Leaving work - offer letter sufficient or contract necessary?

princeofpounds

Posting this one to give advice to a friend who has found a new job. A couple of questions...


She has been sent an offer letter over email, but has not seen a full contract of employment yet. Is it unreasonable to ask to see a specimen contract before accepting the offer?

She has been asked for references from her last and current employer. However, she has only had one job since graduation, and that is her current job. She can't ask them for a reference before resigning and can't resign with confidence until she knows she has sufficient references. The company are likely to take this badly and won't provide more than the legal minimum reference (confirm dates and position of employment) even after she leaves. She doesn't trust anyone in the company enough to get a reference on a personal basis before leaving. Character references and client references are not a problem. How best to resolve this situation?

Thanks for any input!

Lady007

I would advise that she does not resign unless she has an Unconditional offer letter and she has signed and returned her contract as most offers of employment are dependant on acceptable references being received.

With regards to her employer only stating the bare minimum in the reference this should not bother her at all. Typcally now a days most references are like his due to litigation relating to "bad" references written by ex Managers or the like with a grudge or ill informed HR personnel.

ellie101

princeofpounds wrote: »

She has been sent an offer letter over email, but has not seen a full contract of employment yet. Is it unreasonable to ask to see a specimen contract before accepting the offer?

She should explain to the HR department (I guess she's dealing with their HR?) that she cannot resign until she has the full contract sent over (not a specimen). I don't think she's actually accepting the offer until she signs the contract anyway?

I once said yes to an offer letter. They then reneged on the offer, not just to me but other people. The HR department on the phone asked me if I'd resigned and said if I had "they'd try and get my some sort of job". Luckily, I hadn't resigned. It's also happened to another friend of mine.

anamenottaken

ellie101 wrote: »

She should explain to the HR department (I guess she's dealing with their HR?) that she cannot resign until she has the full contract sent over (not a specimen). I don't think she's actually accepting the offer until she signs the contract anyway?

Unless this is a very unusual job, a copy of the standard terms and conditions and a letter which confirms salary and job title should provide enough for her to decide whether or not to accept the offer.

It does not require a contract document to be signed by the potential employee to accept a job offer - just a simple statement that their offer is accepted.

However I absolutely agree she should not actually resign until she has an unconditional offer of employment. As that offer would not be unconditional until they had received satisfactory references (and possibly a medical report too), then the current employer needs to be told that another company will be applying for a reference. Telling an employer that another company will be seeking a reference is not the same as resigning.