Work want to make my role redundant & have offered me two alternatives both lower pay

breathe3asy

breathe3asy

breathe3asy

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I've been with the same telco firm for over 7 yrs now and for the last 3 years been working pre sales.
I'm paid a salary and commission seeing about £42k per year.
The role hasn't really evolved or been managed all that well, no clear objectives, targets or reviews have taken place and now they are proposing to make it redundant. They're offering me two options.

Option A
Go full blown sales - £25k salary, commission based etc.
This would probably see me more money in the long run but would take maybe 18 months or more to build clients and start seeing returns to similar money I am on today. Its not something I particularly want to do either.

Option B
Move into the newly formed Product team - £35k, no commission.
Out of the two this would be the better role for me and something I could see myself doing if I apply myself.

So to summarise, my current role is being made redundant and I am being offered the choice between a sales role and a product role, each path having their pro's & cons, but unfortunately both offering me quite a bit less money per month compared to current.

What would you do? Nothing official has happened yet, we're still in chats and the relationship is sweet but I was thinking about asking if redundancy is an option and not from an ungrateful place but for obvious reasons I have to think about the best decision for my financial commitments.
 
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That sounds terrible to me, how much do you need the job, do you have a mortgage, dependents etc?
If so I would take the 35k job and go job hunting unless the redundancy pay would be decent then take that. Tbh they probably have to give you the option as the change is significant.
 
If they are making you redundant than I'm sure you have the option to take redundancy.

Ask yourself though, if you got made redundant, would you take a 35k job?
 
I'm not sure what your sector is but for me taking redundancy was the best thing. Gave me an extra 8k after tax for the year. And started a new job a month later

At 7 years redundancy pay would be sizable?
 
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Redundancy is a bit of a minefield though isn't it? They've not mentioned anything about it, I am going to ask but I don't want the relationship to turn sour just in case I need to take the £35k for the interim whilst trying to figure out where I am and how I feel about this whole thing.

I spoke to an advice line today but I'm not any clearer on whether the business are obliged to offer redundancy due to offering me two similar roles, and technically one of them is increased salary but without commission. They basically said "well you can ask but the business doesn't have to give you redundancy and if they don't you could go legal" which would be stressful...
 
Slam62 said:
The job is redundant, they have offered you alternatives that are significantly different to your current role. The choice is yours not theirs.
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Agreed. They legally have to offer you paid redundancy. The job is significantly different to the one you're doing, so they of course would like you to take it, but for you, I'd take the redundancy have have my CV out there.
 
ceaton88 said:
Redundancy is a bit of a minefield though isn't it? They've not mentioned anything about it, I am going to ask but I don't want the relationship to turn sour just in case I need to take the £35k for the interim whilst trying to figure out where I am and how I feel about this whole thing.

I spoke to an advice line today but I'm not any clearer on whether the business are obliged to offer redundancy due to offering me two similar roles, and technically one of them is increased salary but without commission. They basically said "well you can ask but the business doesn't have to give you redundancy and if they don't you could go legal" which would be stressful...
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It will save them a lot of money if you take a lower role and then leave off your own back.

I feel they know this.. Who wouldn't?... And are trying to get out of paying you redundancy.
 
Go here to see what statutory redundancy would be: https://www.gov.uk/calculate-your-redundancy-pay From what you've said and me guessing your age range, it looks like £3.5 to £4K and that would be tax free.

Offering you a **** job and slightly less **** job really smells to me like they are attempting to manage you out and also avoiding paying you off. Is there a union on site you can join ? Something very similar happened to a friend and he joined and got some very good advice and representation, plus independent witness at all meetings. Seeing HR and management squirm was reward in itself, plus the far better terms he left on than originally on the table.

You need to polish your CV and see what's out there. Its all friendly at the moment as they're handing out the lube and just waiting for you to bend over.

I'm no lawyer, but if forcing you to a lower paid role isn't illegal, then it darn well should be.
 
What is the role in the product team - some kind of product management role? Without more context, £35k seems shockingly low for any type of PM role except maybe the very most junior. That said, might be worth it to get a year or two experience and then move somewhere else for a huge bump.
 
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EvilRob said:
What is the role in the product team - some kind of product management role? Without more context, £35k seems shockingly low for any type of PM role except maybe the very most junior. That said, might be worth it to get a year or two experience and then move somewhere else for a huge bump.
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The title is Product Specialist, in a nutshell it serves as house keeping for workforce management apps that have been developed internally, consolidating products down as the business has acquired quite a few other businesses as of late etc with progression opportunity (so I'm told) to become Product Manager which starts at £48k averaging £55k.

They apparently valued the role within the market and it came out at the higher band of £32k with no company car allowance which they are letting me keep which adds another £3k.

The role is definitely different to what I do today which is assist the sales teams with "technical selling", I join them on meetings and scope requirements etc before pitching our solutions. There's value in this role for the team as a lot of them would testify but I think management are trying to build structure due to rapid growth in the company and my role is sticking out a bit as lone wolf.
 
peterwalkley said:
Something very similar happened to a friend and he joined and got some very good advice and representation, plus independent witness at all meetings. Seeing HR and management squirm was reward in itself, plus the far better terms he left on than originally on the table.
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I wouldn't want it to get to this stage I don't think, the stress isn't worth it. I also don't want to be made a mug of though when I could argue the business has let me down these last few years by allowing my role to drift.
 
Would it be worth seeking the help of an employments solicitor if redundancy progresses?

I'd want the outcome to be fair & the more I'm thinking about it the more I'm feeling wronged about the situation. I've not seen much personal growth during my time in pre sales due to not really having a manager & now I'm being faced with potentially having to look elsewhere with little to show for the last few years.
 
ceaton88 said:
The title is Product Specialist, in a nutshell it serves as house keeping for workforce management apps that have been developed internally, consolidating products down as the business has acquired quite a few other businesses as of late etc with progression opportunity (so I'm told) to become Product Manager which starts at £48k averaging £55k.

They apparently valued the role within the market and it came out at the higher band of £32k with no company car allowance which they are letting me keep which adds another £3k.

The role is definitely different to what I do today which is assist the sales teams with "technical selling", I join them on meetings and scope requirements etc before pitching our solutions. There's value in this role for the team as a lot of them would testify but I think management are trying to build structure due to rapid growth in the company and my role is sticking out a bit as lone wolf.
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If moving into product management is a real opportunity, it might work out well. It depends on what your career aspirations are of course.

There are lots of organisations out there who value presales very highly and pay accordingly, even for more junior roles where the domain expertise isn't there yet.
 
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ceaton88 said:
Would it be worth seeking the help of an employments solicitor if redundancy progresses?

I'd want the outcome to be fair & the more I'm thinking about it the more I'm feeling wronged about the situation. I've not seen much personal growth during my time in pre sales due to not really having a manager & now I'm being faced with potentially having to look elsewhere with little to show for the last few years.
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At this point I'm not sure what paid for legal advice would offer.

At the moment they've only casually suggested these two alternative roles. Once the process officially starts it should be laid out black and white what your redundancy pay would be, and these two role offers. Then you can at least see what works best for you, and whether to seek legal advice at that point.

Ideally you need to know whether your company only pays statutory minimum for redundancy or more favourable. If minimum as someone above mentioned you could be looking around 3-4k for your years of service which is probably only 4-6 weeks of salary. So if you can jump into another job in less time then it might be worthwhile. If not, you might be better off going for the 35k role and then go job hunting.

All depends on your role and skills and market demand.
 
So bit of an update I went back and asked what would happen if I said thanks but no thanks to both offers and got told we would then look at redundancy which would be approx. 4k stat redundancy tax free and additional £3,365 subject to tax which is 7 weeks pay taken from my base salary of 25k.

I'm swaying towards redundancy for various reasons but feeling anxious about not having something else decent lined up, still trying to process everything at the mo.
 
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