Reduced Responsibility
Discussion
Hi There,
Long term lurker on PH but thought it was finally time to come out of the shadows, selfishley as I need some advice. Now I know a car forum is a bit of a strange place to come for anything other than car advice but seems there are some rather inteligents members who might be able to give me an insight on the following.
At the beginning of this week I handed in my 3 month notice as required by my current employer also asking if they would consider reducing my notice period by 2 weeks. This was not received well by my line manager and our relationship swiftly deteriorated.
Today I was pulled in to a meeting with HR and a senior member of management and given 2 options leave today and be paid to the end of the year or come back in on Monday and work under the senior management member doing some other pieces of work,as I am classed as as a risk due to having access to all sensitive information and systems within the business for the remainder of my full notice period.
In an ideal world I would have thanked them very much for the rest of the month as vacation wished them all the best and never darkened their door step again and started with my new employer begining of Jan. As part of my new employers on boarding process they require all members of staff to visit one of their office in the US for a training program before commencing live work. Now at this point I bet you are thinking what is this guys problem? 3 weeks free holiday and a new job in the new year with a trip to the US!
My wife is heavily pregnant with our first child, due end of Jan so I really don't wont to be to far from home/her until the little one is with us. I spoke to my new employer and they are happy to wait the 3 months as I wouldn't be able to travel straight away as required by their policy.
So it looks like I will be going back to my current employer Monday morning. The wording in my contract reads "you will be expected to carry out any other activities that may be reasonably required of you by x" now my skill set lies in a specific area and outside of the team I will no longer be working in, none others with in the business do my type of work. So my question is what is reasonable? is basic admin or reception work classed as reasonable for an experienced technologist or would reasonable something that can utilise my skill set?
Apologies for the long windedness of the post but wanted to give you as much information as possible. Any Advise would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Dean
Long term lurker on PH but thought it was finally time to come out of the shadows, selfishley as I need some advice. Now I know a car forum is a bit of a strange place to come for anything other than car advice but seems there are some rather inteligents members who might be able to give me an insight on the following.
At the beginning of this week I handed in my 3 month notice as required by my current employer also asking if they would consider reducing my notice period by 2 weeks. This was not received well by my line manager and our relationship swiftly deteriorated.
Today I was pulled in to a meeting with HR and a senior member of management and given 2 options leave today and be paid to the end of the year or come back in on Monday and work under the senior management member doing some other pieces of work,as I am classed as as a risk due to having access to all sensitive information and systems within the business for the remainder of my full notice period.
In an ideal world I would have thanked them very much for the rest of the month as vacation wished them all the best and never darkened their door step again and started with my new employer begining of Jan. As part of my new employers on boarding process they require all members of staff to visit one of their office in the US for a training program before commencing live work. Now at this point I bet you are thinking what is this guys problem? 3 weeks free holiday and a new job in the new year with a trip to the US!
My wife is heavily pregnant with our first child, due end of Jan so I really don't wont to be to far from home/her until the little one is with us. I spoke to my new employer and they are happy to wait the 3 months as I wouldn't be able to travel straight away as required by their policy.
So it looks like I will be going back to my current employer Monday morning. The wording in my contract reads "you will be expected to carry out any other activities that may be reasonably required of you by x" now my skill set lies in a specific area and outside of the team I will no longer be working in, none others with in the business do my type of work. So my question is what is reasonable? is basic admin or reception work classed as reasonable for an experienced technologist or would reasonable something that can utilise my skill set?
Apologies for the long windedness of the post but wanted to give you as much information as possible. Any Advise would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Dean
My advice would be just to be the bigger man. If they want you to man reception then smile sweetly and go and do it. If their aim is to get rid of you on the cheap then don't give them any excuses to do so.
In my experience when an employer tries this kind of tactic they usually get bored after a couple of weeks and will put you on gardening leave.
Do you know what the situation is with respect to any paternity leave (I have no idea, but it is a legal obligation these days isn't it)?
In my experience when an employer tries this kind of tactic they usually get bored after a couple of weeks and will put you on gardening leave.
Do you know what the situation is with respect to any paternity leave (I have no idea, but it is a legal obligation these days isn't it)?
mma-Monkey said:
In terms of paternity I am still entitled to it whilst on notice so thats 2 weeks of not being there plus the xmas break.
So will just have to suck it up and deal with it.
...and get paid handsomely for doing it. Even if the predicted gardening leave doesn't happen, think of it as a couple of months of letting your brain have a rest.So will just have to suck it up and deal with it.
If they're playing at being t
ts, just take the money: as long as its not cleaning toilets (unless thats your day job, you didn't say 
) in which case leave and go for constructive dismissal: reasonable requests are reasonable, cleaning toilets for an senior Sales Manager wouldn't fit any reasonableness test (man on the Clapham omnibus and all that).
As others say, just take advantage of 3 months of relaxing, even if it is boring: you never know, you might get something that you can make interesting and treat this as free training.
ts, just take the money: as long as its not cleaning toilets (unless thats your day job, you didn't say ) in which case leave and go for constructive dismissal: reasonable requests are reasonable, cleaning toilets for an senior Sales Manager wouldn't fit any reasonableness test (man on the Clapham omnibus and all that).As others say, just take advantage of 3 months of relaxing, even if it is boring: you never know, you might get something that you can make interesting and treat this as free training.
I agree with the above posters. Doesn't sound too bad, just go along with what they would like you to do and be nice and courteous. If it's something much more simpler than you usually do then take it as them putting you down. Just relax and don't worry too much. Means you can pay more attention and effort to your family.
I'd echo the above. A couple of projects I would be leading have been postponed until later next year so basically I have 10+ months of very much reduced responsibility and workload. As I said to my boss, I get my weekends back and will be home by 3 instead of 5 every day.
Time to catch up mentally on my own stuff and the DIY!
Time to catch up mentally on my own stuff and the DIY!
3 months of full pay for easy work sounds pretty good. Paternity leave is a genius suggestion too.
A word of warning: be very careful during these 3 months. Don't steal client lists, be rude on reception, turn up late every day, etc, just in case your manager and HR are waiting to catch you out and fire you without having to pay you any longer!
A word of warning: be very careful during these 3 months. Don't steal client lists, be rude on reception, turn up late every day, etc, just in case your manager and HR are waiting to catch you out and fire you without having to pay you any longer!
NNH said:
3 months of full pay for easy work sounds pretty good. Paternity leave is a genius suggestion too.
A word of warning: be very careful during these 3 months. Don't steal client lists, be rude on reception, turn up late every day, etc, just in case your manager and HR are waiting to catch you out and fire you without having to pay you any longer!
Exactly the conclusion I came to last night whilst mulling this all over. A word of warning: be very careful during these 3 months. Don't steal client lists, be rude on reception, turn up late every day, etc, just in case your manager and HR are waiting to catch you out and fire you without having to pay you any longer!
It would make sense since a colleague all though not as senior but had all the same levels of access except one system handed in his notice earlier this year and he was allowed to carry on in his role as normal and he was off to a direct competitor where I am not.
It doesn't sound awful.
Tbh I've never worked out why firms would want you around (nothing personal) if the reason they want you doing something else is fundamentally because they no longer trust you.
For example, you have access to sensitive info but now you're answering every inbound phone call "I'm sorry I'm not sure we can help with that but I know a company who can" and so on.
Tbh I've never worked out why firms would want you around (nothing personal) if the reason they want you doing something else is fundamentally because they no longer trust you.
For example, you have access to sensitive info but now you're answering every inbound phone call "I'm sorry I'm not sure we can help with that but I know a company who can" and so on.
Thanks for all the input, helped me to come to a reasonable plan of action e.g. crack on for 3 months smile and wave and be content with the fact that I have made the right choice to move on if they really want to behave like this and be thankful I didn't sink years of my career into this company.
In the spirit of sharing I will update you all with what they have me doing Monday
In the spirit of sharing I will update you all with what they have me doing Monday
Sounds like a good plan. To be honest, they may have been trying to call your bluff...to save some money. If I was the senior manager, unless I actually had some stuff to be done, you'd just be a bit of a pain to manage so after Xmas I'd just send you on garden leave anyway :-).
Turn up, smile, be cooperative and enjoy the easy life for 3 months :-).....oh....and get as much sleep as you can before the new addition arrives LOL.
Turn up, smile, be cooperative and enjoy the easy life for 3 months :-).....oh....and get as much sleep as you can before the new addition arrives LOL.
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