Manager making notice period a nightmare

[Greenwitchart]

After several years in my current role I am leaving my job after lodging a grievance against my line manager & agreeing to a settlement. The workplace in general is toxic and caused me to have a breakdown.

We are processing all the paperwork & HR is fine to deal with but my line manager has dialed up the bullying & is making my short notice period ( 3 weeks left) difficult & keeps changing the goalposts in term of what work needs to be completed & the handover process.

I already mentioned it to HR and listed what I can reasonably achieve before I leave but now I am really struggling with the daily toxicity

If you have gone through similar what would be your advice? I am considering asking HR whether a different line manager can be allocated to me to cover the last of my notice as things are so bad...

Get signed off sick with stress. I never usually suggest this but in your case it seems justified. Have you got another job to go to?

You boss cant actually "make" you do anything.

Mentally disengage.
Ask for things in writing and reply in writing...

Minimise interactions...

Also consider...Getting a bad migraine and taking a few days off sick OR just signed off completely for the last 3 weeks

Go back to HR and say you are being failed in a duty of care here and ask that it's agreed the rest of your notice period is gardening leave. I'm depressed that you've been left in this situation after an agreement - HR is being toothless. If nothing is done at all to address all this then do get signed off; don't put yourself through this.

Thank you everyone for the comments. I really appreciate it. I am quite senior so I wanted to be as professional as I can be but I must say that calling in sick crossed my mind yesterday as I was so miserable...

I left my previous role 5 years ago and was messed around BUT I had a date and so do you whereby you are out of there. Just keep that in mind!

As a PP says ask for any work requests in writing to ensure that the request is not misunderstood, reply back in writing but not immediately - maybe the next day or day after.

After all - what they are going to do? Put you on a PIP, fire you, bully you.

I felt massively empowered once I had a leaving date. In fact I extended my date of leaving because I didnt want to leave within 2 weeks after my voluntary redudancy has been approved. They agreed and in the end actually asked me to stay on and cancel my application to leave because they left it far too late to get a replacement.

I have NEVER looked back. There is something else out there for you.

I had a manager do this to me, similar circumstances though I doubt I was as senior as you.

I sat him down and calmly told him I'd either work my six weeks in peace, or he could have my keys then and there and I'd be going. He tried to call my bluff saying I wouldn't dare, so I dropped my keys on the table and walked out. Went to the doctors, got signed off with work related stress, sent all that to HR and spent six weeks recuperating instead of battling with his constant bullshit.

Put yourself first, why martyr yourself for three weeks for a job you're leaving anyway? No one will thank you for it and your manager definitely doesn't deserve your time and energy.

I was fairly senior and refused to work notice faced with the same toxic workplace

Check what your agreement actually says you need to do to receive payment. I generally write in a requirement to handover certain tasks or being available for a period of time post employment to answer questions but it is hard to expect much when an agreement is signed - ultimately the agreement is about you leaving, not all the things you'll do before you go... if they wanted those things then they shouldn't have asked you to leave!

Just make sure you don't do anything which means they could withhold the termination payment!

In that case 100% Call in sick if you are comfortable doing so amd get a gp app to get signed off.

you owe them nothing and are in the home stretch now.

Start prioritising yourself.

I think if you've already got to the point of burn out then prioritising your mental wellbeing is paramount. I'd document everything, send it to hr and join a union and also send it to them. Have your union rep liaise with hr from here on in. If that doesn't rein them in then I'd go on sick leave.

Agree, I have only ever done this once in my career and really struggled with the decision but it was absolutely the right thing to do. We had a new CEO come in and change everyone's job roles, I went from Office Manager, to being expected to generate sales leads and I was targeted daily with call volumes and conversions. It was absolutely not what I wanted to do, not the job 'd applied for or held for 2 years and after handing in my notice, the CEO decided to move his desk to adjoin mine and would talk over me while on calls, trying to ask what the client was saying etc. He made life unbearable and I went home one day and didn't come back.

One thing I learned after that was no job was worth panicking over like that and swore I'd never be treated like that again.

Absolutely get signed off for stress.

Sorry this is happening OP. As another PP said, check the terms of your settlement, but it’s unreasonable to expect someone to continue working for someone they’ve filed a grievance about, even if only for a few weeks, without some kind of intermediary in place.

speak to HR again, tell them your boss is making life impossible and you will need to go off sick of it continues. If they can’t offer a solution, then do it

Thank you again everyone. It has been really heartwarming to read all the comments. I am going to involve HR further in term of the continuing hostile behaviour and constant changes in the agreement initially made on the completion of projects before my last day and handover. In the meantime I am trying to stay calm and professional because I don't want my own team to be affected.

I experienced this. The LM was so furious I was leaving because he hadn’t realised he would lose a very lucrative client who would just follow me.

He ramped up the bullying so I refused to deal with him by phone or in person. I told HR those were my terms or I would have to get signed off. I had three months notice though, not three weeks!

Dealing (or not bothering) with his emails was fairly simple and eventually he gave up and found someone else to bully.

Speak to HR. If you don’t get anywhere then go off with stress. Not worth a breakdown. It took me 9 months to recover.

The bullying is continuing so I emailed HR & my line manager & I listed in details what I had done so far to complete projects & what I could reasonably do in the days I have left & made it clear that the sudden workload overload & work environment was affecting my health to the point of overwhelm ( I am autistic).

If things don't improve I will then have to take sick leave next week until my last day. I have done everything I could but I am now being blamed for other people's incompetance, asked to complete more tasks in my handover and so on so I am done.

My health is more important to me than anything and I was also offered a new job today which is a big relief as well so I want to focus on what comes next.

Just leave! Take the 3 weeks as sick leave and spend it recuperating from all the stress.

Been there, done that and laughed my head off when 18 months later my shit manager ended up doing the same because they finally realised that what they were trying to get me to do was completely unrealistic. 🤣

Agreed.

Just grt signed off and do a bit of gardening read a book and have some gin and tonic.

Watch the get signed off advice… where I work (and previous employers) nothing more than SSP paid for sickness absence if working your notice period and so could end up worse off

😶‍🌫️ that's a fair shout and I think a clear example of where my "privilege is showing". In 20 yrs I have never worked anywhere that has that level of (poor) working and employment standards so this would never even occur to me and i am not sure if it did I'd be that fussed (due to level of pay / savings) but is a very real problem and consideration for many.

Just do what you can OP to make it as easy for your successor to pick up the pieces as possible I'd ignore your manager as far as possible.

Realistically what would/can they do if you don’t achieve everything they’re asking of you in the next 3 weeks? Personally I’d do bare minimum just as a ‘fuck you’, but I’m petty like that!

So sorry you’re struggling with a toxic LM, OP.

I’m dealing with the same but I’m within my probationary period, I’m pretty sure I can give a weeks notice but I’d need to check.

My Manager has been so awful to me, that when I stepped back into the office after a week of annual leave, at least 4 members of staff said they thought I wouldn’t return due to the way I was treated and made to feel the week before my annual leave. It’s well known how much of a bully she is and many staff members have experienced similar. Grievances have been made but nothing has been done.

I’m searching for other jobs daily as each week it’s more difficult to continue feeling this way. I’ve been more stressed than at any other point in my working life (I’m mid 50s).

I wish you well, OP and hope you can get the support from HR for the remainder of your notice period.