Changed my mind on offer, help

[WorkerBee101]

Complicated, but I wonder if anyone has been in this position before please. I was made redundant at a company I was with for about 6 years. They gave me a month to look for internal roles and I had some interviews. One job was created in my old department to include work based on a large part of my old job. I was encouraged to apply by the remaining managers.
The remaining department is fairly toxic. They barely spoke to me or the others who have now gone and were rude about our team in larger meetings. But the pay is really good and work/life balance used to be great.
They were slow in the process so my redundancy went through and a week later they offered me the role. I was in a panic and accepted as I hadn't seen much else to apply for. My gut tells me it won't be a nice environment and possibly they'll use me for info then drop me again in 6 months.

As other processes were just as slow I have heard back from another firm and may have an offer next week. They seem nice from the interviews, role is less senior but has possible progression, good location and the same pay. I think I would rather take my chances there.

Is that mad, better the devil you know or trust my instinct and leave?

Can I rescind my acceptance at firm one? Start date is in 2 weeks. I've signed an offer letter with basic terms but not a full contract. As it has no notice details and I'm not an employee until checks are re done can I just walk away? How do I even word it? Considering thanking them for the offer but being a bit vague, saying my circumstances have changed and I will not be taking the job.

Looking for some opinions please. Thanks.

Someone else may have more information on this but a few years ago I accepted an offer in principal (signed a document that had the basic offer and benefits in). They then sent me the contract and it was pretty dreadful. No sick pay, terrible pension and the communication I had from their HR department immediately made me not want to work for them. I explained I couldn’t accept on those terms and I walked away with no consequences.

Do you know when the other company might make an offer? Can you wait until that happens just to be sure?

I'm confused . If you were offered an alternative role you are not made redundant and employment continues. Usually there is an option to try try the new role and still take redundancy if either decide it is not for you. If new role is significantly similar to your redundant one you can be mapped over and offered it anyway or were there more potentially redundant employees than roles available?

Thanks @Applecrumble32 that's about where I am in the process, no final contract yet so re assuring.

@LIZS I was made redundant. They signed a legal contract with the end date of my contract and if an offer was made within that date I would have continued employment. They actually extended the date by 3 weeks because the new position became available during my notice period. They still couldn't finish the process within that time so my redundancy date happened. They couldn't keep extending the date just in case.
It's a massive company with many thousands of employees and multiple HR departments etc. About 1800 people were laid off, there are about 30 open jobs in our office.

The new job is technically on a different team but it has cross overs with the remaining team and the areas I specialised in. I would supervise them in some processes. Hard to explain properly but it's a more senior role that didn't exist on our team before but did for other teams. It will also do a lot of work with other departments related to a process I helped create.

Have you received your redundancy pay?

Usually companies have to be very careful about making someone redundant then re-hiring them because it means it wasn't a genuine redundancy situation

Depending on the above, I'd be inclined to not even tell Company 1 about the new job, just say that you've changed your mind and would prefer to take the redundancy thank you very much

I would wait for a definite offer from the new people and then jump ship. Why spend your life in a toxic environment? Your gut - and experience - tells you what it'll be like. I would word it something like you said in the OP.

Yes, redundancy all completed and the payment has been received already. It would class me as a rehire.
There are still people doing most of the work I did before, just not in the same location. Perfectly legal, sadly.

Not sure when I will get a definite answer on the other job. They should have completed interviews this week. The hiring manager emailed me on Thursday to ask if I could be flexible on hours while in training. They ended by saying they would be in touch next week.
I agree it would be best to wait until I hear from them again.

It's all quite nerve shredding though. Did not expect to be in this situation at the start of the year.

You can definitely walk away. Even up until the very last minute. You’ll need to consider how that plays reputationally depending on your industry/ profession but legally nothing stopping you.