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I have handed in my notice giving the required 1 month but my MD has asked me to reconsider. I have been asked to attend a meeting to discuss my role and new salary, hours, holiday etc to see if I am happy with what has been said and then agree to stay.

I have now made the decision that I do not want to stay and would like my resignation to stand but the letter I gave my MD has been ripped up.

Does anyone know how I stand legally with this?

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    Did you agree to consider their counter offer (withdrawing your notice temporarily), or did they unilaterally rip up your notice letter? Did you object to them tearing up your notice, or did they do it without your knowledge? In situations such as this previously, I have requested that the notice letter stand even during the period of considering any counter offer (for one thing, it makes sure they're serious about their offer as well as giving you a way out if they're not), but it is harder to advise without knowing the specifics of what you have agreed with them. – delinear Aug 22 '19 at 11:19
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    You need to add a country tag to get a useful answer to this. The answers would be completely different between (for example) the US and India. – Player One Aug 22 '19 at 11:23
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    Who ripped up the letter? Was it you? If that's the case this can be interpreted as withdrawing your notice - see Georgy's answer for that. – rath Aug 22 '19 at 11:30
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    MD is a "Medical Doctor"? – Stun Brick Aug 22 '19 at 12:07
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    @StunBrick MD is also Managing Director, the likely meaning in this situation. – Solar Mike Aug 22 '19 at 12:12
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If you did agree to withdraw your notice while you considered, you need to re-resign. This means the notice period would reset, but maybe they would be understanding and reduce the length.

If you did not agree to withdraw your notice, the best course of action is to send a follow-up letter, that confirms you do wish to resign by the date in your resignation letter.

If they say they need a new copy, you should just reprint them that copy. (Or better yet, have one ready to go - because they almost certainly will need a copy).

Note that you ripping up the resignation letter, asking somebody else to, or giving somebody else permission to, is likely to be legally considered withdrawing your resignation.

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  • A ripped up resignation letter that's been disposed of may have a hard time standing up in court, if it somehow gets that way. It'll be on the order of circumstantial evidence, since it'll be one person's word against another's. Having a duplicate with signatures the person resigning would go a long way to preventing this sort of thing from happening, but getting the signatures in the first place might be difficult. And if the OP didn't think to make a duplicate and didn't send an email to the same effect, it may be too late for them, if it goes to court. Hopefully it doesn't. – computercarguy Aug 22 '19 at 21:37
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    @computercarguy All of that assumes that one of the parties is willing to lie in court. A ripped up resignation letter that has been disposed of will do fine standing up in court, if neither side denies that it existed. – Jon Bentley Aug 22 '19 at 22:07
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    @JonBentley, true, but if the DM ripped up the letter without consent, it's likely they'd lie about it. Also, if it ends up in court, it's likely because of the resignation letter being "absent", which could go against any contract the OP potentially has. If it's "at will" employment, this hypothetical court case isn't likely. – computercarguy Aug 22 '19 at 22:12
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    @computercarguy You could make all the same arguments about a non-ripped up letter. If this was a legitimate concern, we'd have court cases left, right and center. But at the end of the day, it's highly unlikely an employer is going to perjure themselves over something like this. – Gregory Currie Aug 22 '19 at 23:03
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    @GregoryCurrie, sure, but these Questions and Answers are there for future people to look at, as well. – computercarguy Aug 23 '19 at 16:01
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Does anyone know how I stand legally with this?

If they ripped up your letter, most likely your resignation will stand, unless you agreed to withdraw it.

This is also a great example as to why you provide your resignation both physically (paper) and via email whenever possible and CC a copy to your personal email.

They can't really "rip up" your email.

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    Probably overkill but my rule when it’s needed is 1 dated hard copy to both line manager and HR, then an email to both with a personal address bcc’d – Peter Vandivier Aug 23 '19 at 5:24
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    Wrong, what you do is print two copies, sign the two copies and ask your manager to do the same. He can do as he wishes with his copy, you still have yours with his signature on it. – Diego Sánchez Aug 23 '19 at 13:24
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If your boss/employer decides to rip up or dispose of your letter, that is not your problem. You have resigned. Even agreeing to re-consider, does not withdraw your resignation, unless you have specifically agreed to do that.

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    Yes but the problem is you no longer have a way to prove you provided the requisite notice. Sorry but this answer rather misses the point... – Lightness Races in Orbit Aug 23 '19 at 11:41
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    @LightnessRacesinOrbit: But even if they hadn't ripped it up, how would you have a way to prove that they had received it? They could just hide it. – TonyK Aug 23 '19 at 12:49
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    @TonyK Indeed. So the answer to this question really ought to be the same as an answer to that [hypothetical] question too, and as a result of that link we may conclude that such a thing is not generally guaranteeable in the first place and thus never usually relied on anyway. (This answer does not address that.) – Lightness Races in Orbit Aug 23 '19 at 13:41
  • Fair comments, but technically, you don't even need to resign in writing. It just makes it more difficult if you don't, or the employer denies you have resigned. – jr593 Sep 6 '19 at 9:01

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