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Quit or Stay: What should you do if you are sent on compulsory leave?

Joanna187·Nov 16, 2022

Posted in:Advice Early Career Management and Leadership Startups

I got this email today from a consultancy engagement I am on, and needed advice on how to respond:

RE: COMPULSORY LEAVE FOR 14 DAYS FROM 16TH NOVEMBER 2022

We refer to the subject and our earlier email sent to you today on the same subject.

We appreciate your engagement with our company since 7th October 2021. We have observed your contribution to our startup during that period as we continue in our journey of growth and transformation. We take note of our letter of offer, which bears the dates of 1st October 2021 to 31st March 2022. We maintained a persistence of these terms of engagement to date. As such, we would like to evaluate whether we are the right fit for your level of talent, and work ethic.

We have come to the necessary decision that you should take a compulsory leave for the next 14 days from 16th November 2022 to 30th November 2022. During this time, we would like you to hand over all projects you were handling on our behalf to Mr. X, our tech lead, and request you not to engage any stakeholders on our behalf. During this period, you will be paid your full salary. We shall have further official communication with you on or before 30th November 2022.

Charles180·Nov 17, 2022

What a strange email. A few questions for you: Is it from someone who you know at the company? Do you have any context about it? Also is this a US based company? It’s hard to say without additional context about this company and how much you need the job.

Joanna187·Nov 17, 2022

It's from someone that I know, it's a company based in Kenya.

Charles180·Nov 18, 2022

I see. I only have experience with US based employment practices, so I suspect some context is perhaps missing for me there.I think if I was financially in a position to quit, I would. And if not and I had a previously good relationship with the person who wrote this email, I’d probably try and communicate with them to get feedback and understand what the issues were.What are you thinking you’ll do?

Roxane171·Nov 21, 2022

Without knowing any of the cultural contexts, I'm curious to know if any of this expressed in a recent checkin? I find it out of place to send a message like this with no prior notice. How can someone improve if they don't get any feedback? And with a remote (?) consulting gig, onboarding can be more difficult, which is reasonable and expected.