Q Two questions for you. First, how soon after receiving my redundancy payment can I take up another job, without having to pay it back? Second, during my redundancy notice period, am I obliged to tell my employer about any offers of employment?
MD
A Typically there are no restrictions on you taking up employment after you are made redundant. The trouble is that some employers often stipulate that you do not take up any employment for, say, three months after you accept the severance package. This is common in industries where your knowledge of your firm may be useful to a rival business.
Unless the terms and conditions of your redundancy package explicitly forbids you from taking up employment in the near future, you should not worry about getting another job. However, if you are prohibited from joining another firm for any length of time, the size of your overall redundancy package should compensate you for this constraint.
As for informing your current employer about job offers that you might get while you are working off your notice period, I would play it by ear. Obviously, if you are approached by your firm's direct competitor and you let your firm know, after you have accepted the redundancy money, that you may be off to work for the rival, you will not be too popular.
Worse, your employer may even renege on any redundancy deal you have agreed. So the key here is discretion: keep your head down, work hard during your notice period and leave gracefully. And if you are concerned that you could lose a large sum of money, I would recommend that you talk to an employment solicitor to get a foolproof legal ruling on all the particulars of your specific case.
