After an employee put his 2 week notice, can a supervisor make them resign immediately without proper counseling?
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After an employee put his 2 week notice, can a supervisor make them resign immediately without proper counseling?
I provided a 2 week resignation date to my supervisor and within an hour or so I was forced to
turn in my computer without saving my personal information and I was escorted immediately out of the office. That same day they resigned me effectively and immediately, without proper
counseling or time to seek counseling, which resulted in a 25 letter as of my earned paid time off and potentially other benefit losses.
Asked on August 19, 2016 under Employment Labor Law, Tennessee
Answers:
M.D., Member, California and New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
Contrary to popular belief, providng an employer 2 weeks notice is a courtesty that need not be reciprocated by the employer. In other words, since you are not required to provide such notice, your company does not have to honor it and let you work that time. Additionally, if this means that you were not provided exiting counseling, unfortunately no claim here; there is no legal mandate that such counseling be provided. The fact is that a business can set the terms of employment much as it sees fit. This is true so long as such action does not violate the terms of an employment contract or union/collective bargaining agreement. Also, a worker's treatment must not involve any form of legally actionable discrimination.
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
Once you tell an employer you are leaving employment, they can treat your notice as effective immediately: they do not need to honor the two weeks notice, which is only tradition, not law. If they do treat your announcement that you are leaving as effective immediately, they do not need to counsel you (actually, an employer *never* needs to provide counseling, unless you have a written employment contract requiring this) and can--and actually should--cut off your computer access immediately, to make sure that an employee who has already declared he/she will no longer work there does not take proprietary information, delete files, etc. In the future, 1) only provide notice when you are prepared to leave immediately; and 2) never store peronsal information on a work computer at all if you can help it--and if you do, make sure it's backed-up elsewhere.
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