Strictly speaking, i could only blame myself for the lack of knowledge and not finding out earlier about the issue. But then that would translate to me being stupid. And since a perfect person can never be stupid, i would blame my company instead of myself.
Allow me to relate the story from the very beginning.
I tendered my resignation on 5-Oct, and with the policy of two-month notice period, my last day with the company should be 4-Dec. Since i still have 8.5 days of unconsumed annual leave and i wanted to have a week of break before starting a new job, i decided to use 7 days of annual leave to offset the notice period. This means that my last day of service will be 23-Nov, and will join the new company on 3-Dec.
Then on the day when the HR Manager did an exit interview with me, she told me that under the Employment Act, i'm not allowed to start working with a new company while serving notice period. I just said "ok", but a voice in my head was saying "who cares".
Ok, before i go on, here's the thing. Even though i have quite a fair bit of experience in resigning from companies (not something that i'm particularly proud of), this is the first time i'm offsetting the notice period with annual leave. In my previous employments, i always worked till the last day and had my unconsumed leave encashed.
So, being ignorant, i thought offsetting of annual leave is just like taking annual leave during normal days. I thought i'll get full pay for this month plus two days pay for the next month too.
Then today, having checked with HR, i got to know that i'll only be paid up to 23-Nov. At first, i didn't understand how it works. I asked the HR lady in charge of our payroll that if i don't get the pay and my unconsumed leave also get deducted, then isn't it like "double deduction"? She then said that since i'm not serving full notice period, i'm supposed to compensate the company for the shortage of notice period, and offsetting of annual leave is akin to using the leave to compensate the company.
I was stunned when i heard that. I didn't ask further because she was looking at me like, "you mean you don't know all this ah?"
But then, i thought that it sounded kinda unreasonable. So let's say i don't offset the notice period with annual leave and my last day of service remains on 4-Dec. But i take leave for the whole week of end Nov and just return on the 4-Dec to do my clearance, then i'd be entitled to the pay as well as the annual leave. That's playing around with the policy.
So, i did what i always do, i search the Web for clarifications. Then i found this on the MOM's website:
Darn, i should have applied for the annual leave instead of using it to offset the notice period. Seven days of pay plus seven days of annual leave add up to quite a sum to me, and i'm throwing the money away because i didn't know the difference.
I felt like a total idiot.
No, i blame the HR for this (of course, it's always other's fault and never mine). I mean, the HR Manager's comment about not allowing me to join other company does not apply in my case at all. If they are not gonna pay me until the end of the month, then it means my employment with them officially ends on 23-Nov. There is no stopping me in joining other company anymore. By saying that to me, she was making it sound like they are gonna pay me until 4-Dec and thus i'm not allowed to start the new job before that date. So, it's their fault.
Now, what's done is done. I can't go back to them and say i want it differently. The moral of the story is to always get the facts right and never assume.
Sigh, i'm gonna be so broke next month.
Labels: work
