Handed Notice In and All Hell Broke Loose...

[MyNameDefinatelyIsntJanet]

I handed my notice in at work yesterday, it did not go the way I was expecting and I need to know where I stand legally.

For context, it's a fairly senior position, a big jump up the ladder for me and it took them 6 months to find someone to hire into my role before they got me. I've only been in the role 6 months. Over those 6 months, it's become abundantly clear that I'm not the right person for this particular role. They need someone with strategic skills and I'm a technician. I'm bloody good at my job and an industry expert, but they don't need that skill, they need someone who can do the big picture stuff with clients and that's not me. I've stopped enjoying the job and I do feel that it was mis-sold to me at the interview stage, but I'm not bitter about that. I tried it, it didn't work out.

I gave these reasons when I handed in my notice but my line manager was apoplectic with rage. She called me a liar and accused me of using her/ the company as a leg up and that this had been my intention all along (I'm going to an equally senior role in a much bigger specialist agency). This is completely untrue. The job I'm going to is a technical role and much more in line with my skill set but at the same level as now iyswim.

She walked out of the room and slammed the door behind her and told me to leave the office immediately. So I did and have had no contact since.

WTF do I do now? I haven't gone in to the office today but I've been responding to client emails as usual this morning as there's stuff I need to get done.

I've since realised I was never asked to return my signed contract when I was hired and found it in my collection of papers this morning. I have signed it, but they don't have a copy.

I REALLY don't want to go back to the office after yesterday, but I have a 6 month notice period so not having to serve this would be great. I'm not sure where I stand legally. I'm prepared to hitch up my big girl pants and go back in but I'm not sure if they're going to want that so my questions are:

Legally, do they have to pay me for my 6 month notice period even though they've asked me to leave the office (they haven't asked me to leave my position yet).

As they don't have evidence of my signed contract, do I have to serve out my 6 months?

I want to hand over things properly and make sure they've got a plan for my leaving, but should I even care about this after yesterday? I don't want to leave my team in the lurch

Also, the new company is not a competitor of any kind with my current one.

Help?

Agreed - you will go far OP. Congrats on your new role and pay rise and I hope it all works out for you with this situation.

As PP says - you've got this and good on you for knowing your worth and sticking up for yourself.

Op, to see whether you were fairly paid is easy in marketing agencies, what was your typical rate card per day? Also, if you were winning pitches, you also had a business development responsibilities and therefore should be on a bonus scheme/commission.

I agree, I'd be tempted to just go. The M.D. is not playing fair.

Tell them you're going in three months. You're working from the office during that period if they don't like it you will go immediately. And that past that it's not negotiable.

Email it if you can't face it in person but this is a joke. Don't let them away with it.

Thanks

Confidence hasn’t come naturally to me at all, but I think at some point you just woman up and learn to assess your skills and value to a business objectively.

If you can have a chat with yourself about what you’re good at and what you’re definitely not good at, and then identify what bit of your job you actually enjoy it makes it really easy to find your groove.

In my field, everyone thinks the most important thing is being a great client facing schmoozer and if you’re a technician you can’t possibly be a good client facing too. If you work in digital you’ll know this and it’s very frustrating because the schmoozers tend to progress while the technicians stagnate even though it’s the technicians who drive results.

I’ve managed to carve a space for myself by being absolutely focused on technical skills and perfectzing my knowledge, but at the same time I’ve developed my client facing skills so that now I’m confident in both sides of it. Once I could talk well in front of clients but on a very very in depth level of technical knowledge, I started getting noticed by clients and colleagues.

I just got my shit together from there and then feminism found me, I realised I was worth a lot more than I gave myself credit for and off I went.

Just read this thread and am 😱 at the some of the employment law/ HR advice given on here.

Good luck with your next steps op and if you need any legal/ HR advice don't rely on this thread

fog this thread has been really helpful in parts and it’s like anything, you take the bits of advice you agree with and you ignore the stuff that you don’t. It’s all useful in the end and I really appreciate everyone who’s put their time into it today, you’ve all got me through a really tough one

I’ve had a mare of a day really both yesterday and today and I’m trying not to get all ‘it’s not fair’ foot stompy about it.

This could have all been avoided if the
MD had just accepted my notice. I’d have happily worked my full 6 months as normal, helped them find a replacement and been on my way. Instead, we’re here.

On every thread there is a fog. Nothing useful to add, wants to slag off other posters, ignore it.

NotJanet you’re my hero.
will you come and help me negotiate my next salary

I'm not slagging off other posters who I'm sure are offering advice in good faith and trying to be helpful and supportive to the OP.

I just worry that on these employment threads OPs might take advice given as fact/ law when it's not actually correct.

Yeah, onward, upward, just an awkward unnecessary blip.

I think you are my new hero op.
You sound so strong and confident. I wouldn't even know where to start with negotiating salary!

it’s very frustrating because the schmoozers tend to progress while the technicians stagnate even though it’s the technicians who drive result

Oh God, yes!

Good luck. I agree with not WFH permanently. It's useful once in a while, but I once ended up having to WFH for 3 weeks in a row, and it was really isolating and bad for my mental health, just not seeing physical people.

OP take some proper legal advice. My friend is a fairly senior employment lawyer and she says that notice periods are toothless. Companies will not sue, particularly for someone on 35k. There's no need to tie yourself in knots over this.

For a social media marketeer, I do hope you know it’s definitely, not definately.

Fog had a point. ^that’s just BS!

OP you’ve done brilliantly and 🤣 to the posters who think women should put the company’s needs before their own.

BUT please speak to an employment lawyer before going back into any meetings. They’re usually very accessible and will chat on the phone (unfortunately recently needed to use one), even think I can recommend one in your area 😉

AND (from my recent dealings with employment lawyers) as you’ve posted some very recognisable stuff please think about having this thread deleted. It could be suggested brings your old firm into disrepute (not sure of term) and new firm may not look to kindly on public criticism of an employer (even though it’s warranted)

I assume you’ve changed details and not just copied and pasted this all in?

You’re far too sensible to go astray but just in case, whatever you do:

• don’t... turn recruitment consultant! Don’t randomly make it your responsibility to recruit your replacement, and graciously put your head on the chopping block to be blamed for not just finding a new person but ensuring their fit with the company, fair contract and development opportunities on both sides, and the future success of the new post and impact on the business. Why oh why would anyone ever do this?!

• don’t mesh your leaving with new starting. You are leaving on x date. Full stop. Don’t let it become dependent on them finding someone, or about you suddenly dancing to their needs vs a contractually simple and linear disengagement.

• likewise, don’t involve your recruitment consultant or hr function of the new company in this mucky pool of unprofessional wushu washy nonsense! Avoid avoid avoid. Remain cleaner than clean. And don’t open up any communication routes or bring together ties that might not work well for you in the future. These are relationships that wouldn’t normally cross in life, so keep it that way.

• and finally... don’t sign yourself up to produce sub standard work for months on end, that will harm your professional reputation and tarnish your out-going image into one that can be twisted into a disappointing performance / poor fit narrative.

Again, why would anyone do that?

Protect your own interests, don’t meekly stand by hoping someone else might remember to stand in as your hero!

And yay, finally other posters are saying what I said earlier with regard to the way women are hamstrung in negotiations!

Hi, I hope these points may be useful to consider -
While you're currently well-respected within the company, is this likely to continue after this week's events?
What effect do you think it could have on your mental health to be in the same company as the MD for the foreseeable future?
What, if any, damage could the MD do to your reputation within the industry while you wait to start your new role?
There's a term along the lines of 'breakdown in relationship' which may be relevant to your contract, and a reason to alter the notice period.
If you stay with the current firm for the next six months, how will you keep your skills current, or advance them?
If, while awaiting the start date with the new company, the new job offer is rescinded, (changed in strategy perhaps?) what position will you be in to find an alternative?

You've clearly worked hard to progress your career so far. I hope you can find a solution that suits everyone, but if not, look after yourself. Get everything that's progressed in writing, practice saying "I'll need time to consider that", and speak to an employment solicitor. Phone a few and arrange to meet whichever one you feel confident with.

I agree that you should consult an employment lawyer. You clearly can't trust the company to behave reasonably, or even within the law.

A few hundred pounds could save you a few months of stagnation. You will undoubtedly get a better result than on your own.

Good luck OP.

I hope this all works out for you. It's so hard. Well done for believing in yourself and being well paid. A lot of women sadly don't push for what they are worth. Many do and don't get it anyway but that's a whole other thread.

Plus side of working from home. Working in the garden, checking emails from bed or in the bath, brunch, tv at lunch time....

You haven't done anything wrong. You aren't an indentured slave.

They may suspect that you deliberately waited until after you passed probation because you wanted a nice long gardening leave. That's the only rational thing for them to be concerned about in which case if you make it clear that you are happy to mutually agree a shorter notice period that should be fine.

There really isn't much other "way forward" to agree. They may think you are faux-resigning as a way to leverage a payrise I guess - in which case that can be quickly dealt with.

Can you offer to do anything to help them recruit a replacement during your notice period? They seem a bit clueless generally and it might be that you have more success finding the person with the right skills than they did?

Good luck OP, get legal advice and hopefully you will be starting your new job in the autumn.

Oops sorry there were hundreds more messages I hadn't read. Ignore my previous.

You sound brilliant.

In my city there are several flexible hotdesking workspaces that you can get space in for not very much money. You get the "colleagues around a watercooler" moments and sight of other faces, and may be able to bounce ideas off people a bit. Does something like that exist near you and would they agree to paying for a space like that for you for 6 months?

tipexxy I’m not a social media marketer but thanks for assuming that because I’m female and said I work in digital marketing

Also thanks for your attempt at taking me down a peg, can’t have me feeling too confident AND owning a vagina can we?

I’m actually a deep technical SEO, UX and CRO specialist, so piss off.