Should I accept the withdrawal of resignation?

Exodi

Have you asked him why he's leaving out of interest?

Agree with the majority of this thread - he was leaving for a reason, and just because his new job is messing him around, it doesn't change the fundamentals that he was looking to leave in the first place.

MalMonroe said:

I'm really not trying to be funny but I feel that you could also do with some management training, since you are asking a bunch of strangers in an online forum how best to do your job. 

Don't worry, no-one found this funny. God forbid someone comes to an employment board to hear other peoples views before making a decision.

El_Torro

Exodi said:

Have you asked him why he's leaving out of interest?

I did mention this in a previous post but just to reiterate, he gave me two reasons for leaving:

1. He wants to work for a small company where he can make a bigger individual impact. The company I work for is large. 
2. He wants to try working in a different field. The job he is going to is very different to the job he is doing now.

TBagpuss

SensibleSarah said:

Just to add a voice from the other side... a former colleague of mine left the business a few weeks after I arrived. He went to a direct competitor - basically for the same fairly junior job but a slightly higher salary. Within two weeks, he had rung up the MD of the original business and asked if he could come back. Apparently the grass wasn't really any greener! They agreed to give him his old job back as they hadn't had any joy recruiting anyone for the role at that point. It was a risk - he could have just left again if he got a decent offer. 
That was in 2008. He's still at the original company nearly 15 years later and is now on the board of directors. 

I do expect that he's the exception though - if the reasons for leaving are not ones that can be easily resolved then you're just kicking the problem down the road a bit. 

Yes, we recently took someone back in similar circumstances,  it was a situation where we understood why they had wanted to leave,   but they left on good terms and we were happy for them to come back when they realised the grass wasn't actually greener . the actually seem much happier then they were before they left.  In part, I think, because our approach was 'we know that x & y are current issues and these are the things we are doing to try to fix them, whereas the other company had exactly the same issues but their approach was 'that's just how it is now, suck it up' . They know we can't fix the issues instantly but they can see we are tactively trying to nd are doing everything possible to reduce their impact in the mean time 

HelenNoreen

My question to you would be to consider how that employee has been at work since originally handing in their notice? Such as attitude and performance etc. 

Several years ago, one of my team at the time (who was one of the best performing) handed in their notice after they got a job offer elsewhere.

A couple of weeks into their 1 month notice period, they called me into the office to say that their job offer had been cancelled as the company had decided not to recruit after all (he had not had the office in writing), and asking whether they could withdraw their resignation. The fact that this employees attitude and performance since first handing in their notice had been nothing short of appalling made it a very easy decision to say no. 

Undervalued

goater78 said:

Undervalued said:

I agree with the majority who say that it would generally be unwise to allow the withdrawal of an employee's resignation.

A compromise would be to re-employ the employee after a break of at least one week. That would break their continuity of employment meaning that their services could easily be terminated if their commitment was in any way lacking.

No employee would accept that. 

Why not?

The employee would be in no worse position than if he started afresh with another company. It would be a gesture of goodwill on his part, as he has no legal right to withdraw his resignation and simply carry on as before unless the company is willing to be that indulgent. It would obviously depend on what other options are open to him.

You say "No employee would accept that". How do you feel able to speak for every employee in the country?

goater78

Undervalued said:

goater78 said:

Undervalued said:

I agree with the majority who say that it would generally be unwise to allow the withdrawal of an employee's resignation.

A compromise would be to re-employ the employee after a break of at least one week. That would break their continuity of employment meaning that their services could easily be terminated if their commitment was in any way lacking.

No employee would accept that. 

Why not?

The employee would be in no worse position than if he started afresh with another company. It would be a gesture of goodwill on his part, as he has no legal right to withdraw his resignation and simply carry on as before unless the company is willing to be that indulgent. It would obviously depend on what other options are open to him.

You say "No employee would accept that". How do you feel able to speak for every employee in the country?

Ok, only a desperate or extremely stupid employee would accept this. 

It’s a nonsense idea.

Takeaway_Addict

goater78 said:

Undervalued said:

goater78 said:

Undervalued said:

I agree with the majority who say that it would generally be unwise to allow the withdrawal of an employee's resignation.

A compromise would be to re-employ the employee after a break of at least one week. That would break their continuity of employment meaning that their services could easily be terminated if their commitment was in any way lacking.

No employee would accept that. 

Why not?

The employee would be in no worse position than if he started afresh with another company. It would be a gesture of goodwill on his part, as he has no legal right to withdraw his resignation and simply carry on as before unless the company is willing to be that indulgent. It would obviously depend on what other options are open to him.

You say "No employee would accept that". How do you feel able to speak for every employee in the country?

Ok, only a desperate or extremely stupid employee would accept this. 

It’s a nonsense idea.

Given a choice of no work or work most employees would take it

goater78

Takeaway_Addict said:

goater78 said:

Undervalued said:

goater78 said:

Undervalued said:

I agree with the majority who say that it would generally be unwise to allow the withdrawal of an employee's resignation.

A compromise would be to re-employ the employee after a break of at least one week. That would break their continuity of employment meaning that their services could easily be terminated if their commitment was in any way lacking.

No employee would accept that. 

Why not?

The employee would be in no worse position than if he started afresh with another company. It would be a gesture of goodwill on his part, as he has no legal right to withdraw his resignation and simply carry on as before unless the company is willing to be that indulgent. It would obviously depend on what other options are open to him.

You say "No employee would accept that". How do you feel able to speak for every employee in the country?

Ok, only a desperate or extremely stupid employee would accept this. 

It’s a nonsense idea.

Given a choice of no work or work most employees would take it

That’s too simplistic a view. Of course if there was a choice of no job or a job people would take the job. However in this situation the employee has been offered another job so he seems to be able to quite easily find alternative employment. 

Ignoring that though the OP works for a large organisation and the suggestion he goes to his HR department and tells them they need to offboard an employee and then onboard the same employee in one weeks time will be such a ridiculous request the company will think he’s got a screw loose. 

The fact you seem to think this is a good way forward would sort of indicate you’ve never really worked in a large organisation.  

General_Grant

goater78 said:

Takeaway_Addict said:

goater78 said:

Undervalued said:

goater78 said:

Undervalued said:

I agree with the majority who say that it would generally be unwise to allow the withdrawal of an employee's resignation.

A compromise would be to re-employ the employee after a break of at least one week. That would break their continuity of employment meaning that their services could easily be terminated if their commitment was in any way lacking.

No employee would accept that. 

Why not?

The employee would be in no worse position than if he started afresh with another company. It would be a gesture of goodwill on his part, as he has no legal right to withdraw his resignation and simply carry on as before unless the company is willing to be that indulgent. It would obviously depend on what other options are open to him.

You say "No employee would accept that". How do you feel able to speak for every employee in the country?

Ok, only a desperate or extremely stupid employee would accept this. 

It’s a nonsense idea.

Given a choice of no work or work most employees would take it

That’s too simplistic a view. Of course if there was a choice of no job or a job people would take the job. However in this situation the employee has been offered another job so he seems to be able to quite easily find alternative employment. 

Ignoring that though the OP works for a large organisation and the suggestion he goes to his HR department and tells them they need to offboard an employee and then onboard the same employee in one weeks time will be such a ridiculous request the company will think he’s got a screw loose. 

The fact you seem to think this is a good way forward would sort of indicate you’ve never really worked in a large organisation.  

I disagree.  HR would know the law which underpinned the suggestion.

goater78

General_Grant said:

goater78 said:

Takeaway_Addict said:

goater78 said:

Undervalued said:

goater78 said:

Undervalued said:

I agree with the majority who say that it would generally be unwise to allow the withdrawal of an employee's resignation.

A compromise would be to re-employ the employee after a break of at least one week. That would break their continuity of employment meaning that their services could easily be terminated if their commitment was in any way lacking.

No employee would accept that. 

Why not?

The employee would be in no worse position than if he started afresh with another company. It would be a gesture of goodwill on his part, as he has no legal right to withdraw his resignation and simply carry on as before unless the company is willing to be that indulgent. It would obviously depend on what other options are open to him.

You say "No employee would accept that". How do you feel able to speak for every employee in the country?

Ok, only a desperate or extremely stupid employee would accept this. 

It’s a nonsense idea.

Given a choice of no work or work most employees would take it

That’s too simplistic a view. Of course if there was a choice of no job or a job people would take the job. However in this situation the employee has been offered another job so he seems to be able to quite easily find alternative employment. 

Ignoring that though the OP works for a large organisation and the suggestion he goes to his HR department and tells them they need to offboard an employee and then onboard the same employee in one weeks time will be such a ridiculous request the company will think he’s got a screw loose. 

The fact you seem to think this is a good way forward would sort of indicate you’ve never really worked in a large organisation.  

I disagree.  HR would know the law which underpinned the suggestion.

Everyone is right to their own opinion. Think you’re wrong though 😉