Is it ever wise to ask for voluntary redundancy?

[cupcakeandtea]

Hi

As I'm sure some of you already have seen, I have had a bit of a 'situation' with my boss who gave me a formal reprimand a mere 3 weeks after having my son. Although I wanted to raise merry hell over it with my HR department (who are about as effective as a chocolate teapot) I decided that doing nothing was my best option as I knew persuing it would be far too stressful.

When I spoke to ACAS last week I asked them if it would be sensible to ask for voluntary redundancy when my enhanced mat pay ends in Sept. My company hasn't asked for any volunteers for redundancy as far as I know but like most businesses at the moment, they are tightening their belts and as I've been working there for nearly 9 years I would get a fairly decent package (around £10k). ACAS said that it wouldn't harm to ask and that they can't penalise me for asking for redundancy but I'm not so sure. I really don't wwant to make things worse for myself but on the other hand I have no intention of going back there.

Any thoughts from the ever helpful Mumsnetters?

Hi cupcake. I didn't see your other thread, must have been when I was on a break recently.

There is no reason you can't ask for voluntary redundancy, however if your company isn't even offering or talking about offering VR to people, or consulting on possible compulsory redundancies, and it will cost them £10k, it's difficult to see any incentive for them to agree to your request.

If you've got no intention of going back there anyway you will be making this pretty clear by asking for redundancy. From their point of view, unless there are other factors, the cheapest and easiest way to progress is to refuse the request and wait for you to resign before you are due back. If they have the impression you will resign anyway, there's no incentive for them to pay you £10k.

Hi Flowery

I can see your point and I think they're just waiting for me to resign to be honest. Like you say, if they think I've got no intention of going back why would they make me voluntarily redundant as it's going to cost them. I think the best thing for now is to wait it out and see!