Right decision to resign?

wau2 on 14/09/2019 - 00:16
Last edited 17/09/2019 - 22:04

Hi

So I’ve been in my company for 7 and a bit years (entitled to pro rata LSL). Last 6 months has been brutal. I’m in the finance team of normally 10, of which 5 have gone in the last 6 months (including CFO who was my mentor. Organisation has appointed a manager (friend of someone at work ) and has been making the rest of the team really unsettled.

I’ve been looking for a job for 2 months, haven’t been too successful so far. This week some things have happened that has caused another member to resign. As more leave, work load just gets spread around making it harder and harder.

I don’t have a job, can sustain myself financially for 4-5 months and always thought about starting business. My current job is really good paying but I’m very mentally stressed and not a fan of the manager.
Edit: to rephrase my financial situation, no mortgage have passive rent coming in, so would just need lifestyle change

Should I just cAll it quits, take a small break and relook later (or even pursue my business idea), or keep holding on (and get paid) till I find something else?

Thanks

Stressed person

P.S update: thanks so much for all your help. I’m speaking to family and friends as well to make sure I make the right decision
Update 2: Had an impromptu meeting called (come to board room in 15min). My first thought was yes! (redundancy), but it turned out worse lol. They put me on a performance management system, where i get reviewed every 2 weeks, gave me a massive list of KPI's and tasks to do with ridiculous benchmarks. I angered up and told them this not possible, i cannot complete all this. The response was, this is meant to encourage and motivate, prove yourself back to us.

The next day I handed in my resignation, they wanted me to give a notice of 12 weeks full time to help them out (LOL). You can guess what i said to that.

I feel so much better already, and all the higher ups are so nice to me now haha

Education & Work

Comments

  • barge-in hunter on 15/09/2019 - 10:20
    +2

    It sounds like a very nasty situation.

    The trick to ensuring your business is viable as a full time venture is to start it as a side hustle while you're working full time, or contracting.

    If that's your intention but you can't do it here, my suggestion would be to find a job that allows you to do it. Whether that's a lowly paying full time admin role (which you can leave at the workplace door, knowing your income will be supplemented by your side gig) or some form of part time or casual/contracting.

    If you've already resigned, get your name down at a recruiter for day or short term fill positions asap. It'll give you some time up your sleeve, and remind you what types of workplaces exist out in the wild.

    All the best

  • giventofly on 15/09/2019 - 11:44
    +3

    I'm in the same position, although my boss and team are largely good. Just that the work and senior boss suck.

    I just do the bare minimum required and do my 8 hours. Never take the laptop home.

  • locknuts on 15/09/2019 - 11:55
    +1

    I guess it depends on whether you need a specific income or you are in a position to take minimum wage to get along for a while. If you can get by now on just any job then I'd leave and just not be too fussy about getting a high income job straight away.

    • wau2 on 15/09/2019 - 15:20
      +1

      Yea going through this work over the last 9 months really put a new perspective on life. Why spend all your days working like a maniac to get all this money, when something less well paid will give me so much more time with my family. For me family is no.1

  • Name on 15/09/2019 - 13:26
    +5

    I'd mentally quit work but physically turn up. Just keep doing that until you find another job.

    • ChronoSphinx on 15/09/2019 - 16:05

      Not the best option to leave a bad taste in your old colleagues or managers mouth. This is what a guy did at work. He ignored his work so much then went on paternity leave. We sorted the cr@p out for him, then he came back from paternity leave and was absent all the time. It was a project manger role so if he was seldom at his desk, it was assumed he was on a site visit. Then he was performance managed and then just left.

  • macfudd on 15/09/2019 - 13:39
    +7

    I've been in a similar position before. I talked it over with my partner, we looked at our savings and what we could do to cut our spending to a minimum. We had our plan and our timeline agreed and then I handed in my notice.
    I had been trying to find another role for several months without success. it's nearly impossible to make it to job interviews when things are that busy and you can't get any leave approved.
    It took me about 3 months to find a job once I had left. If you do give your notice, apply for a heap of jobs right away. Many roles seem to have a 2-3 week lead time just to get the initial phone screen interview so may as well get that timer started.

    With regards to job hunting, you kinda need to go now or survive until next year. Jobs will start to taper off in 2 more months and won't pick up again until late Jan.

    As others have said - switch your seek and linked-in profiles to 'looking for jobs'. Get your CV updated and uploaded to those sites. Set up search profiles and have jobs that match your criteria emailed to you daily.

  • gstfree on 15/09/2019 - 16:13
    +1

    My advice sounds rude: as you are stressful get a MC from GP and used up all of your SL. Been HRBP many years and have seen many well organized resignations. I have even seen a few cases WC kicked in at termination.

    • useruser on 15/09/2019 - 21:15
      -4

      Taking advantage of the system is just the lowest of low. Only those with no dignity pull this sort of crap. If you have genuine issues that's another story but that's not what you're saying. No respect for leaches.

      • stewy on 15/09/2019 - 23:24
        +5

        Sick leave is an entitlement, using it up for genuine purposes is not leaching off the system.

        His employer is directly responsible for his stress, so I fail to see the issue if he chose to use stress leave.

        Likewise I fail to see the issue if he ended up going for WC. Until more people do that, certain employers will continue to treat their employees like rubbish.

  • luffyex2010 on 15/09/2019 - 18:39
    +2

    I believe you already know the answer from the start based on your priorities, current financial situation and judgement. 😁

    Take a breather and you will have a clearer picture of what to do in your next chapter of life.

    Like my business studies teacher always says, you have studied approx 1/3 of your life and you when you start to work it's going to take the other 2/3 of your life. Life is short there will be choices you need to make along the way to make life meaningful. The reality is you just don't know how long you are going to be on Earth and the worst thing to know that your job is actually draining your life slowly.

  • GourmetFoodie on 15/09/2019 - 18:44
    +4

    Stop taking on more work than you can handle. Do your prescribed job hours and not a minute more. They know they are under staffed so they cannot expect what was once a ten person team to function with just five people. So don't take on management's problem and try to solve it. Essentially cut yourself some slack. The last thing they're gonna do right now is fire you as they are in a desperate position as it is. Use some of your sick leave for mental health days. Job hunt in every spare moment you have. Whatever you do, don't resign without another job to move to. That's just foolish.

  • baskinghobo on 15/09/2019 - 20:29
    +1

    If the work is becoming too difficult do the bare minimum. If management gives you a hard time be overly polite and just say yes I'll do better next time but come in tomorrow and do the exact same thing. Because sometimes getting in trouble is easier than trying to meet impossible deadlines.

    • spoonmugen on 16/09/2019 - 23:49

      if it gets asked i'd rather tell my employer the truth - that the work load should be for more ppl… x y z hasnt been replaced and you'll struggling to cope.

      saying you'll do it better next time wouldnt help… unless your move is to get made redundant or sacked…

      • baskinghobo on 21/09/2019 - 18:43

        The point is to drag it out until you find a new job. Telling bad management the truth never works because A. They honestly believe the job isn't that hard or B. They know it's hard but they only care about their bottom line. So you tell them what they want to hear. Then you come in the next day, maybe cave in to their ridiculous demands for a day or two and then go back to your usual routine of doing the bare minimum whenever you get the chance.

  • useruser on 15/09/2019 - 21:10
    +2

    You sound like you got your head on and not making any rash decisions. If you can stomach it, I'd leave and keep your mental health front and centre. By not leaving you may regret it more than by taking the risk and following your instincts. Best of luck.

  • Morphio25 on 15/09/2019 - 21:25
    +1

    As someone who was recently made redundant (8 weeks ago now) and still struggling to find another job, don't leave your current job until you find another one would be my advice.

    • danyool on 16/09/2019 - 22:40

      Uber?

  • CocaKoala on 15/09/2019 - 21:36

    It is a better idea to find another job before quitting the existing one.

  • baskinghobo on 15/09/2019 - 21:51
    -4

    If it's really affecting you that bad, pick up smoking until you find a new job. I would rather be a light smoker than jobless as long as it doesn't become a long term thing.

  • [Deactivated] on 15/09/2019 - 22:23
    +4

    I went through a very similar scenario just over two years ago. I worked in finance and after a restructure they brought in a complete narcissist to break up my team. Employees on lower pay levels were made redundant with reasonable packages. At my level they had no intention of paying us out (he actually admitted that to me) so they just set to work on forcing us out. It worked, because the workplace was completely unbearable. I was last man standing after all of my team quit and I finally resigned after nearly 5 months of bullying tactics. They won.
    Anyway this is what I would recommend. Don't resign. I was financially secure too, but I still burnt through a lot of cash supporting myself and getting any sort of work was very difficult for sometime. I would recommend you go sick. Once you have used all your sick leave you can generally apply for income protection insurance through your private insurer or superannuation fund. This will at least give you some time to rebuild. I was advised to do this by a friend who is a senior HR manager with an organisation. I wish I would have taken his advice as I had nearly three months sick leave in the bank.

  • Empharand on 15/09/2019 - 23:18
    +3

    I was in a similar position about 3-4 months ago…
    8.5 years at the company, said company was bought out, new management was appointed, manager was a conniving POS that liked to throw people under the bus, me and him worked on 3 projects together (I had no choice), because of his dyslexic and illogically nature he stuffed up blamed it on me, I reported it to higher management but because the manager and managing director were childhood friends and went to school together (etc etc) nothing was done about it, I noped the duck out of there and took my pro-rata to go

    I should also mention that I was trying to find another job while contemplating quitting, story short that didn't happen as I couldn't take said managers shit anymore to the point where I wanted to physically assault him. It's not often I come across someone that runs their day-to-day unintentionally back-stabbing people and whilst still calling themself a 'People' person.

    Skip ahead to 2 weeks ago and I got told by an inside source (I still have connections within the company) that their CEO and HR didn't want me to leave… Too late.

    OP, line up another job and quit, do whatever makes you happy. My situation is somewhat compatible to yours however please don't put yourself in a position where you quit and then try to look for another job, it took me a month to find another job

    • [Deactivated] on 16/09/2019 - 08:47
      +2

      a month isnt too bad

  • 2ndeffort on 16/09/2019 - 00:18
    -6

    In a similar position. I've been an exec in multinationals in the past. Nearly 4 years ago I left a large multinational to work for a small company, everyone told me I was mad. I was offered in-country head of sales promotion to stay but its never a good idea to stay once you've made your mind up to leave. I've loved the little company and have learned a lot about running a small business (the main reason I did it, to learn). We've been smashing it at the small business, up to over 100 people and growing at over 20% per annum. Owner has just sold out to an ASX listed company.

    The new owners want me to be a group head of sales, the outgoing owner wants me to take over his old company as a division of the new ASX listed owners. Internal friction for what they want me to do. I dont think I want to do either. I'm not interested in going back into a large company culture of sales targets, gate reviews, impressing the boss, performance reviews, inclusivity training etc etc etc. I'm being offered equity in several small companies in my industry to go and be a director for them. I have some high profile investor/entrepreneur folks offering arrangements to put equity into a company I should start on my own and I have several other multinationals offering me GM level jobs. My wife is scared as I've always had a wage paying job but I'm thinking that this is my moment. if not now then when. I'm thinking I start my own company, I've made plenty of other companies money, why not myself. I'm thinking that the cost of another 5-6 years of my life doping something I'm not invested in is a price too high to pay.

    • xslasherzz on 16/09/2019 - 00:57
      +2

      Lol, totally similar position and totally the reply the OP needs.

      • 2ndeffort on 16/09/2019 - 18:45

        OP said he is thinking of either quitting his job to start his own business because things have changed so much at his current employer. He is worried about the uncertainty of starting his own company. How is that so different?

    • [Deactivated] on 16/09/2019 - 08:48
      +4

      this sounds more like a brag post than anything

      • 2ndeffort on 16/09/2019 - 18:46

        I wish I was bragging, i am actually desperately unhappy, stressed and potentially about to make the biggest mistake of my life. No idea where to go with this and my marriage, mortgage and income is on the line. Thanks for the understanding!

    • CalmLemons on 16/09/2019 - 09:42
      +1

      with an ego like that you're definitely into sales. i would hire you.

      though have you considered some dale carnegie?

      • 2ndeffort on 16/09/2019 - 18:47

        Aside from trying to be funny I'm not sure what you mean, guess I'm not that smart after all.

        • CalmLemons on 16/09/2019 - 21:02

          first line was meant to come out more positive.

          to be clear 2nd line was in reference to why everyone was negging you, not your fault though but at your level i'm sure you can understand why.

    • one man clan on 16/09/2019 - 10:57
      +4

      Your story is quite similar to mine.

      I was managing a small team of 11. We were performing very well, people were talking about me and how successful I was. I got too excited in the competition of it and got in a bit of trouble breaching the rules. Took a year off and recently came back.

      Now I'm no longer the manager but just part of another small team. I'm performing better than ever and we just retained the ashes in England. I was named man of the series, have the second highest batting average of all time, and have been getting compared to Don Bradman.

      • 2ndeffort on 16/09/2019 - 18:49

        Thanks for the advice, did you speak to anybody with a problem on RU OK day or did you just walk around the office taking the piss out of them all.

      • Eeples on 18/09/2019 - 10:30

        Don't go back to managing again. It is a distraction from your batting.

  • Seraphin7 on 16/09/2019 - 09:23

    Have you had any conversation about the overall work situation with the new manager and/or other relevant people who may be able to do something about this situation.

    • wau2 on 17/09/2019 - 21:58

      Yes i have, she insists things have to change the past is the past. The problem is about speaking to other people, shes friends with Director of HR and CEO lol.

  • CalmLemons on 16/09/2019 - 09:44

    stay until you find a new job. work at the pace you feel comfortable with, like snail pace.

  • netsurfer on 16/09/2019 - 12:58

    Keep on working until you find another job. With Christmas coming soon, it's better to hold on to your job for the time being. You might be spending a bit more around Christmas and being jobless around Christmas just doesn't feel good.

    If you haven't started looking for a new job, the current job should be at least tolerable still. Or, the money is good enough to offset the stress.

  • coolc on 16/09/2019 - 15:07

    vic

    Fair work changed LSL to 7 years from 10. Am i wrong ?

    • CalmLemons on 16/09/2019 - 20:55

      pro rata from 7 years. you can start taking it, but you wouldn't get the full amount at 7 years, only a partial amount.

  • Homelife22 on 16/09/2019 - 22:39

    Why quit. Just knuckle down and keep going. Look while you're still engaged.

  • mohitkh on 16/09/2019 - 22:40

    What is the definition of 'Good in the statement 'current job is really good paying' ? Just curious !

    • wau2 on 17/09/2019 - 21:59

      120+

  • Windows98 on 17/09/2019 - 10:22
    -5

    You made the wrong decision. Sorry but you will regret and pay for this mistake for the rest of your life. All the best to you.

    PS. I have not read the OP, I just think it's funny people make a life changing decision. Then come to an online forum looking for reassurance after its done.

  • defined on 17/09/2019 - 13:16

    OP, after you leave this company, can do the community a favour and name this company?

    That way if any ozbargainers are job hunting, they will know to avoid said company.

    • wau2 on 17/09/2019 - 22:00
      +1

      As much as i would like to, i don't want to burn anything. You just don't know who knows who these days.

      • spoonmugen on 18/09/2019 - 18:01

        u shouldnt…. it'll come back one way or another

  • naplutetium on 17/10/2019 - 09:04

    Hi Wau2, I just read your update2. Now one month later, how is the job hunt going?

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