Better to be let go or hand my notice in?

[Josiah]

In job almost four years.

Sickness record perfect until now.

I work two shifts over two days/evenings a week. It's fixed. I'm hourly paid. I'm semi retired.

Been off work for three weeks, last week spent in hospital.

At home with the prospect of two months rehabilitation. I have the last two weeks of august booked as holiday from ages ago.

I have decided not to return to the job and and when I regain full help am either going to look at working from home in a creative aspect or look for less physically demanding part time day work. I could even retire and jiggle my savings and shares. I don't know yet as all I want to do now is rebuild my health which will take time but prognosis is I should get back to where I was before.

I presume I can sign on? Only signed on once before around ten years ago and it was only for a month and a complete debacle resulting in job centre paying me compensation as they were crap. I found a job off my own back.

Work like me and I've updated them all the way, even from hospital back. The current status from management is that they are keeping my job open and have got cover for me.

Is it better for me to now say that after consideration I've decided not to return or to ask for them to instigate letting me go?

Thank you for your kind advice.

[flowery]

I've no idea about benefits, but if you don't want to return to your job, you need to resign, surely? What does "ask for them to instigate letting you go" actually mean? Surely it means telling them you want to leave, ie handing in your notice?

If work are prepared to keep your job open at the moment, why not take advantage of that, and use the time you're signed off to recuperate and then get yourself sorted with whatever your next plan is?

[Josiah]

I didn't know if it was a bit mean of me to give them the impression I will be coming back.

The only benefit I would be seeking is job seekers allowance and I think I heard somewhere a long time ago that if you hand your notice in you can't claim job seekers allowance straight away, there is a time period, but if you are sacked or let go you can sign on straight away.

I won't be able to sign on until I'm better anyway.

Or maybe not sign on at all and just work out what direction I want to take?

My mind is still a bit woozy from my recent illness!

[Josiah]

Thank you flowery, by the way.

[flowery]

There isn't such thing as "letting you go" though. That would involve dismissing you, and in circumstances where you've been there four years and therefore have rights, they aren't (or won't if they have any sense) going to do that without sufficient justification and an appropriate procedure.

If you go to them and say you don't want to come back and can they "let you go", it would be very stupid of them to say anything other than, "yes of course, we'll be sorry to see you go, please put your resignation in writing". Anything else would be making themselves vulnerable legally.

I have no idea about the actual rules about job seekers allowance, but if you're financially in a position where you can choose to leave your job without something to go to, and have "savings and shares" which could enable you to retire, I'm unsure why signing on would be relevant to you? Or perhaps that's just me!

[Josiah]

Thank you.

I thought signing on would benefit me in finding another part time job as I would have access to all their jobs and advice on CV updating etc?

Thank you for advice it's much appreciated.

I think I won't say anything about not coming back until my rehabilitation is over and I can gauge my health and decide from there.

I think I just needed a sounding board!

[EBearhug]

To "let you go", either your role would need to be made redundant, or they'd have to have grounds to sack you, unless there are medical grounds that would mean you can't go back, which presumably you don't know about yet, because your rehabilitation hasn't ended.

If you are deemed to be medically fit,and it's not a redundancy and there's been no misconduct to merit dismissal, you'do have to resign, which would mean you'very made yourself unemployed - I don't know what the current rules are (but they seem to have got stricter rather than otherwise,) but certainly in the past that would have meant you weren't really entitled to anything for 6 months, and these days, they seem to sanction people for all sorts of reasons.

You need to find out the details and work out what the risks would be for you financially - are there many PT jobs available in your area? Could you fully retire? What if you don't find another job which suits the hours you want?

[Josiah]

EBearhug

Thank you for your reply.

I think I will be spending the next few weeks contemplating my future. I don't know if I will live until 70 or 90 or whatever age, so that makes things slightly trickier to work out if I fully retire.

There are jobs but I am now in the older age bracket and whilst they are not meant to discriminate it makes sense to hire younger people, so I will be up against a lot of competition!

Decisions, decisions!

[EBearhug]

Sorry about all the typos I just noticed. I blame my phone.