Resignation
 

Hey all, well I resigned from my job over here in the UK (Head of Operations) and boy were the company I worked for not happy. My 3 manager colleagues refused to speak to me and my staff were kept away from me. You would have thought I'd said I was leaving to set up a rival company!!! Anyone else had bad experiences with leaving their jobs they want to share. I am on 'gardending leave' as they only wanted me to work one week out of my 4 weeks notice - getting paid to not work seems fair to me teehee

Re: Resignation
 

When I handed in my notice I was helped from the building by noon. I felt really sorry for the poor guy who had to pick up the slack in my projects, I never even had a chance to brief him!

Its just retarded, its not like we were not sitting on the fact we were waiting to leave for months, so why pretend like we are going to sabotage things or steal the family silver when we do hand in our notice.

Oh well, I enjoyed the extra couple of weeks paid holidays and did a grand tour of my UK friends before heading for the airport.

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My husband keeps leaving me lists of things to do as he wasnt lucky enough to be put on gardening leave - not that we have a garden!

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I loved it when a company did that to me, especially as I hadn't taken any of my Annual Leave by the time I left either!

I ended up being paid for not working for a month and at the end of it being paid all my salary and also a big wedge of holiday pay as well!!
Plus I could prepare for my new job in the time I had off.

Their loss if you ask me.

When my OH was made redundant, he and all the others before him, those at the same time and those since have all been given their notice and then escorted off the premises without even being able to return to their workstations to shut down/finish anything they were doing.

A security guard accompanied them to their desk for them to remove and personal effects and then they were taken to the door.
I can only assume the company were frightened of a disgruntled employee sabotaging something if they were given a chance.
That seems rather insulting to me, but I suppose some people would do that if they had the chance:frown:.

I met my husband in the pub nearby, along with all the others who had been similarly treated, all looking shell-shocked and wondering what to do with themselves for the rest of the day, never mind their careers.:(
Now that was a very different and sad state of affairs as they were not expecting it at all.

I have to say when it happened to me, I was absolutely over the moon, as I had been making plans to leave anyway, so I was well chuffed they didn't want me to work the notice:thumbup:.

Sad not to see your colleagues and have chance to say goodbye, but that is no big deal really, is it?
Enjoy!!!:thumbsup:

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I guess I wasnt just an employee, when you are head of operations I was kindof running the show so to speak. The saying 'cutting off your nose to spite your face' came to mind last week! Anyway like you say time off to get everything sorted is fab even though I have shopped, ate and been on the internet so far today (oops!).

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Did you at least tell "your staff" what your intentions were? If you didn't, you can sort of see how they feel

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Yes they knew and are totally supportive. I was a good boss to them!

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Let's hope after the hostile departure some one there will be able to give you a decent reference.

Other than that enjoy your gardening leave as in North America most notice periods are way too short.

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I was escorted from the building a couple of months back and put on gardening leave for a month- It was understandable as I was going to a company starting off as direct competition

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I do not agree with this.

The higher up the tree you are, the more likely it is that you will be in trouble if people find out that you are leaving via an unofficial source.

The people who work for you are not entitled to prior knowledge of your resignation before your boss. They should be the first to hear of this and then the information should be disseminated on agreement with him/her.

Your boss might want to delay telling the staff until discussion with HR has taken place and arrangements agreed upon as to how and when to arrange your replacement.

This is not being underhand - uncertainty breeds gossip and speculation and can be very damaging. Rumours then begin about who might replace you and assumptions made.
None of this is good for a workplace.
This happens all the time in my business (teaching). Parents can be notoriously gossipy and nervous about teachers they like leaving and unknown ones arriving and so it is often better to present them with a fait accompli to avoid unnecessary negative talk. Same can be true elsewhere.

In my opinion it is entirely unprofessional to tell anyone that you are going to resign unless you are making a clean breast of your immigration plans to your boss and are totally sure that there will be no detriment to your working environment and no nasty repercussions in the meantime.

I would not advise this in most cases, as your managers may take the opinion that you are likely to not work so hard while you are waiting as your mind and thoughts are elsewhere, you may be looked over for pay rises or potentially they may in extreme cases create a case for dismissing you.

As RRhodes has found, the response to a resignation can be surprisingly harsh and it could be quite a lot worse if you leak the information to the wrong people before you are ready to actually resign.

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Yeah so not that kind of company - there is no HR department and my boss was the first to know.

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I resigned too today, but they have known for a while it was coming.

Unfortunately mine is a move within the UK, not sure if / when Canada will become real from my timeline. They are not happy for them, but most people happy for me & really gracious about it.

The surprise for me has been who has said congrats and who hasn't.

Just goes to show, not easy to predict people, even if worked with them 10 yrs +

Good luck though & enjoy your extra planning time

oh, & my manager told HR manager on the proviso they did not tell anyone else. They did & I had to apologise to my team 2 weeks ago for some of them hearing second hand. Always good to know that HR aren't discrete, really builds confidence.

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A really bad idea!

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Can't wait until it's my time to resign! At the moment I've no choice but to keep slogging away, not telling my plans to anyone.... can't wait until it's
a/. out in the open and
b/. I can leave!

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Things aren't great where I am.

I am considering leaving and gardening leave would be fantastic: I'm on 3 month's notice!

I'm giving it until the new year and making my decision then.

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I was hoping for the same thing when I left my last company after 12 years. Nope, the powers that be insisted I worked every day of my 3 months notice.. just a word of caution! :sneaky:

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In reality, if they didn't put me on gardening leave I'd negotiate it down to something like 1 month.

If they're sensible they'll agree. After all, what do they want; me working hard and being productive for 1 month, or me doing the minimum (or less) for 3?

All hypothetical at the moment though :)

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My OH resigned and when he did so, HR suddenly announced that his notice period was three months, not one. Apparently, they had changed this policy and it had been implemented for staff who were recruited after my husband joined the company. They had then decided to apply it to everyone giving notice, whether they had originally agreed to this or not in their original contract.

He basically said to his boss that it was tough, he was going to Canada in a month and that was that. My OH had made sure that the notice period would bring his work to a sensible end at the conclusion of a big project so that he could tie up the ends and leave his successor with a clear field at the beginning of a new project, so it made no business sense to insist on 3 months notice anyway.
His boss was a good bloke and said he would sort it and he did.

Unless you are very senior indeed, 3 months notice is far too long and is unacceptable.
The company would probably be upset if they recruited a member of staff and then had to wait 3 months for them to start while they worked their notice, so why should they impose this on staff leaving?

Considering what we have seen (that they are often happier to just shove you out of the door on the day you resign) one month for most employees is fair enough.

"Gardening leave" is a bonus, though and shouldn't be expected.
If you have to work your notice, it's unlucky perhaps but not unfair.

Maybe hinting subtley at the unbridled chaos an unscrupulous and disgruntled employee could cause during their extended notice period might speed your departure if you are in this situation.:sneaky:

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firstly... i hope you have all considered your usernames. the internet is a scary place and if chrisparr is your real name... gulp you may have just outed yourself. all it takes is for someone to hear a rhumour and google you and bam. "oh you are emigrating, and discussing company plans with the world huh?"

now ive done my enemy of the state bit... :p congrats for handing in your notice.
i agree it should be discussed that you have a dream of moving one day to canada, but certainly dont tell the staff before the boss. im lucky- i am a full time parent now but i was made redundant a while ago and we were all searched before we left. escorted out etc. sales men i can understand, they could take the clients with them, and in my position ( sensetive financials) i could understand they flipped thru my day planner in my handbag, just incase i had stored any information i had no right to - it still felt like a bit of an intrustion but i wasnt hiding anything so it didnt matter.

dh is lucky, one weeks notice and has nearly 4 weeks holiday stored so we will go out there, have three weeks, if there is a major disaster, he has a job to come back to. if not then two weeks in if its all gravy we can get my mum to hand in the letter of resignation she will be holding, giving the requisite notice. they dont value him, they dont pay him properly and they dont give a crud so since he is 2 a penny, it wont be hard to replace him. :p in reality he is very well qualified, and they will struggle to find someone who can drive the variety of vehichles he can drive but hey ho.

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I understand, but with the mood around here at the moment it isn't a secret. It would be an interesting experiment to see what would happen if this thread was stumbled upon :)

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And I wouldn't give away any company plans (at least I hope I haven't) as that they could give them grounds for just throwing me out.

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Too right, TJ.:thumbup:

I am always amazed that people put their real names as their username.
Linking up posts, there is a huge amount of information on the internet - even just on a forum like this.
It's easy to find yourself identified.

I recently heard of an employee at a friend's place of work who was posting about their current workplace on one of the social networking sites in less than glowing terms under their real name.

They were found by a colleague and word got round.....
It has put the boss in a very difficult position, as they hired them personally. Now this comes out it has damaged the boss's credibility and seriously undermined their authority.

It is a terrible idea to reveal too much about your plans to work colleagues, even if you consider them to be friends.
It only takes one slip and word is out and you are potentially in a lot of trouble.

I don't think there is any company that would want to hear of any employee planning their departure through an unofficial 'on the grapevine' route, but if you are a senior bod then it is very dangerous indeed. (Not that I would know about that personally, being just a foot soldier:p)

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I was just thinking exactly the same thing when I saw this...

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The word is out here about my plans for Canada thanks to linked in.

I shut down my news feed so it wouldn't post updates. What linked in don't tell you (well the do if you can find the correct help page), it that your news feed will be locked down...... but not for information regarding linked in groups.

So when I joined the Calgary IT job group, I had no idea it was fed to all my contacts until a few people came up to me the next day and asked if I was moving to Canada.

I'd rather of kept it secret, but I'm not bothered. They can't sack me (legally) for wanting to move to another country.

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Understood but, for anyone else reading this, I would NEVER divulge your plans to your employer or coworkers until you absolutely had to. I've seen too many people get burned for doing that even when their intentions were good.

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I was so lucky, I was a contractor when I left so I actually started my 6 month contract with everybody knowing I was about to emigrate.
When the ship the container was on set sail we all gathered around the bosses computer to check on it's whereabouts! How kool was that?
(Saying that my previous boss stopped talking to me from the day I gave her my notice!!)
Happy days ;)

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But bosses can be vindictive and if someone isn't ready to hand in their notice yet (bearing in mind that emigration takes a long time) there is plenty of time for a boss to engineer things to make out that you are incompetent or include you in any 'redundancy' plans that are afoot.

I wouldn't want to risk it.:thumbdown:

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Not every move the Canada comes off. People fail medicals, jobs fall through etc, so no point getting everyone wound up until its a done deal. But you also need to consider that not every move to canada turns out to be a dream come true (unless nightmares count), so you really dont want to burn any bridges if you can avoid it. The ones that have the easiest time going back are the ones whos bosses are glad to have them back in the team.

How you handle the transition is very dependent on how you think a boss will deal with it, its not a one size fits all situation. Some you wouldnt dream of giving the opportunity to screw you over, some you might want to help with making the transition as smooth as possible in order to keep doors open in future in case you need to activate "plan B"

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Scare mongering.....Have you ever posted pictures online? If the answer is yes, then I can tell you from what I know in my line of work, that the picture can be used to track you down and eventually reveal your identity.

There are other way and means of course. Where does the media go 1st whenever someoone does something wrong? FACEBOOK, which has most users using their real names of course

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I have. Pictures of my cat. Shall I expect a knock on the door?

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Why are you saying TJ is scaremongering?
I am afraid that you have just shot yourself in the foot because you have just given the best evidence to support not revealing anything about your plans on sites such as Facebook.

So what if someone can I.D you from a photo?
Just because someone can identify you from a photo that will not ruin your career, whereas posting on a social networking site (or even here under your real name) that you are leaving your job before you have officially told your employer and it getting back to your boss just might:thumbdown:.

In any case, if you have any sense you do not use a photo of yourself or use your real name on these sort of things...

I am with you - maybe we will have the Pussy Police on our tail.
Good job all of mine are now safely in Canada:blink:

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Really, then please tell me why police forces around the world don't use such technology to solve crimes such as the rioting in Vancouver or London? While I appreciate that some sneeky beeky units use technology that is cutting edge, I imagine that most police forces in the developed world would have dumbed down version of it.

I would think that one with access to the technology you appear to would be able to answer the question I posed some time ago about significance of the bell in the Sergeants' Mess at Stirling Lines. If you need a picture of it, I am sure I could dig one out from somewhere.

Who is the second guy in this picture?:Story from today's Calgary Herald

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no, wasnt implying you had said anything derrogatory, just being devils advocate. purely because i used to use my real name for the web and learned the hard way when someone i was trying to avoid found me and started being nasty, big time. theres plenty of stories in the news about people posting "this job is crap/my boss is a w****r" and been fired for it.


not sure im scaremongering, just reminding people to think about amending their username if they want any anonymity online. again, if someone wants to find you it can be done - but the level of the averge boss chasing down a grape vine story, doesnt go much above google.

Re: Resignation
 

+1

Biggest mistake you can make. I remember once I worked with a guy who was subcontracted and mentioned to people that he was thinking of retiring in three years time so to plan around that. He was just being helpful and it was obvious he was getting on a bit. Anyway boss didn't like him so didn't renew his contract, so he lost three years' worth of pay!

I can't remember what the statutory notice times are in the UK but in Alberta there are statutory notice periods, find out what the period is and stick to it.

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No it's not, depends on the context. It's easy to fake Facebook and Twitter profiles, etc. Any HR that acted on that information without directly asking you or having certain proof it was real first would be on very shaky legal ground, unless you work somewhere that is "at will". In which case yes, you're an idiot, but I would think even in that situation you'd have to be careful as HR.

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So if some info about your emigration plans comes to light that way and they directly ask you, are you going to lie?

Because if you tell the truth, it looks bad that you didn't tell them and they found out on the grapevine.

And if you lie, when you do eventually resign or word finally gets out, what do you think your reference will read like?

I think people who cannot understand how someone can be constructively dismissed without there being any direct evidence that the company has done so are naive in the extreme:confused:.
Similarly naive are those who think a company or individual boss needs to prove where they got information from, prove it is true before they act on it or treat you fairly.
They don't.

They know that taking a company for unfair dismissal is difficult, time-consuming and often unsuccessful and in any case it sometimes makes you look like a trouble-maker.
There are cases beyond number where bosses have totally screwed someone's career because they harbour resentment against the employee for completely unfair reasons:sneaky:. Sometimes you don't even know what they have been doing to blacken your reputation until it is too late:thumbdown:.

The only way to avoid a potential backlash at work is to not say anything and keep your business to yourself.
If you don't, you only have yourself to blame for the consequences.

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Why does it look bad? Until you have a passport request in hand its just "something that might happen"

Should you tell them if you buy lottery tickets? after all you might win big and up and quit on them too!

Frankly its none of their business until you decide to give notice, at that point they can decide if they want you to work the full notice period or whether to ship you out on gardening leave.

If you have a great relationship with your boss and (think) you can trust them, then maybe you can give them a heads up, it might smooth things over if you end up needing a favour down the road, but there is absolutely no obligation to do so.

I do agree though that discretion is the better part of valour, but most people have nothing to hide I suspect.

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You are right in everything you say
EXCEPT for the fact that this is the real world and bosses and colleagues both above and below who do not know about the emigration process, how long it takes or the uncertain nature of it, may well not respond the way you would.

It is not unlikely that a boss might consider finding that you have applied to emigrate just the same as if you were looking for another job in the UK (which in terms of your perceived commitment to the job you are doing and the company's ability to rely on your presence long term, it is! You will be looking for another job, won't you?)

In this situation it is necessary to think about what other people think and how they might react and not about what is inherently true, fair and right.

Of course, if you know your boss you might be able to tell them, but just think before you do so.
If they know about your plans it might put them in a difficult position when making business decisions once they are aware, especially if the timescale for your eventual resignation is unknown.

But, if you want to risk it......

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I think the FSW1 work reference required for me may have given them the heads up that I was considering the possibility ;)
- however unlikely it now seems at current rates of progress.

Thankfully I did / do have a good boss (i.e. 2 good 'uns).

Have sympathy on the facebook front, as I have seen some things on some that maybe I would have filtered, but that is their choice - have just checked my last post which was about yorkshire puddings (:ohmy:).

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If they are poking about in your internet presence and find it, then they should, as pointed out above, ask about it.

At that point you tell them, not before.

As you say, they dont understand the ins and outs, why would they? But they would be out of their minds legally to can anyone based solely on internet info.

You said if they ask it will look bad if you havent told them, I disagree. Any one in that situation will have the opportunity to explain the uncertain nature of the process and that there is nothing to tell until a decision is made. Employees come and go, some win the lottery, some are hit by busses, some move abroad, some get jobs with competitors, its just part of the business landscape.

You are right, it may look bad in terms of loyalty to the company, (is buying lottery tickets also bad in terms of how your commitment to an employer looks, clearly you would rather not be working for them right;)) Frankly if they are sniffing about at their employees facebook / internet profiles looking for infidelity then they dont deserve any loyalty in the first place, respect is a two way street.