Fleeing a sinking ship

Cousin it

I have been in my current role for four months. Within my second week I was required to fulfil the responsibilities of my team leader and two others with no real training to speak of while also training myself in. Not a great start, I think you'll agree, though I managed it just fine.

Sales are down across the board in the company, the most talented members of staff are being ground to dust and employee retention is non-existent.

The company has an online reputation for periodic purges, one of which has taken place over the past two weeks, with approximately 20 of 300 staff having been dismissed (some recent hires, some long-standing employees who had worked their way up).

I see no future here despite being offered multiple promotions several times during my short time here (more to do with turnover of staff than my own abilities, IMO). While I am entirely in favour of a pure meritocracy, I and the vast majority of my peers feel that management are so inept as to completely destroy the motivation and creativity of some of their best workers.

I wish to resign with immediate effect and waive my notice period. The reason for this is twofold: The long hours make it incredibly difficult to organise my next move as I would be unable to contact recruiters and potential employers while improving my CV; secondly, a former colleague of mine gave a huge amount of notice (2 and a half months, 1 month is required, despite being on a whopping 9-month probationary period) out of respect and was fired anyway just this week, so I imagine I will be fired in any case should I hand in my notice.

My questions is: What is the best way of going about this? My plan was to email my letter of resignation tomorrow, requesting that they waive my notice period and follow it up with a phone call to confirm if needs be.

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.

endacl

If you were to just not turn up again, what would happen?

Cousin it

Well, I'm not entirely sure, to be honest.

Also, I neglected to mention, I already have three references from this company sorted, so burning bridges is no concern, as far as I can see.

Mrs OBumble

endacl wrote: »

If you were to just not turn up again, what would happen?

They'd probably be difficult about giving out a P45. Better to do what the OP has in mind, provided getting the dole isn't a concern.

Steve

It depends on your signed contract, however, legally I would think there is feck all they can do if you just left.

If you plan to stay, only work the minimum contractual hours.

bpmurray

Get your CV sorted - shouldn't take too long and you should be able to do it even with these long hours. Then say you can't do these long hours for the next couple of weeks because of some plausible reason. Get yourself a new job and give notice. In other words, follow the rules carefully - even if the company goes down, the people will end up in other companies and you don't need to make them feel you're untrustworthy when you meetin them in an interview at some pont in the future.

Tom Dunne

Personally, I would play by the book. Give your notice and see what happens. Don't give them an opportunity to hold you to anything.

Hrududu

Spend your evenings doing up your cv and applying for jobs online. Then wait until you get another job before resigning

machiavellianme

As Hrududu said. Secure a new role elsewhere first, then hand in your notice.
It'll look better when negotiating with the new employer that you have a position and are seeking to better yourself.

livedadream

if your only there 4 months you might still be in probation. which means you can terminate without notice.

check your contract.

ask for garden leave if you need it.

endacl

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

They'd probably be difficult about giving out a P45. Better to do what the OP has in mind, provided getting the dole isn't a concern.

You don't need a P45 anymore.

Mrs OBumble

endacl wrote: »

You don't need a P45 anymore.

If you just leave a job, the company may not process your termination thru their payroll system in any great hurry. Which means that your employment record there with Revenue won't be ended, and Revenue will leave your tax credits there.

While the P45 itself isn't essential because the employer sends equivalent information to Revenue anyways, getting the employer to do the termination is essential.

And there are some situations where you still are asked for your P45. I was asked for mine just this week.

endacl

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

If you just leave a job, the company may not process your termination thru their payroll system in any great hurry. Which means that your employment record there with Revenue won't be ended, and Revenue will leave your tax credits there.

While the P45 itself isn't essential because the employer sends equivalent information to Revenue anyways, getting the employer to do the termination is essential.

And there are some situations where you still are asked for your P45. I was asked for mine just this week.

You can be asked for it, but you don't need it. You can contact Revenue and have your credits reassigned yourself.

tiffbunny

livedadream wrote: »

if your only there 4 months you might still be in probation. which means you can terminate without notice.

Incorrect.

People - even HR people who should know better - spread this misinformation all the time, but it's so easily disproved that I don't understand how it keeps coming up.

If you're employed less than 13 weeks, your notice period is 0 days, unless the contract states otherwise, in which case it's whatever's in the contract.

If you're employed over 13 weeks, your notice period to your employer is 1 week, unless the contract states otherwise, in which case it's whatever's in the contract.

The law that keeps getting misquoted does not overrule your contract, it exists to provide a minimum level of notice you must give in cases where it is not specified in your contract. The only thing an employer can't do in the contract is agree to a notice period shorter than the legal minimum... because it's the legal minimum. (They can't waive this within the contract, they can of course agree to waive notice on either side as they see fit in when the situation arises.)

You've been working roughly 16 weeks, your legal obligation for giving notice is whatever is in your contract, and if it's not specified, then it's 1 week.
This is very straightforward.

Edit: please notice how I didn't mention probation? It's because it's not relevant to your notice obligations at all, unless specified in your contract.

Steve

tiffbunny wrote: »

Incorrect.

People - even HR people who should know better - spread this misinformation all the time, but it's so easily disproved that I don't understand how it keeps coming up.

If you're employed less than 13 weeks, your notice period is 0 days, unless the contract states otherwise, in which case it's whatever's in the contract.

If you're employed over 13 weeks, your notice period to your employer is 1 week, unless the contract states otherwise, in which case it's whatever's in the contract.

The law that keeps getting misquoted does not overrule your contract, it exists to provide a minimum level of notice you must give in cases where it is not specified in your contract. The only thing an employer can't do in the contract is agree to a notice period shorter than the legal minimum... because it's the legal minimum. (They can't waive this within the contract, they can of course agree to waive notice on either side as they see fit in when the situation arises.)

You've been working roughly 16 weeks, your legal obligation for giving notice is whatever is in your contract, and if it's not specified, then it's 1 week.
This is very straightforward.

Edit: please notice how I didn't mention probation? It's because it's not relevant to your notice obligations at all, unless specified in your contract.

What act are you referring to there that places an obligation on an employee to serve notice?

FrStone

endacl wrote: »

You can be asked for it, but you don't need it. You can contact Revenue and have your credits reassigned yourself.

Yep, just ring Revenue and tell them to reallocate all your credits and cut off to the new job on a week one basis.

If you need a p45 for some other non tax related purpose, ring your past empolyer and tell them they have a certain period of time to issue you a p45 before you let revenue know that they are withholding your p45. Revenue are quick enough to intervene as they fear that your employer is withholding paye as per your pay slip but not paying over to them. Must employers will issue the p45 immediately for fear of a Revenue audit.

dr.bollocko

Realistically you could just hand in notice and stop coming in and most likely you wouldn't be penalised however the best option is to speak with your manager and / or HR and try to come to an accord whereby you're not burning bridges. Once notice is handed in the obvious next step is to stop working extra hours and only work your contractually obligated hours. And additional holidays you have can be used to shorten your notice period further.

If there's a pressing mental health reason for urgently not being there your doctor can assess this and sign you out but other than that, give notice and start the process ASAP.

tiffbunny

Steve wrote: »

What act are you referring to there that places an obligation on an employee to serve notice?

Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts 1973–2005

Steve

tiffbunny wrote: »

Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts 1973–2005

Never knew about that, thanks. Always good to learn stuff.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1973/act/4/section/6/enacted/en/html#sec6