Resigning and return of work equipment

[ann4812]

Unfortunately I have resigned from my job, been there a long time but things have changed the past couple of years and I’ve found myself more and more unhappy and stressed.

I have been signed off with work related stress, during which I have resigned, due to finding another job that hopefully will be better. My sick note runs to the end of my notice so u won’t be returning now.

Within 2 days of resigning, I have been contacted multiple times by supervisors, HR, colleagues stating that my work equipment (laptop, uniform, access card etc) needs to be returned within 2 days. My notice period runs for a month.

I am aware that this is company property and will need returning, and I am of course planning to do so. But AIBU to find this a bit much when I’m off with work related stress for them to be demanding everything back straight away?

For context, I’ve genuinely been unwell, although I have a new job I am down about the end of my career as I thought it was going to be. Where I need to return my equipment to is over an hour from me, and I am likely going to need someone to come with me to support me due to how I feel about work at the moment and the anxiety it’s causing me and has caused me.

I have obviously not been using my work equipment while I have been off sick and don’t plan to do so, it’s just the pressure being put on me within days to get it back. AIBU or is this normal?

The job she got then she interviewed for in February for, she hasn’t mentioned being off sick back then

Honestly, if they were that bothered, let them come collect it. If you're ill, you're ill.
Go easy and best of luck in the new job, hope goes well and is a happier vibe.

Well, I’m hoping to be recovered to start my new job but I can’t predict the future. Having work badger me doesn’t help.

I do have a disability, it’s not self identified.

Not currently in a civil service job but that’s where I’ll be going.

It’s not a “little bit of stress”, you don’t know what happened at my workplace.

I agree with everyone saying it would be good to just get all the equipment back and wash my hands of the place, I just felt really pressured so quickly after resigning when I need to work out how I can actually do this where I feel comfortable and supported.

I understand that. But stress for the employer as they have an employee (yes she’s an employee, not an ex employee) is not comparable to the work stress that OP seems to have experienced. I have experienced that, and fully understand her feelings about this. If she was off sick for a month with anything else she would also be hoarding a laptop at home and would be being equally unproductive (as she should be when off sick) so I don’t see what the difference is here.

HOWEVER the point I was making was the tone of some of the responses here. It is very common for some posters to have a little lightbulb go off in their head, like “💡ding ding!!! There’s someone on Mumsnet who is distressed! I have an opportunity to be an absolute shit to her! What fun!!!” And I have complained endlessly via reporting posts to Mumsnet who love emailing me and saying ‘doesn’t meet the criteria to remove the post but please carry on reporting to us as we rely on your reports’.

So my point is, tell us you’re a manager and you can understand the business need for the laptop, but say it nicely and remember who you are talking to, which is a woman who has been so distressed by her manager or colleagues or working practices that she has gone off sick and then resigned and cannot bear to enter the premises again because of how she has been treated.

‘Kindness costs nothing’ but it’s nice to do it rather than merely copy and paste those words onto Facebook, right?

If you are off sick you have nothing else on so just return it and move on

I do think sometimes it's just easier not to wait for perfect and just get it done.

If you think it's best to drop in person, then do that. But it's work kit. Depersonalise it. The fact that you are looking to feel 'supported and comfortable' to drop off work kit sounds out of proportion to the task.

Your primary compliant was the distance and it making you feel anxious to go back.

In a job you were happy in for years until it became stressful.

If you left out lots of information about you being abused, discriminated against because of disability etc then you may have had different replies.

Just say to them that you cannot physically return it yourself but they can send a courier to collect.

If I were you I'd take it back asap - having it around, and having to deal with them isn't helping you.

Tell them to send a courier. If you’re unwell you’re not obliged to make an hour journey to return their equipment.

Well an employer is generally a business and not a person (although I appreciate this isn’t always the case) so the stress if felt by other employees who are picking up additional work/ not knowing where they stand etc and the employer also has an obligation to protect them.

I think the op also needs to be realistic here. If she is in such a bad state due to stress that she can’t take the laptop back somewhere in the next 3 weeks then there is no way that she is a fit state to start a new job in 3 weeks time and needs longer to recover.

It will be to protect IP.

Take up the offer from colleagues to be intermediaries as soon as possible. Arrange it today. Sooner it’s done the sooner you can look to the future.

You are not that unwell that you can't go out and find yourself a new job. So just return the items and then you are shot of them.

They aren’t asking for it back “within the next 3 weeks”. That would be reasonable, absolutely. I assumed that it would be a case of returning everything at the latest by the last day of my employment.

Whats happened is within a couple of days of me putting in my notice, I’m being told it needs to be returned within a couple of days.

I’ve already explained this twice. But thanks.

Just get a courier. It will most likely be cheaper than the travel.

She has already explained it has to be personally given to a manager

Yeah, that’s rubbish though. A recognised courier company could easily take it to the manager. It’s a laptop, some uniform and an access card, not the nuclear code.

whether it is rubbish or not, that's what they have told her to do and she doesn't want to be billed for a "lost" or "broken" laptop if she doesnt follow guidelines

Where I have been asked to return it to, isn’t where I work, it is the head office.

I thought the fact that I was off with work related stress is enough of an explanation. The stress is related to a complaint of sexual harassment I made in the workplace a while ago, I won’t go into the ins and outs but I don’t believe it was investigated properly, the person in question still works there and received a promotion. The solution given to me was for myself to be moved if I am uncomfortable working with this person. I don’t think that’s acceptable and I tried to plough on but in the end it got to me and I have ended up off work with stress. I feel anxious around anything to do with that workplace at the moment.

I worked there for many many years happily and loved my job. The past few years management and the organisation has got worse and worse.

I’ve been honest that I’ve been looking for a new job for a while as I didn’t feel it was going to get better. If I hadn’t been offered this new job while I was off I probably would have resigned anyway as I can’t see my feelings about the place getting better.

Okay so I have taken advice and asked my supervisor if a courier can be arranged, or if someone can come to my address and collect in person if it is a matter of urgency. I will see what they say and then go from there.

Get them to get a courier to collect. You don’t have to ever go back to the building.

I was in a similar position (leaving a job due to workplace bullying) so arranged to drop everything back to them out of hours. We agreed to do the handover at 7am before anyone arrived and I went over with my work kit and handed it to a manager who wasn't in my team and didn't know me and it was fine and meant that I didn't have to see any of the people I wanted to avoid. Maybe OP could do the same?