Resigned from job and no idea where I stand

[outtathere]

Morning,all.

I'm looking for a little advice on a bit of weird situation I'm in.

I resigned from my job two days ago. I sent a professional resignation letter and clearly listed what my notice period would be based on my contract, as well as my last day of work.

A few hours later I received an email from my manager acknowledging my resignation and wishing me well for the future.

Then, almost immediately, an email from the IT department asking me to book a date to return my equipment. This is fine, as I get they need to have things back, and it's better to just get it arranged.

However, the weird part is, I was also immediately locked out of all my systems and my accounts like email have been deleted.

As I said above, my notice period is clear on my contract and I had listed the exact date on my resignation letter, but it seems that my resignation has been taken to mean that I was leaving immediately.

I'm really confused by the whole thing as I was under the impression that I would either work my notice and then leave, or if they wanted me to leave right away, they would offer an option for this, such as using some holidays for that week, but nothing has been communicated at all.

I did reach out to the HR contact I had in my email, but that bounced, so it seems that she no longer works there, and I don't even have details for anyone else.

This is a massive UK company with very organised processes, so I'm really quite shocked (and a bit worried) about the radio silence, especially since the onboarding I had when I joined was very well structured.

I don't really know if this is normal, and I'm just wondering if there's anything I should do here.

Should I just wait and see if they pay me for my untaken holidays? Or should I try and find another person in HR to ask for clarification around the whole resignation/exit process?

“Surely just walking over to your manager and discussing this face to face”

I think it’s reasonably obvious that OP isn’t physically in an office with her manager

I would guess it's either a miscommunication and IT have cut you off too early, or you have been put on gardening leave for your notice period.

Speak to your manager or contact your HE business partner and they can confirm or resolve.

It will be an easy fix.

I work remotely at the opposite end of the country from my manager.

Ok, but in all seriousness you must have his mobile number or the central switchboard number. All I'm saying is to contact your manager or their manager above. Your day will improve hugely once it's sorted. Good luck.

When I handed in my notice at a previous role I had the same issue - IT had disabled all of my accounts and I couldn't access anything. We were fully in the office at the time and my manager was in a massive panic because it was month end reporting and I couldn't do any work at all. They went crazy at IT and they managed to reinstate me within a couple of hours.

“Ok, but in all seriousness you must have his mobile number”

The only reason I have my boss’s mobile number is because it is on the bottom of his emails. If I couldn’t access my emails, I wouldn’t know it.

There is no phone on anyone’s desk any more.

Call the head office and see if you can speak to someone, if they can put you through to someone in HR, or get someone to call you back. Not sure what more you can do.

Once your boss had emailed you to confirm your resignation, it’s always best to forward that to a home email address.

I can’t believe there are people without their manager’s telephone numbers. It’s a basic of business continuity planning if nothing else!

Given that OP thought she had a month to get any personal stuff she needed like holiday balance info… I don’t think it’s her in the wrong here.

Given that OP thought she had a month to get any personal stuff she needed like holiday balance info… I don’t think it’s her in the wrong here.

She's not in the wrong, but it's another basic skill of working life - always make sure you have all the key information you need long term BEFORE you hand in your resignation (eg payslips, P60, letters from HR, benefits info). Particularly with remote workers, companies are very sensitive to information leaking out with the departing worker and they either shut you down or they severely limit your ability to email/upload to external addresses and sites. The latter happened in my last job - I was trying to email myself my latest payslips and it was bounced because they recognised I was trying to send something to my personal email address. I wasn't being nefarious, just lazy because I'd saved my ADP name and password on my work PC.

Thanks for all replies. As @SheilaFentiman said, I thought I had time to get what I needed and would have had at least some formal communication to say what was happening, so that’s really what prompted the thread, as I didn’t know if it was normal.

Despite being a massive company, it’s actually not easy to get the contact details for individual people because everything is done behind “gated” systems, which you only have access to if you’re employed there, and since they cut my access, I don’t have that option.

Anyway, I heard back from my manager who confirmed I had been placed on Gardening Leave (no mention as to why), and that I would receive my remaining holiday pay on my next pay date.

I do feel it’s been handled quite unprofessionally, but at the same time, I’m not investing any further energy in it, as I’m glad to have left.

Glad you managed to get some confirmation OP!

Enjoy your garden leave... it would have been nice to know it was going your way happen! I can see why you're leaving. Good luck in your new role.

Enjoy your gardening leave!

My last employer royally buggered up the timing of my notice period to the point I had change the start date with my current employers. Like you I took it as validation of my decision to leave. No one in HR is bothered about ensuring smooth process when you’re out the door compared to making a good impression with new employees and settling them in quickly.

There are sometimes reasons why a company will revoke access then tell you afterwards, if they have a model that means you have access to sensitive information or information that would benefit a competitor like data or intellectual property then they prefer to give no notice so you don't have any time to remove it.

They should have made contact proactively with you immediately after revocation though, that's just basic manners.