Handing my notice in at a bad time - is that okay?

[SarahCrowcombe]

Am I being unreasonable by handing my notice in now?

I have hated my job - I escaped teaching (which I loved, but it destroyed me) and started a job in marketing at an NGO. It was okay at the start, but I then soon found that it didn't interest me in the slightest, and the lack of human contact and constant screen time started to negatively affected me and my mental health.

Fast forward to 7 months in, and my lovely Line Manager left for a better paid role elsewhere. The company didn't replace him, leaving me to do both jobs (with only 7 mths experience in that field and no formal training). The company said that they wouldn't replace him and wanted to hold his job open with the view to giving it to me (in a year when I have more experience), and they got an agency in for a few hours a week. So I have now taken on a massive workload and am basically now doing the manager job anyway (and I am totally lost because there is so much I am being asked to, of which I have no idea how to do, and am being given ZERO help or training from my boss who just says: 'sorry I don't know'). On top of this, I took a £10,000 pay cut when I first took the job and have struggled financially. I also know the manager job that they want to give me in a year, will be a tiny salary increase - hence why my line manager left in the first place.

So, I have just been offered a job in Student Support at a brilliant University. Much more up my street, in Education, a £6,000 pay rise, great career progression, amazing holiday, amazing maternity (for future planning - my current job has almost no maternity pay), options for doing their apprenticeships whilst also being paid (so I can retrain in another career should I want to) and they seem super lovely! So overall, MUCH better for me!

BUT, I feel terrible. Me handing in my notice will come totally out of the blue, and will be leaving everyone in the lurch. The boss will likely be extremely annoyed because they've kept the manager role open for me, and they will have lost the entire team in the space of a few months. It is also a very bad time for the company in many ways, and they are VERYYY stretched for staff (with another manager quitting in another team last month, who they haven't replaced yet either), and I feel like I will be letting my close colleagues down and leaving them all alone.

I think I am looking for a little reassurance if possible.

Thank you so much in advance! 😊

Leave! This happened to me at a previous job. I was given a higher role without the title and pay rise. 4 years later and they were still making excuses not to give me it. I wish I hadn't wasted my time. You owe the new company nothing and they will replace you without a thought.

Mate, read your post, don't need to read any other replies, just LEAVE.
If you aren't being appreciated for your skills where you are just leave. You are currently being taken advantage of, being dangled a promotion that doesn't really come with a pay rise??? You already know what you need to do. Just go.

If they decided to have a "restructure" your company would feel no guilt about making you redundant and your colleagues would move on very quickly. You owe them nothing beyond your contractual obligations.

They have created their own bad time. Just be honest, you’ve been doing both roles for minimal pay and you’ve been offered an exciting opportunity

I once read on here 'don't set yourself on fire to keep the business warm' and live by it now. I have history for giving everything and putting work first. Don't do what's best for a business - do what's best for you. I guarantee if you were no longer a fit for their plans/business needs, they wouldn't be having sleepless nights about letting you go/giving that 'open' job to someone else.

Good luck in the new role :)

I assume you will have a notice period?
That will be the time for the company to do what they need to do to mitigate their loss. Not your problem.
The longer the notice period (one that must suit the new employer as well obviously) and less bridges burnt, the better for the employee leaving.

You're being a bit naive here OP. They haven't kept the manager job open for you; they've saved a more senior salary by reeling you in with flattery, and dumped two people's workloads on you.m, despite your lack of experience.

I'd leave in a heartbeat. The company wouldn't think twice if they had to make you redundant.

Give your notice using due process, and work through it professionally.

Stop being a doormat do what's right for you Hand in notice don't look back and enjoy your new role

This is what I came here to say, fuck them OP.

Take the lovely job with the better pay and benefits and don't have a single guilty feeling when your current employer have absolutley served you up a shit sandwich and told you it's sugar.

I have stayed in several jobs for far longer than I should have. Jobs where I had no support, was bullied, overworked, etc, but I stayed through some weird sense of loyalty to the job or an individual.
Equally I have been made redundant 3 times over my career, with no consideration from my employer as to whether it was a convenient time for me, and whether the general economic situation made it difficult to get another job.
I'd definitely urge you to do what is right for you as soon as possible.

dont feel bad
”keeping manager role open for you” is total bullshit, a carrot designed to keep you doing two jobs for the salary of one.

This. I was about to jump on and say exactly the same thing. They’ve been using you, basically getting you to do two jobs for one salary, one you’re not even trained for and worth a far higher salary. I think their behaviour is despicable, and I wouldn’t have a second thought about leaving them. So go for it and don’t look back.

Karma is a bitch. They have made their own bed- now they must lie in it. When managers treat employees like shit then they get what they deserve. Take the new job and slam the door on the way out!

Leave. They aren't keeping it open for you, they're hoping you keep doing both jobs so they don't have to employ anyone else. They've not provided training they should have so don't expect anything they say to be true. Get the dream job and stop being their slave.

If the company wanted you in the manager's job, they should have appointed you to the job.

OMG you think thry held the job open for you? They haven't. They're using you to save £, giving you a stressful unsupportive work environment and you're worried about them?
Bad employers don't deserve you or anyone else who unwittingly comes along either.

@SarahCrowcombe good luck in your new job.

It's just a job, my Dad use to tell me there'll replace you in a heartbeat. It might feel awkward but you've got to do what's best for you. Don't let this opportunity slip away.

OP, don't forget the fantastic defined benefit public sector pension scheme you will get in your new job at a university. That's a huge benefit that you will appreciate more and more as you get older. I have only been in the sector for three years and now have 10 years to go before retirement. The pension I will get from my time in the USS pension scheme with the university will be more than I will get from all the contributions I have made to the pension schemes in the various private sector employers I worked for over 37 years. For God's sake don't opt out of it!

Oh, and like everyone else here I say TAKE THE JOB!

I left a job just before Christmas season which left my employers in the lurch because they would have to train someone up . I didn't care because of the way they treated me . They got what they deserved and I spent a lovely Christmas with my family.

This sums it up!

Only think of yourself and what suits you best. Perhaps in the exit interview you can share that this led to you feeling overwhelmed and undervalued so they may rethink in the future.

Put it this way, if you were being made redundant by said company do you think they'd hold off until it was a good time for you?
You owe them nothing. They paid you, you worked for it. Company loyalty is non existent these days because they have none towards you either

OP, if they really cared about you they would have hired someone into your Manager’s post for 12-months on a fixed term contract and allowed you to apply for the job after their contract had come to an end -
once you had more skill and experience in the sector. Take the new job, you spend a third of your life at work, you need to make
sure you enjoy the majority of that third, and this new role sounds right up your street.

Of course leave.

They are not doing you a favour ‘keeping the manager job open’ they’re demanding you do two jobs but refusing to pay you for two jobs. They could have promoted you early, they chose not to.

They’re a shit exploitative employer and they think you’re gullible.

Go for it.

They have not shown loyalty to you - basically no training and then expecting you to cover upwards again with no training and no financial acknowledgement either.

Enjoy your new role!

It's a waste of time being loyal to a company/organisation like that. It will never be reciprocated. Do what is best for you. You spend too much time working to be miserable at work.