on my own. I have done freelance internet marketing in the past and would look at this again. I have been told to consider either claiming, whilst setting up, or going part time.
I’d be happy to get opinions on this. 

Many thanks,
Mark

I never understand why people think HR is there to protect them; HRs primary function is to make sure you're sacked legally. Unions protect employees, HR sacks employees.

Well you can comfortably survive for 12+ months, so why not?

The office manager is also an employee, of course.