Create a Notice Policy and Avoid Litigation

When an employee gives a two-week notice of resignation, is the company required to honor it? Alternatively, can the employer make the notice date the last day of work?

Employers are not required to honor an employee's resignation notice. However, there are several issues to consider before making the day of notice the employee's last day of work. Before making, the notice day of a resignation the last day of work consider how it will affect the following:

1. Other Employees will wonder what the reasons were for an early tenure. Consider the impact this would have on your remaining employees. An immediate separation could reinforce poor attitudes toward the company and cause other employees to forego the practice of giving two weeks' notice of resignation.

2. The employee's resignation could now be considered an involuntary separation from the company. This may entitle the employee to unemployment insurance benefits that she or he otherwise would not have been entitled to receive. Depending on the State, your company may find itself paying unemployment benefits!

3. Consider whether company policy requires employees to give two weeks' notice, if so; an employee could rely on the policy to support a wrongful termination claim if the employer made the resignation effective immediately.

With careful planning and consideration, employers do not have to honor an employee's resignation notice period, but many factors are involved for consideration when doing so. The onus is on the employer when such disputes happen and it is their responsibility to have a policy in place in order to avoid unnecessary litigation. Strong Human Resource departments will have a notification policy in place with supporting documentation prior to ending an association on the day of notice.