I work for a small company and as such often have to wear several hats – as well as my own one.

I joined nearly 4 years ago to develop a product line, and did so on the basis of a salary plus bonus which was heavily incentivised to the success of the new products.

By dint of ‘factors’ – most of which I honestly feel are out of my control – eg: failure to invest in the manufacturing process in a timely manner – I have been unable to develop the business as planned and as such the attractive bonuses have not been attainable. Now there is a new entrant to the market, as a result our position is further weakened and as such with my company hat on I’m suggesting we pull out and don’t invest further – but as a result wearing my personal hat I’m never going to be able to develop the business i joined for.

At this stage – the decision to leave is clear, and is made – it’s just finding another job.

However – there are other projects I’m working on and without being too big a ‘ME! ME!’ – for them to succeed they either need my expertise, to acquire someone else with my expertise, or maybe rethink how they structure their approach to these projects (eg: go into partnership / licensing as opposed to going it alone) And as i have good colleagues whose futures depend somewhat on some of these projects i want the company to make their decisions in full possession of the facts, rather than in ignorance only for me to then leave them in the lurch.

Should I open up to my boss (the MD) and say that basically I will be leaving, it may be realistically 6mo before that happens, but I want to be open with him so he can make plans or decisions in that knowledge. He may decide of course that he doesn’t want me around ‘indefinitely’ in which case I’m also happy to agree a compromise / departure period, but (subject to usual rules) he can’t get rid of me if i don’t want to go yet, can he?

They’d have to either make you redundant or agree a separation agreement for you to leave sooner. That said, it really depends how much risk you think there is. Some companies will get rid of people against the rules because they think they’ll get away with it in which case you could be out on your ear.

he can’t get rid of me if i don’t want to go yet, can he?

That depends… but they can sure make you quit…quasi-legally.

You could of course then probably sue for constructive dismissal but it sounds very much like your in a pretty small niche area… and despite this starting off from your initial good intentions and wanting to see the current firm right if word gets out you sued them it will certainly not be a positive…

I think you have all the best intentions but I’d wait until you have a firm job offer.

If he’s an empathetic boss he knows you’re leaving anyway, so no need to say owt – the tacit agreement has already been struck given the circumstances of the product failure.

If he’s not that sort of boss, and doesn’t spend much time thinking about things from employees POV, then it’s hard to say – your call on whether a slow extrication is feasible [don’t think it usually is in most industries].

As above id keep quiet until the next ones comes along, If they know you want to leave they will find ways to make it happen usually (in my experience either by blaming you for things/nitpicking everything you do or by just making your working life hell so you say “**** this im off”).

I was in a similiar situation a few years back, ended up working 80-90 hrs a week for 8 months due to lack of resources and fixing others errors.
Not grumpy about it though 🙂

Find a job, it may take while, suck it until you do and remain professional at all times but I would advise saying nothing until you get a new role.

Upon formal job offer give required notice and look forward to your new challenge.

They replaced me with four other people when I left, unfortunately very few places recognise effort, results or hard work these days, you’re just a commodity to be used and not everyone has the same work ethics that you have.

Good luck in the new role when you get one 🙂

I was in a similiar situation a few years back, ended up working 80-90 hrs a week for 8 months due to lack of resources and fixing others errors.
Not grumpy about it though

Don’t be I think they fired the other 3 and I’m left with your old job … 😥

Monday was 04:30 to 10:00…. Tuesday 05:30 to midnight… etc. and I’m working (unpaid) all weekend… I’ll be lucky to get 4 hours off in daylight….

Strangly there was a Steve working there.
Steve are you married to a solicitor and live near Bridgenorth by any chance ?:-)

So, your employer has made bad decisions which have effectively cost you money and wasted your hard work, skills and knowledge. Given their track record, do you think they would a) make good use of advance warning that you plan to leave and b) not use that information against you in any way?

If they have already cost you money by their bad decisions, and if your skills and knowledge are important to the success of other projects, I would expect them already to be aware of this and to have already acted to ensure that they would retain your services, either by compensating you for the inability to earn the bonuses or by increasing salary. The fact that they haven’t suggests that they don’t see it that way and don’t see your skills as critical to the new projects, so I would not tell them until I had another job lined up.

Was in a similar position partner in a small company, needed to move due to sick child and wife needing support from grandparents, told my colleagues 4 months in advance, and was dumped on big time.
Read your employment contract carefully, and play it strictly by the book.
You feel it’s the right thing to do, but when it’s peoples livelihood that’s possibly under threat, all goodwill goes straight out the window.

You need to talk to your boss again – would it be fair to assume that your future income is likjely to be involve bonuses around these new projects?

If so, raise your concerns that you were shafted by poor decision-making last time and aren’t willing to have that happen again; if so, I’d ask for a raise in salary and forget the bonuses

Could you have a conversation with them regarding changing your package given the bonus scheme is no longer achievable and the business \ market has changed since you joined? Might be a place to start unless you really are set on leaving?

Edit: too slow – see above 🙂

Should I open up to my boss (the MD) and say that basically I will be leaving

Don’t be daft. Only ever tell them you are leaving when you are in fact sorted with another job and ready to leave. Things could turn to shite in the jobs market, you could get ill, company prospects suddenly turn around etc. Anything could happen between you telling them you will be leaving and actually being ready to leave. Could take a year to find something else, you never know. You will also never know in advance their attitude towards you during this period.

Steve are you married to a solicitor and live near Bridgenorth by any chance ?:-)

Sadly not, which means probably some other steve is in a under resourced position, fixing other peoples mistakes and working stupid hours just to keep their job….

OP yes I think you shouod communicate your “frustrations” in a positive manner

You joined to develop a business (that shows ambition)
You have found that difficult die to investment lacking and as such have recommended you go no further in light of new competitor (shows business acumen, having comlanies interests at heart)
So your prospects both in terms of professional interest / develoment and being blunt money are not what they where

So ..

What can the company suggest in terms of additional / expanded responsibilities to allow you to develop further

Now you do not say you are thinking of resigning (that will be an obvious option when they think about)
Look for another job

Dangerous ground imho.

I was in a sort of similar position a few years ago, I made a deal with an employer to grown their business – pay me a basic that covers my bills plus monthly and annual bonuses for growing client base – I did that in spades, I was never allowed to see ‘the books’ but despite growing the business by 400% in terms of clients and 300% in terms of staff they were losing money (so they said). Although the owners / directors lifestyles seemed to improve more than a bit. They refused to invest in the business and they were losing clients at too high a rate.

Came to a head at the end of year 3 – got a email “target for year 4” basically doubling my target to earn a bonus so I politely turned down their revised contract, why the hell would I agree to that? This wasn’t some salesmans sales target, I had a contract ‘Do X, get paid Y’. We argued, then a few weeks later they decided that I’d actually missed my target, which seemed unlikely as I’d completed it by about 2/3rds through the year, but refused to show me how and why and locked me out of the backend of the system, I had to take their word for it or leave.

So, like the OP in the face of unpaid bonuses out of my control and at the end of years of working like a mad man I told them I was going to look for something else and my resignation would follow as soon as I was offered a position.

They cooked up some BS story and made me redundant almost immediately, relationship totally torn to shit, bridges burnt.

Okay I got a job in 3 days, got paid by a research company not only to spill my guts about the inner workings of the place, but as I later found out, not as they said because they were working with a competitor, but because they were trying to sell up – they still work there.

Anyway, not the same situation exactly, but if you genuinely want to not leave them in the lurch – and your boss will accept that at face value go ahead – if this is a backhanded “pay my bonus or I’m going” ruse, it won’t end well.

Nope. Just get on with your job while looking for a new one, if you want to stay on good terms then try to arrange more than minimum notice but only when your move is signed and sealed.

Crap management won’t be interested in working things out with you, they may treat your threat to leave as a threat or they may think you are easily replaced, no benefit to you either way.

I gave about 6 weeks notice (contract was a month) having made the decision in principle 6 months earlier. But I might have changed my mind at any point if management had woken up.

I wouldn’t say he’s empathetic, but equally he’s not daft and I’ve already done the honest thing and run eg: Porter’s on the revised proposition and expressed concern that it (and hence my package) isn’t anywhere near as attractive as when i joined – to the extent I’ve recommended we don’t pursue further.

He can’t be unaware my package isn’t as attractive. Long story short; it’s a quality matter, when i joined the aim was to have the product made under contract but the quality the contractor can make is only suitable for the low value part of the market. To access the higher volume / value we’d need to invest substantially which he won’t do (company policy – if they can’t finance from cash they won’t borrow) and in any case it’d still be a couple of years. Coupled to the fact someone else is now already active, it just doesn’t make sense.

As a result they can still have a crack at the bottom end, and the 90% of the profit he gets to keep is still attractive given it costs him nothing from here – but would still be a lot of effort for me for my 10% profit share of a much smaller number (round numbers, the original plan was targeting £1-1.5M profit per year; the cut down area is closer to £100K. His £90K is interesting still, my £10K isn’t)

I haven’t asked to be incentivised elsewhere; I left it open to see if he would, but the honest fact is that the other projects just don’t interest me, and don’t have the scope or margins to ‘make me an offer I can’t refuse’. Hence the decision is already made to leave. It’s just then an assumption that I’ll run these bits for him (incl the remnants of the original project) whereas I’m not going to – and knowing that he needs to plan for succession or rethink how to do it.

The thing is – I don’t feel he’s ripped me off so to speak, it just hasn’t worked out – but he seems unwilling to accept the position it puts me in. Which in turn compromises things for my colleagues, because the actions he takes now in relation to certain partnerships, etc., would be different if he knew I was / wan’t going to be there myself. I just don’t like the idea of him being able to say ‘If I’d known I’d have agreed to a license with X instead of expecting you to develop it’ – particularly if that affects the business viability for everyone else as well.

Should I open up to my boss (the MD) and say that basically I will be leaving

1) How well do you get on with your boss? And
2) you’re not leaving, you’re seeking alternative employment.

To my mind, if everything had been great I’d feel a sense of company loyalty and would want to tip off my boss that perhaps he might want to think about backfilling. If I felt that I’d been deceived or otherwise stiffed, that would go out of the window.

But. If you were that critical then they’d be paying you a wedge and doing what you advised. Those “good people” you’re leaving behind, life goes on, the company will do what it needs to do or it won’t, and if they don’t then that’s their failing to recruit / otherwise look after their staff rather than anything to do with your accountability. With rare exceptions most of those good people are the ones to whom you say “I’m on Facebook, here’s my email address, keep in touch!” and they all promise to do so and then never speak to you again.

(company policy – if they can’t finance from cash they won’t borrow)

Then they’re going to go bust. Run, and run now.

(company policy – if they can’t finance from cash they won’t borrow)
Then they’re going to go bust. Run, and run now.

Go on, why?

I suspect not. Selling their previous plant for housing for £50M and paying off all the company debts, their business model of developing products with IP positions which can then be made by contract manufacturers has seen them doing OK for the last 20 years.

It depends on your relationship with your boss and whether he can work around not including you in long term plans.

I told a boss several months before I handed in my notice. I dropped out of doing prosecutions that would come to court after my probable departure, finished off long term projects that I responsible for or worked with colleagues who could take them over. I made myself dispensable but at the same time continued to work well so the decision could have been reversed at any point.