Not me but say someone says that they will be handing in their resignation in say 3 months, is that the same as saying I quit?

Someone at work said that they want to hand in resignation in a few months, manager says accepted resignation effective now really!

Is that in the eyes of the law correct?

Just wondering what in the eyes of the law is, well, legal I suppose?

The short answer is no.

The contract will likely state that notice of intention to quit is given in writing and in a specific time frame.

Why would they say they want to do it in a few months time, rather than just wait and give the proper amount of notice in writing?

If the employer has ‘accepted’ it and terminated their employment without anything in writing the employee could claim for unfair dismissal and simply deny they had ever mentioned it.

Gov website says it can be either verbal or letter, depending on what’s stated in your contract / terms and conditions /staff handbook.

Sounds like someone playing games trying to gauge a reaction has had his bluff called big time.

He hasn’t resigned (even verbally) though, just expressed his intention to do so at a future date.

Surely if they clearly said in 3 months time which would then be 3 months + their notice period (say 1 month) then that is the timescale that stands and if the mamager wants them out now then surely they would have to put them on gardening leave for the duration?

I can see it being a courtesy to allow plenty of time to re-shuffle projects, hire someone new but I can also see it meaning it may be considered that they won’t be pulling their weight for the next 3 months or could potentially be collecting information to take to another company.

I would have kept quiet.

Or it could be seen as a ploy to get a raise etc.

Giving it the benefit of the doubt and that it was in good faith to give plenty of notice then I don’t see why it would be any problem.

Yeah, that’s whats confusing really is the stated intention to leave at a future point the same as actually saying I am leaving at this date in the future? Is there any managerial discretion in this?
Having stuff in writing is binding I assume but just saying I want to leave has to be different?

Imagine you said (verbally) I only want to do this job for 5 years. I Can that be interpreted as I am officially resigning in 5 years to this date?

If I went up to a manager and said ‘I don’t expect I’ll be here past the end of the year’, it wouldn’t give him the right to sack me on the spot, however much he might feel like it.

A resignation ideally does need to contain phrases like ‘I resign’ or ‘here’s my notice, you shower of bastards..’.

I suspect you could try and ague it, but as long as contractually agreed notice etc was paid then the employer would likely have a defence of irretrievable breakdown in relations.

Ninfan – That’s an interesting point. So even if someone verbally states and intention to leave at some point (and nothing else) then the company can kind of encourage them to go? I assume there are many hoops to jump through and its not as simple as they would need proof that there are issues etc, but in simple terms they can do that?

Legally I’m not sure, but to minimise “bridge burning” sounds like you / your mate / someone has just resigned and better get on with it. I’m struggling to imagine why anyone would think it’s a good idea to tell your manager you will resign at a specified date in the future. How would that conversation ever work out well for you?! If someone told me that I’d want them out as soon as possible, no point paying something who has “left” in their mind.

Yeah that’s it really! I assure you its not me, some guy at work!

I agree that saying you will be resigning in x months is not necessarily the best idea.

It was just a question of whether saying you intend to resign is actually legally/technically the same as doing it. I suppose it depends on your contract what a resignation actually comprises!

He’s obviously a bit of a pill for saying something like that, but if it happened the way you said it did, he hasn’t resigned, has he?

Boss is just feeling ego-bruised, and your colleague should turn up as normal tomorrow and clarify matters with HR. Can’t say it will be the most pleasant few months of his working life though.

hahaha yes my thoughts exactly!

Tricky one, I can see the argument that you shouldn’t unnecessarily broadcast intentions to leave. But on the other hand if everyone’s discussing a plan for projects coming up in the next year and I played a significant part in the plans, I’d feel pretty bad keeping my trap shut if I already knew I was off round the world with a mate, or moving abroad with a significant other.

How would that conversation ever work out well for you?!

As has been suggested above, it really depends on the circumstances, the relationship between the manager and employee and the way in which it is said. I get the impression from the OP that it was a pointed ‘I want to leave the company’ rather than a ‘I want to give you a heads-up so we can find a way to get things in order before I go’ kindof thing.

Whereas for me, I knew I would be leaving to do a PhD, so not switching to a competitor. I would start in October but I knew I had been accepted in May and needed/wanted my bosses reference to secure it. So I had an honest chat with him, told him I would work hard to finish what I could and discussed how to manage handing over projects over the coming months. I worked through to the end of Sept and didn’t burn any bridges. OP’s responses sound a bit different from that though!

Edited: I did the same moving from my last post to this one, again not moving to a direct competitor so no issues. I gave my company 3 months notice rather than the statutory, but I gave it in writing with my end date – if they wanted me to leave earlier then we could have had a grown up discussion about that. It gave them an opportunity to recruit a replacement before I left and get projects handed over, etc.

what if you stretch the time frame out. You go up to boss, and say, “I will be handing my notice in 9 months time and taking the 30days notice from then”.

What are your Co going to do with you for those 9m when you could probably just dick about and expect them to pay you for the privilege. Would there be no grounds for the Co to fire them?

Why the assumption that it is a burnt bridge?

A mate told his company he would be leaving in 1 year’s time because he wanted to migrate. He did this because he thought the company had been good to him he wanted to do good by them.

They used it to shaft him out of his bonus. There’s a clause in the contract saying employees on notice can be excluded from bonus calculations. Not a classy move.

I did have to do this once and it was a bit odd. My GF (now wife) were working at the same place and she was on a 3 month notice period, and I was only on a 1 month notice period. So when she quit to go back home to Ireland with me, I didn’t really have much choice but to speak to my boss about it. Felt very exposed but they were very good about it as they were getting their moneys worth from both of us, and continued to do so right up till my last week. Legally I could have kept quiet and then handed in my notice 2 months later, but there wasn’t much point!!

I’m struggling to imagine why anyone would think it’s a good idea to tell your manager you will resign at a specified date in the future.

Not quite ‘specified’ but i wasn’t happy at a previous role and told my boss so, he asked what he could do to make me happy, and i said it was really a whole culture thing (we’d been acquired by a big Corporation) so unless the other 9599 people wanted to change i suspected it would be better for me to move on.

The thing was, as part of the acquisition they were migrating two planning systems into one and needed a very particular set of skills; skills I had acquired over a very long career.?Skills that made me an asset for people like them.?So I offered a long notice period to get them to the other side of that implementation (about 9 months vs the 3 in my contract) but in turn i wanted a retention bonus for staying and seeing it through; I’d be looking for a job in those 9 months of course but wouldn’t start one until my retention was up, and potentially would have been out of work after the 9 months if the right job hadn’t arisen (buffered by the retention).

They didn’t go for it, I left after 3 months of searching and 3 months of notice, about 6 weeks before they pulled the switch on the ERP software integration. Which went disastrously, by all accounts.

Only regret really is they offered me a huge retention in staged share options but wanted a 2 year stay on to enable me to max it out. But by then I’d accepted the new job and i don’t renege on promises.

This should be pretty straightforward.

If the notice terms in the contract state it has to be in writing there is nothing the employer can do if the employee has just stated an intent to leave at some point in the future. They cannot sack them for it and I’m pretty sure they can’t force them to stay at home unless there’s is something specific in the terms of the contract that covers leaving to work for a competitor or some other clause regarding notice periods and commercial activities.

With regard to the employee being on wind-down for that period, it is up to the manager to deal with that as a performance issue and if there is enough evidence to suggest the employee is being obstructive or deliberately idle an early exit could be discussed with some form of mutually agreed pay off if necessary. Or of course they could just be sacked under a gross misconduct charge but specific evidence would be needed and it should be in line with the company’s disciplinary procedures.

The colleague did not resign. The manager had no resignation to accept.

Strange. If someone is decent enough to give their employer more notice than they have to, why would anyone assume that they’re going to slack off for the remainder of that time?

The only job I’ve ever quit, I knew I was going to leave 9 months or so ahead of when I did – so I told my boss that. I worked hard for the remainder of that time, as they quite rightly expected me to. If they’d turned round and said “thanks, don’t bother coming in next week” I’d have been gutted and would have thought much less of them.

Now, as an employer, if an employee told me they were quitting in 6 months’ time I’d appreciate their honesty – certainly would expect them to continue doing their job to the best of their ability, of course, until the time they decided to go. I’d be pretty disappointed of someone knew they were leaving and didn’t give us as much notice as they could.

It can be awkward, eg when I left my job I wanted to give some people plenty of notice, as they remain colleagues and collaborators, and I didn’t want to dump stuff on them with little warning. But I didn’t want my employer to know – they got a few days more than the contractual min, but that’s all.

Yonks ago I quietly let my boss know early that I was thinking of leaving. My thinking was that he might want me to train a replacement. He spoke of it that morning in a HoDs meeting. It was all around the office by lunchtime. So that removed any uncertainty for me

I wouldn’t do it again, and would advise anyone else the same.

Jon negotiating.

OP,

I think it is a verbal contract so a verbal resignation should be binding provided everyone plays ball, if not then you will have to argue extensively in court.

Contract is a contract, written (if they ask you to write a letter to resign then do so because you accepted the contract of employment in the first place) or verbal, so long as no one dispute it but when one tries to twist and turn their words that is when problems start to creep up. Bear in mind, in a bureaucratic organisation paper works rule …

To avoid headache it would be better to write a letter so both will have a clear indication of the departure date including pay calculation etc …

😀

p/s: when I worked with a cowboy company in the far east I just told, verbally, my supervisor I was not coming back to work the next day. I could have simply f off without telling but I thought it was a polite to inform my supervisor.

geoffj – Member

Ya, that bloke does not have the word ‘resignation’ in his dictionary. He got thick skin too. 😆

Half the members of this forum get a lobb-on when there’s a thread about employment law.

badnewz – Member

Half the members of this forum get a lobb-on when there’s a thread about employment law.

Ok, I need to learn proper English so does lobb-on = hard on? Seriously, I need to learn new slang.

I remember long time ago when my friends at uni taught me words like sod off, crumpet, totty etc and to ask girls “how about it eh?” Ya, those were the days … 😮

I think I picked it up as a term from a uni friend from Lincolnshire. They live by different rules and I don’t get any search results when I type it into Google either!

Lots of variables here

1. what exactly was said from I think i will resign in 3 months through to on the 1st of September I will resign as I am off to uni- what was said?
2. What does the contract say – most need written as it proves it actually happened
3. who witnessed it ? If no one then prove it happened and claim unfair dismissal

Overall I am not sure a boss can accept an intention to do anything as proof of doing it.
Tell them you intend to hit your targets and ask for you bonus

As per the above – what’s in the contract of employment. This should stipulate the requirements for resignation.

I have given advanced notice once but then I had worked at the company for 10 years and was (and still am) very good friends with the MD and I knew that a) my resignation would come as a shock and b) would leave them a bit in the lurch.

I worked a longer than stipulated notice period to help them through a particularly busy patch with the agreement of both my then current firm and the one I was moving to.

Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t whisper a word to anyone at any level within the business…

Whoa, hang on there!

Might be a lazy lobb-on

chewkw said »
Ok, I need to learn proper English so does lobb-on = hard on? Seriously, I need to learn new slang.
Whoa, hang on there!

Might be a lazy lobb-on

Would that be a semi then ATP?

Replace employer with wife.

Now lets see how that reads…

Not me but say someone says that they will be handing in their resignation DUMPING THEIR WIFE in say 3 months, is that the same as saying I quit? LOL, what do you think NOW!?

Someone at work said that they want to hand in resignation DUMP THEIR WIFE in a few months, manager WIFE says accepted resignation effective now really!

Is that in the eyes of the law correct? LOL nope, does that make a difference to your WIFE? NOPE!

Just wondering what in the eyes of the law is, well, legal I suppose?

See how these things can get messed up..

FWIW

Any sensible employer/wife will get a resignation in writing.
Can an employer/wife performance manage your out, yes.
Can an employee/wife still quit verbally, yes.

I should also add..

Context does matter!

Exactly.

I teach in a High School – every January the Headteacher asks if anyone is intending to retire/resign/change working hours between now and the new session in August.

This is done to allow staffing needs to be addressed. There can be no obligation to actually leave, even if you state you intend to, until you formally do so.

Maybe the person in this case is simply trying to helpful and alert management to forthcoming situation.

Personally – I would never reveal my intentions – circumstances change sometimes!

Is the notice in a contract not just the minimum notice required? I once told my old company that I would be leaving in two months time, when my contract only required a month. My resignation was accepted from the point I told them I was leaving.