Handing In My Notice, But Manager Is On Holiday....

BrandonHeat

Hi,

I am a Registered nurse, working in a nursing home. i recently was offered a new job with a different company, including better hours, pay, conditions and opportunities.

Unfortunately, when I received my job offer letter, my current manager was halfway through a 3 week holiday to the USA.

I wrote my letter of resignation, and brought it into work, leaving it in the management office.

My manager returned on Wednesday. My next shift was a night shift on Friday. When I arrived for work on Friday, I was told that the resignation could not be accepted for the date it was written, but in fact could only be accepted from the Wednesday as she had not seen it.

My question is, seeing as I have to give four weeks notice, and my resignation was not acknowledged until a week after i handed it in, are my employers able to move my finish date back. my contract states i need to give 4 weeks written notice.

I find this hard to accept and there is no other manager in the home, or even a senior nurse, So i am therefore in a situation of not being able to quit my work just because the manager is on a holiday....

I feel like I am being punished because of the fact I am leaving for a rival company, but I don't think i should have to work more notice period than my contract states just because of someone being on holiday, as that is out of my control.

it is also out of my control that the manager did not arrange some interim management structure for the time that she was off.

Date wise, I handed my notice in on 6th may, she wont acknowledge it until 18th may because she was in USA, and even worse, she says my last working day is 17th June. Even working from 18th, thats more than 28 days (4 weeks) notice, which is what my contract of employment states.

Any advice?

Horace

Is there an HR person there or at the company for whom you currently work?

I think that the employer can say that they don't accept the notice from the date of your letter because they didnt receive it until the manager returned from her holiday. You leaving it on the desk when you knew your line manager was away doesnt really count.

If you have any leave to take then I would ask to take it as part of your notice.

FATBALLZ

I would hand your notice in to the next layer of management above your line manager. Don't take "it's not up to me" as an answer. What if you manager went off on the sick for 12 months... would you seriously be expected to remain locked into your job until they came back?

mariefab

Is she claiming that no-one opened her mail while she was on holiday?

Sambucus_Nigra

Who was running the dept whilst she was away?

Who would you have called in sick to if you had been ill during that period?

If you had no contact for management above and nobody was managing in her absence, then I'd agree that it really isn't your problem!

Will you have accrued any annual leave that you can take at the end of your employment to shorten the time you are there?

SarEl

Technically the employer / manager is correct about notice. Notice is not served until the day after it has been received, and there are clear legal rulings on what this means - it means that somebody must have had the notice in their hands and been able to read it. So if, for example, an employer servies you notice and you are away on holiday for three weeks, the notice does not take effect until the day after the day that you return and open it. And no, before anyone comes up with the clever point, that does not mean that if you leave it unopened on the coffee table you haven't received it - it is one of those "reasonable" sort of rules whereby you must have reasonably been able to read it! But it does explain the popularity of recorded mail for such deliveries.

I find it difficult to understand how there can have been nobody in charge, and no way of contacting the main employer wherever they are based. This is a nursing home and there is a legal duty to have a responsible person in charge at all times. That person may not always be "on site" - night shifts for example - but they must be contactable. What would you have had to do if there was an emergency - there must have been someone who would want to know about it? If there is genuinely no person at all taking responsibility for a nursing home for significant periods of time, then I would have thought the regulatory bodies would be very interested in this fact.

I would normally say at this point that whilst an employer may take legal action to sue you for quantifiable loss if you leave before your notice is up (so you have been warned) but it isn't highly likely, in this case I would have to put a rider on that. If there are cases where the employer might do it, this would be one. Nursing homes have specific duties regarding staffing levels, and if you needed to be replaced and this incurred additional cost (for example, bringing in an agency replacement) it could happen. I still think it is relatively unlikely - but as I said, you have been warned that there is a risk if you choose this action.

pinkshoes

If the notice letter lay unopened on the desk and no one saw it, then it starts from the date your manager saw it. Otherwise, you could have backdated it from the day they went away...

The only way round it would have been to give it to THEIR boss or someone else more senior, or if that wasn't possible, to leave the letter, then phone and email them letting them know, and also leave a message for a more senior boss letting them know.

BrandonHeat

Thanks for the advice.

just to clear it up, there was no one in the home during the holiday period of the manager.

There would be a "Regional manager" but I do not have a contactable address for him other than the head office in Redditch, and considering he is there maybe once every 3-4 weeks, it seems pointless to send the letter for him there, as there would be a very high possibility it would still be sat there unopened to this day.

to SarEL, I guess if i needed t phone in sick, I would have to phone the regular nurse on duty during the day, and they in turn would have to contact a manager from one of the sister homes in the area.

Would it not be "Reasonable" for one of the other managers of the sister homes to attend to my home on a regular basis to open the mail? There are 5 other homes within a short distance, but for over a week my letter remained in the office due to no manager attending the home.

Would it become my responsibility to phone another home manager to come to my home and open the mail?

And what about the fact the letter I received states my resignation was received on 18/05/11 and my last working day is 16/06/11. Should it not be 14/06/11? That would be 28 days notice, as my contract states. Would I have to worry about them causing me trouble for those 2 days ?

bluenoseam

You should have resigned to the next most senior person in the chain, you mentioned a head office meaning the chances are there is either a Human Resources department or at the very least someone who WOULD be able to get in touch with the area manager - so i can understand why your manager refused to accept the resignation from the date you laid it on their desk, in their eyes there was sufficient information available to notify them properly.

mariefab

As Sarel explained your notice period commences the day after it was received.
So in your case, received 18th May- notice starts 19th May- last working day 15th June.

getmore4less

BrandonHeat wrote: »

Thanks for the advice.

just to clear it up, there was no one in the home during the holiday period of the manager.

There would be a "Regional manager" but I do not have a contactable address for him other than the head office in Redditch, and considering he is there maybe once every 3-4 weeks, it seems pointless to send the letter for him there, as there would be a very high possibility it would still be sat there unopened to this day.

to SarEL, I guess if i needed t phone in sick, I would have to phone the regular nurse on duty during the day, and they in turn would have to contact a manager from one of the sister homes in the area.

Would it not be "Reasonable" for one of the other managers of the sister homes to attend to my home on a regular basis to open the mail? There are 5 other homes within a short distance, but for over a week my letter remained in the office due to no manager attending the home.

Would it become my responsibility to phone another home manager to come to my home and open the mail?

And what about the fact the letter I received states my resignation was received on 18/05/11 and my last working day is 16/06/11. Should it not be 14/06/11? That would be 28 days notice, as my contract states. Would I have to worry about them causing me trouble for those 2 days ?

SO why did you not just phone head office and ask?

Who was your actual employer, that is who you needed to notify that you are resigning, using a manager is just a conveneient way to do it and is polite to let them know first.