Can you resign with immediate effect in the face of a disciplinary?

QueenBe

I will be facing dismissal soon due to already being on a final written warning so I'm already aware my employemt with this company will end no matter what but I would like my reference to be ok for new employers.

I had an incident at work (I'd rather not go into as it is a personal problem), 3rd offence, it is treated as serious misconduct, last week. I returned the next day to tender my immediate resignation which my manager was happy to accept and it would spare me a dismissal but needed to contact HR. HR have said that the disciplinary would still go on and therefore I decided to forge ahead with the disciplinary. This is due to my notice period of 1 week.

I myself contacted HR from home that same day and got the response that if my manager does not want to raise the disciplinary and accepts my resignantion then no further action would be taken after I left. I am confused and am going to bring it up tomorrow morning as soon as I get to work. I have not been handed a disciplinary letter yet and not sure if it has been raised with HR yet. If it has I will just have to bite the bullet but am wondering if anyone can give any info if a company is willing to accept immediate resignation and no disciplinary has been raised can it be raised after I leave? The only reason I can think of for it continuing is that HR are not willing to accept my letter without notice and will therefore add the notice period to my end date thus ensuing the dismissal takes place.

I am worried about my reference mainly. I have been a good worker and intend to sort my personal problems out and get back into employment with a clean slate. Everyone deserves a second chance right? The offence is not illegal by the way it just breaches company conduct.

dmg24

You can resign with immediate effect, but there is nothing to stop the employer suing you for not working your notice period (very unlikely) or stating on any reference that you left pending disciplinary action (more likely).

QueenBe

The disciplinary may have not been raised officialy. I just know that what happened warrants a disciplinary. My manager was happy just to accept my letter and not officialy raise the issue. That was the impression I got anyway from speaking with him on Friday. He just wanted to check with HR because I brought up the fact that would ref say resigned facing disciplinary. HR have told me it would not because the incident hasn't been brought to their attention. They said they cannot enforce a manager to raise a disciplinary. As far as I'm aware it has not been raised yet as I was sent home on Friday awaiting HR's answer and I gave the decision to continue with the disciplinary late on Fri afternoon. I have learnt a big lesson and I know that I will sort myself out.

crazygal27

As dmg has said, you can resign with immediate effect but there are possible consequences.

WRT the disciplinary, I can see only a couple of reasons why this would proceed if you hand in your notice - 1. If whatever caused the disciplinary had an impact on another employee/s (as they would need to show that it has been followed up correctly). 2. If the company needs to display that it deals with the type of indiscretion in a certain way in order to show that they are treating everyone fairly (If there has been a previous incident of a similar nature and they disciplined the person or if they would want to be able to discipline someone in the future for the same type of incident).

Make sure you talk to them though and that you are aware what your reference will state as the reason for leaving.

getmore4less

Talk to the manager something along the lines of.

Hey, I know I sk***d up again and I will probably have to leave, why don't we make this easy for all of us and I resign, I lnow I should give a weeks notice, I will work it and any more if you need me too but how about I take all my outstanding holiday and you let me go early, without pay if needed.

Notice is the minimum required this is negotiable so if the company is happy to let you go they can.