- Original Poster
- #1
Hi all,
I'm hoping that people will be so kind as to try and shed some light on my situation.
I have been working for a small company (2 employees) for the last 8 months. At the end of July, I had an apprisal in which my boss stated he was happy with my work, however we agreed that a goal should be to try to increase the overall quality of my work - i.e. no mistakes - and that if this was met, I would be considered for a pay rise in three months time (end October) - that's a brief background story....
Last week I came down with the flu, ended up leaving ill at midday on Friday, and had still not recovered by Monday, so took the day off sick - after having called in as per procedure. Got an email late Monday evening asking for me to meet with my boss in the local coffee shop at 8.30.
Tuesday - met my boss, who presented me with my internet history for the past week, showing that I had visited personal websites, during working hours sparodically over the last week. He noted that some of the websites he didn't mind (i.e. personal email, banking etc), however he was annoyed that I had visited a domain registration website and so was evidently pursuing my own business interests during working hours .... fair enough (I didn't get a chance to argue that the accumulated time spend on these sites per day was well under an hour - and that I rarely took my hours lunchbreak due to being so busy). He then proceeded to state that I had lost his trust, and that I could either resign, or go through the "messy process" of being fired, and presented me with a pre-written resignation letter to sign.
I signed the letter, handed in my keys, and agreed to his offer of a month's paid notice, where I would not have to attend work.
Whilst I understand his anger, and my wrongdoing - I have since realised that i've been done over - in the sense that I have never had any sort of warning for any behaviour, and have put my full effort into my job (excluding my lapse in the last week). I thought at the time, a good reference and a months pay would be fine - but now that i've had my eyes opened, on principal, I feel that I have been shafted (i.e. if I hadn't resigned, there would definitely be no immediate reason to be able to fire me), and want to know if I have any chance of securing a better deal?
I am going to the office this afternoon to collect my belongings, and say goodbye to my colleagues, and want to know if I have any chance of negotiating a better exit package (i.e. maybe a couple more months of pay), or rather what the best stance would be for me to take, to negotiate something different - now that I've signed the resignation letter. Would withdrawing my resignation be possible? Is there any legal position I could take that would encourage him to want to increase my exit package? Or have I screwed any chance of that by signing the letter?
I appreciate that a lot of people here will be speaking from the perspective of the employer, and not my position of the employee - but any advice, observations, comments would be very much appreciated. I'm not looking to do anything malicious by way of revenge, however in the 'current climate', I've realised a larger financial buffer would be very beneficial whilst seeking work.
Many thanks for reading,
G
I'm hoping that people will be so kind as to try and shed some light on my situation.
I have been working for a small company (2 employees) for the last 8 months. At the end of July, I had an apprisal in which my boss stated he was happy with my work, however we agreed that a goal should be to try to increase the overall quality of my work - i.e. no mistakes - and that if this was met, I would be considered for a pay rise in three months time (end October) - that's a brief background story....
Last week I came down with the flu, ended up leaving ill at midday on Friday, and had still not recovered by Monday, so took the day off sick - after having called in as per procedure. Got an email late Monday evening asking for me to meet with my boss in the local coffee shop at 8.30.
Tuesday - met my boss, who presented me with my internet history for the past week, showing that I had visited personal websites, during working hours sparodically over the last week. He noted that some of the websites he didn't mind (i.e. personal email, banking etc), however he was annoyed that I had visited a domain registration website and so was evidently pursuing my own business interests during working hours .... fair enough (I didn't get a chance to argue that the accumulated time spend on these sites per day was well under an hour - and that I rarely took my hours lunchbreak due to being so busy). He then proceeded to state that I had lost his trust, and that I could either resign, or go through the "messy process" of being fired, and presented me with a pre-written resignation letter to sign.
I signed the letter, handed in my keys, and agreed to his offer of a month's paid notice, where I would not have to attend work.
Whilst I understand his anger, and my wrongdoing - I have since realised that i've been done over - in the sense that I have never had any sort of warning for any behaviour, and have put my full effort into my job (excluding my lapse in the last week). I thought at the time, a good reference and a months pay would be fine - but now that i've had my eyes opened, on principal, I feel that I have been shafted (i.e. if I hadn't resigned, there would definitely be no immediate reason to be able to fire me), and want to know if I have any chance of securing a better deal?
I am going to the office this afternoon to collect my belongings, and say goodbye to my colleagues, and want to know if I have any chance of negotiating a better exit package (i.e. maybe a couple more months of pay), or rather what the best stance would be for me to take, to negotiate something different - now that I've signed the resignation letter. Would withdrawing my resignation be possible? Is there any legal position I could take that would encourage him to want to increase my exit package? Or have I screwed any chance of that by signing the letter?
I appreciate that a lot of people here will be speaking from the perspective of the employer, and not my position of the employee - but any advice, observations, comments would be very much appreciated. I'm not looking to do anything malicious by way of revenge, however in the 'current climate', I've realised a larger financial buffer would be very beneficial whilst seeking work.
Many thanks for reading,
G
