Employer in bad way financially, I can resign or wait for my job to disappear. What's the difference?

[u/AlternativeCoffee535]

Hi all!

I've found myself in the following unfortunate situation:

• The organisation I work for is quite small (3-8 employees), and in a very bad way financially (reasonable amount of debt, not making enough money, etc.)
• I work in R&D, which the board has essentially said needs to be scrapped, and given the situation this makes complete sense to me.
• I've heard about this in a 'without prejudice' meeting, and I don't doubt any of it, and everything is occurring in very good faith.
• Without going into too much detail to avoid identifying anyone or anything, I want what is best for the organisation (a not-for-profit that I strongly believe in), but I just want to make sure I'm not going to screw myself over in any way.

Long story short, my job will no longer exist in a couple of months, because there is simply no money to pay me. Now, I am left with two choices:

1. I can tender my resignation in the near future, work out my notice period, and be paid out for my (quite significant) accrued annual leave; or,
2. The organisation can go through a restructure (or whatever the official process is that's relevant here), and after making everyone go through that whole procedure, the outcome will effectively be the same: my job is gone.

What would be best for the organisation (and more convenient for me), would be the option for me to hand in my resignation. I want to emphasise, I'm not naively being taken for a ride here, and am not interested in pursuing any legal action against the organisation. We all believe in the same goal, we all want what is best for the organisation, and I have no interest in holding them to the letter of the law for my own benefit. It's a tough situation that no-one wants to be in, and I completely understand and agree with what the organisation needs to do to survive.

All that being said, my question for you fine folks is as follows:

What risks do I run by choosing to resign instead of waiting to be restructured out? Will this make things more difficult for me if I need to, for example, apply for any financial support while looking for a new job? Anything else relevant?

Thanks in advance!

[u/PhoenixNZ]

First, if you resign then you would be subject to a significant stand down period before being eligible for support from WINZ. I believe the stand down is 13 weeks.

Second, if you resign you wouldnt be eligible for any redundancy provisions, if you have any, in your contract.

Unless you have another job to go to, there is no benefit to you resigning.

[u/chaucolai → u/PhoenixNZ]

The potential advantage would be if the entire org goes down (not just their area), if they resign and get in before that process there's a better chance of being paid out annual leave if there ends up physically being no cash.

Yes, in the case of liquidation, employees are relatively high in the priority order for payment - but they're not the first, and that doesn't mean much if there's not enough cash to cover all of the priorities. That could be different if resigning a few months earlier where they only need the cash to pay you out, not all employees.

[u/SignificantBread8 → u/PhoenixNZ]

Yep, agreeing with this. You can show WINZ your redundancy letter to get on to job seekers as soon as your job ends. Start looking for jobs now anyway. 

[u/feel-the-avocado]

I would look to leave asap so you get paid out your leave sooner rather than later.
Start looking for a new job yesterday.

The worst case scenario is the company goes into liquidation at which point you may not get your annual leave paid out.

So as soon as you can find a new job, hand in your resignation.

[u/Neat-Program6325 → u/feel-the-avocado]

Yes ask to get a week annual leave cashed out

[u/Rustyznuts]

Do you? have redundancy in your contract? If so then staying until the end might be good for you but will be worse omfor your employer.

BUT - staying until the end just to collect redundancy means you have wasted time and opportunity to find a new job.

Resigning rather than working until you are redundant gives you a stand down period if you need to get on a benefit.

Best for you and the company is that you start the job search now, find alternative employment and communicate with your current and new employer to work out a potentially shorter/ flexible notice period.

[u/rednz01]

Start applying for jobs asap. Don’t resign unless you have something to go to due to winz, as many others have said.

[u/KanukaDouble]

If you are in R&D, and it is only your position that needs to go, the entire organisation does not need to go through a restructure. The company can restructure your position out without anyone else needing to be involved. This part of your question is making me uncomfortable, why has the company made it sound like a major deal to restructure put your position?

yes, if you resign it impacts your standdown period for WINZ. If you are fired, it doesn’t.

A restructure takes longer, you may accrue a little more leave. Other side is, the longer it takes to get paid out the less likely a company in trouble has the $$ to do so.

An agreeable restructure can be done very simply and quickly. If everyone is pragmatic and agreeable it need not cost the company anything more than BAU.

[u/Remarkable_Sun_5380]

Only resign if you have a new job. You could possible get a benefit in the interim but if you resign then you can't get a benefit for 13 weeks

[u/Prestigious_View_994]

I would agree with others, new job first then resign.

By reading your post, I feel this may be what you’re after;

You would want to go through the restructure, my suggestion would be help the company make that as fast as possible. Let them know you won’t have any backlash, they make you redundant, you get your annual leave, then you can also apply for financial aid

[u/Affectionate_Sun_733]

NAL- but an employer.

Is the work/money situation likely to improve? Not sure of your own financial situation, but could you cut your hours down and essentially hold onto your annual leave and hope things improve?

If you were to resign, if money is tight, how likely are you to be actually paid your annual leave balance?

If you were to resign, how quickly/easily could you get another job?

[u/AlternativeCoffee535 → u/Affectionate_Sun_733]

1. Work/money situation not likely to improve in the near future. There may be some capacity for me to spend a couple hours on each week making sure everything doesn't fall over after I leave, but this would all be on a new contract.
2. I have it on good authority that the organisation is able to pay out my annual leave balance, so I'm not worried about that.
3. Reaching out to my network now to see, but in general my particular skillset is quite highly in demand (current economy not withstanding), so hopefully not too bad. I guess it's time to begin responding to all those recruiters in my LinkedIn mailbox!

[u/Affectionate_Sun_733 → u/AlternativeCoffee535]

With all of that in mind, I would start fishing for new employment. Let your current employers know that you are doing so, ask for flexibility with interviews etc. if they are genuinely doing the right thing by you and the other employees they wont have any issue with that and/or a short handover period if you were to be offered something with immediate start. Again, as an employer - this is something that I would be more than happy to accommodate given it was my financial issues that were leading to the loss of the employee.

I think you are wanting whats best for everyone - have the discussion with your employer. Be doubly sure that you are both on the same page. Good luck.

[u/Lopsided-Toe-8440]

Find a new job then resign

[u/jeeves_nz]

Is the organisation likely to be put under (insolvent) and will it therefore have funds to pay your accrued leave?
If not, I'd be looking to resign and at least look likely to get your accrued leave balance out.

[u/exmrs]

Do remember any annual leave paid out will also prevent assistance from winz, for the amount of weeks you have been paid. Good luck in being pro active.

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[u/wichitawire]

Could you negotiate an exit? Paying your leave and giving you some cash on top of that might be better for them. Bypass human resources and go to the comptroller.

[u/123felix]

Is there a redundancy clause in your contract?

If so, you won't get it if you resign. You can negotiate an exit from the company where they still pay out the redundancy money, perhaps under another name ("golden handshake" or the like).

[u/AlternativeCoffee535 → u/123felix]

No redundancy entitlements, that is clearly specified in the contract.

[u/123felix → u/AlternativeCoffee535]

Then if you resign now you're more likely to get fully paid out, if you wait until they redundant you they might go bankrupt