Voluntary redundancy and lack of communication from work

[sunnydayswarmevenings]

Hi everyone

I’m not sure what to do or if I’m being impatient. Any advice would be appreciated.

I have been at my current job for nearly 2 years (April) and have been on sick leave since the beginning of Feb. To cut a long story short we merged with another company 7 months ago and my manager and entire team left. I managed to keep my job but there’s been lots of changes. My new manager is awful and I haven’t really clicked with the team either. I’ve been unhappy for months but just plodded along.

I finally gave up last month and was signed off by the GP due to stress at work. I’ve been looking for a new job but there’s so much competition at the moment and it’s taken longer to find something. My company only pays statutory sick pay so I’m stressed about bills too which doesn’t help.

Anyway, around a month ago, I was informed that the company were making more redundancies (due to the increase in employers NI and tax contributions from April) and that my job was at risk again. They said voluntary redundancy requests would be considered, so I requested this, which was accepted. My manager (with one of the HR partners copied in) emailed me on the 3rd March to say that they would be accepting my request in principle but that they would send me a formal response shortly.

I haven’t heard anything since. I chased them again on Monday but still nothing and I’m just confused / frustrated because they wanted this wrapped up by the end of March. I don’t know if I will receive any wages this month or if it will be April now. I also have a couple of interviews scheduled next week and they’ve already asked what my notice period is (I have no idea if work will release me earlier or if I will still have to give a months notice)

I appreciate they are spinning multiple plates but the lack of communication is frustrating. Is this normal? Should they be communicating more? I feel like I’ve been forgotten about because I’m off sick.

thank you

Have they given you a financial offer?

I thought you had very little rights with under 2 years service. I’d be trying to lie low and get to over 2 years rather than chase them. But I could be wrong.

@Heylittlesongbird no, they haven’t given me a financial offer yet. I’m assuming that’s what they meant when they said that they would send me a formal response shortly.

I believe the notice period would take me over the 2 year mark (please correct me if I’m wrong)

They also offered me voluntary redundancy last year when we merged but I ended up keeping my job.

I know they don’t want me to stay either, so unless they want to re-interview and go through the whole process surely it just makes sense to pay me a bit of money and let me go?

Just leave don’t jeopardise getting another job waiting for redundancy your literally entitled to nothing you might get something but it will be at there discretion rather than legal entitlement

@rwalker I don’t want to leave until I have another job lined up, granted SSP isn’t much but it’s better than nothing and pays the mortgage at least. Obviously if I can get a bit more from them then why not. They’ve already accepted my request, so it’s still worth pursuing imo.

Fair point and your realistic as in your only expecting ssp

I know it's frustrating and you want to resolve the issue.

But, you don't have another job lined up at the moment to go to at the moment, so you have no reason to rush the process.

At this stage, I'd say don't push them, don't look too keen. Let them come to you with an offer.

Obviously, if you land another job then that changes. But at the moment, I'm not too sure why you're so keen to resolve this. You will get SSP until you get paid off, then you will have nothing. So, on the basis that you have no other work lined up and the redundancy payment value will be the same at the end of the day, then I'd just hold back, keep taking SSP at the moment and sit it out.

But, I don't know how badly this is impacting on your mental health, so you might just be desperate to bring things to a head and draw a line under it, which would be perfectly understandable.