Bit of context - I work in the creative industry, fairly senior (second to my boss) and responsible for several projects. My boss is a lovely man - we work really well because I bring in the creative side and have done successfully (bringing projects and developing them to fruition) whereas he has the more business/legal side covered.
Now to the problem. The company we work for is being shut down by our European parent company. Boss has suspected it for a while because market is slow. This got confirmed last week. He told me, in confidence, that it’s happening next week when the parent company is flying over to make us all redundant. No one else knows, and parent company doesn’t know I know.
Boss is using this time to set up a new company of his own, and will take me with him. We also plan on taking a couple of projects with us that are ‘live’ and parent co have given blessing for this.
He has acquired some investment to cover a couple of years of overheads.
But he said something that surprised me. I am entitled to three weeks of redundancy lag and 3 months salary (notice period). “So your salary from New Co can kick in from September.”
On one hand, I feel I should be grateful he’s offering me a life raft. On the other hand, I feel like saying - no, that’s my redundancy pay and I’ll say what I do with it. You have your investment to pay for income.
I would prefer to use any months notice pay as ring fenced to protect myself in case this New Co doesn’t work out. I won’t be entitled to anything as it’s starting from the ground up.
But I don’t want to appear ungrateful, rude and grabby.
What should I do?