Job Problem-What To Do

My daughter has had a couple of crossroads with her job where she's thought about trying something else, but always stayed put 'cos she's the major bread winner, comfortable job, lack of confidence, afraid of change or failure etc. She's been there 20 years. She can't go any higher where she is and any moves sideways have resulted in the job being based interstate in their head office. In fact, the writing is on the wall that the company is moving towards basing everything in HO and closing down the branch she works in.

In a fit of boredom & frustration a couple of weeks ago she put out feelers to an ex rep who works for an opposition company and said if anything comes up - keep her in mind. Well the boss of that company rang her while on holidays last week and has something for her. Now she's in a bit of a panic. She's excited that there's something else out there for her, excited that it happened so quickly and so on. She's confident enough now to go elsewhere and knows she has to especially with probable closure of where she is within the next 12-24 months (by my reckoning as I have worked there temping recently and recognise the signs).

So, the question is - does she take the job and run and miss out on the redundancy package worth between 80-100k or get that first then get another job assuming there's one around for her then. Who knows what the job climate will be like later, but it's a lot of money to turn her back on.
 
Assuming the current employer is financially sound and will be able to meet their redundancy payments the golden handshake sounds good.

I haven't checked it but I think they get favourable tax treatment don't they ? If so that could turn into a very nice chunk of cash.

The fact that she has had such a quick result from others in her field then I think that is an indication that she is one they will be looking for should the place close in the future.

On the other hand, what if they don't close, would she be happier somewhere else ?
 
In answer to you both-
She's a Team Leader in customer service in an industry that probably only has a 3-4 major players (she's with one of them). Her skills are transferable but she has industry knowledge that's hard to come by - it's a bit specialised. The current employer is financially sound and redundancies/payouts will happen I'm sure of that. They were taken over by another major player from OS some time back and you can see that over the past 2 years they've been setting up their divisions, streamlining hierarchy, new appointments, closures of some branches already etc. I've been through 4 redundancies - I can definitely read the signs and that's not including the internal goss! ;)

'The End' would probably happen within 12 months the more I think of it as she's been asked to go to HO for a few weeks to train some people in customer service - no doubt the ones that will ultimately take hers and her teams jobs as there's only one CS dept which services all of Australia! We also know that her boss has been asked to take up a post at HO - it seems obvious it's to head up the 'new CS dept', (her boss doesn't know that we know).
 
We're in the same situation ... but our possible redundancy is worth around $300k.

Offered initially in Sept10 - withdrawn in Oct10 - rumoured for Feb11 - but no guarantees.
 
Olly..
Whilst $80k-$100k certainly isn't a retirement fund, it is after all 20 years redundancy so based on her annual income; quite significant I would imagine..

As others have stated, given her competitor responded so quickly with an offer places her in good demand so it's very possible she should have no problems finding work again.

One thing to consider is if the economy takes an absolute nose dive and she's made redundant right in the middle of it.....what then? Will the offer still be in the table.. You will never know??
But I can tell that even if she took the new role (forgoing payout) and the above occurred, her new role would still be at risk anyway and she could loose it (first in, first out at they say in business) and not have the $80k - $100k buffer

I say stay and take the gamble as it's a large sum of money and could make a significant impact on their finances.

Besides which, I'm optimistic about the economy and think she'll be well placed in 12 months time to capitalise on securing new employment quickly (with a nice package in hand)

One last thing I would suggest would be to at least keep the dialog open with the competitor so she can act quickly when the package is finally offered.
 
Not sure what she is on, but typically redundancy payments after 20 years would be 18-24 months after tax salary equivalent. If she holds off, that is a long time to find another role within. Even if it took her a year, she would be better off financially.
 
Not sure what she is on, but typically redundancy payments after 20 years would be 18-24 months after tax salary equivalent. If she holds off, that is a long time to find another role within. Even if it took her a year, she would be better off financially.

They have a 13 month cap on redundancy payouts. But that coupled with her triple figure sick days and other bits and pieces makes up the end payout.
 
I agree with your thinking. It's her decision I know but this is what I'm advising too. Wait for the payout first!

Olly..
Whilst $80k-$100k certainly isn't a retirement fund, it is after all 20 years redundancy so based on her annual income; quite significant I would imagine..

As others have stated, given her competitor responded so quickly with an offer places her in good demand so it's very possible she should have no problems finding work again.

One thing to consider is if the economy takes an absolute nose dive and she's made redundant right in the middle of it.....what then? Will the offer still be in the table.. You will never know??
But I can tell that even if she took the new role (forgoing payout) and the above occurred, her new role would still be at risk anyway and she could loose it (first in, first out at they say in business) and not have the $80k - $100k buffer

I say stay and take the gamble as it's a large sum of money and could make a significant impact on their finances.

Besides which, I'm optimistic about the economy and think she'll be well placed in 12 months time to capitalise on securing new employment quickly (with a nice package in hand)

One last thing I would suggest would be to at least keep the dialog open with the competitor so she can act quickly when the package is finally offered.
 
She may be in the same situation as us ... the package is not guaranteed, but a possibility.

Does one stay with a sinking ship, in a job they are finding frustrating, just in case there is, might, maybe a payout at some stage in the future? Or does one move on to a better paid and more fullfilling job that is here and now?
 
They have a 13 month cap on redundancy payouts. But that coupled with her triple figure sick days and other bits and pieces makes up the end payout.
Wow, that's very unusual to have sick leave paid out. Sure doesn't happen in my industry. She'd be entitled to quite a bit of long service leave anyway so it's not like she'd leave with nothing. I'd be wanting some pretty concrete evidence of impending redundancy & time frame to consider staying. Otherwise I'd take the opportunities when they present themselves. Who knows what the situation will be 12 mths or whatever down the track?
 
My suggestion would be to do a little digging whilst running the training courses at head office. If she is instructing her replacements, and her manager is relocating imminently then I'd guess that the outlook isn't great.

The other thing to think about would be relative earnings at the other job versus her current role, versus the cost of hanging out for the $100K payout. If, for example, the competition is offering her $200K, and she's currently on $100K then it might be worth leaving now.

Lastly, are there any get out clauses in her contract or employment law?

One trick that used to be used in the UK was to offer an employee another role in a geographically distant part of the country, or with worse terms and conditions. If he or she refused then it was deemed to be resignation rather than redundancy, and the benefits were cut accordingly.

Laws were brought in to prevent this kind of constructive dismissal some years back, and I'd guess that the same is true for Australia.

The other one I've seen was in a previous job. The contract for employees included basic terms and conditions, and then benefits were defined in a separate annex, which included redundancy payments. When the company was sold onto a private equity firm, staff were told that these were non-contractual, and hence wouldn't be recognised.

I'm not sure how that would have stood up in court, as it all seemed to be part of the written terms. But several long-standing staff members would be due quite a large payout on redundancy if it did remain. (One month's salary per year served, and there might have been a further multiplier.)
 
The thing I'm curious about is just how sure we are that a redundancy is even on the table?

It's a very good company that does that sort of thing for one and there's already been a few made redundant. There's also something in writing in the HR blurb where it mentions a 13 month cap on redundancy payouts. This isn't a company in trouble - it's a company streamlining and centralising it's business.
 
Doesn't the federal government guarantee these payouts in the case a business goes bust anyway?

I think it is capped at 20 weeks but that is still OK in my book.

That assumes the individual is entitled to one in the first instance. I expect the rules around 100 employees etc would still be in play.
 
Back
Top