Learn how to resign from a job immediately with these simple steps. Prepare a resignation letter, inform your supervisor, wrap up your work, and maintain professionalism.
There may be different reasons for changing jobs. Perhaps you are tired, burned out, and want to take a break. Or you may have found a position with a higher salary and career growth prospects. In any case, you have the right to quit of your own free will, without asking your employer’s permission. To ensure everything goes smoothly, it is important to follow the law. Lawyer Maria Goncharova explains when you should announce your intention to quit, how to write a resignation letter correctly, and what to expect next.
How to resign voluntarily
Step 1: Plan your layoff dates
By law, any employee has the right to resign at their own request. If you have made such a decision, first of all you need to notify your employer. This is done at least two weeks before the expected dismissal. However, there are exceptions. When resigning during the probationary period, it is enough to notify the employer three days in advance. If you are the head of an organization, you must inform the employer of your resignation one month in advance.
An employee may also be dismissed earlier than two weeks by agreement with the employer or if there are valid reasons that do not allow continuing work. These include:
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enrollment in full-time education;
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old age pension;
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violations of labor laws by the employer.
Step 2. Write a resignation letter
It is not enough to simply tell your manager about your intention to quit, because verbal agreements have no legal force. You need to notify your employer in writing, that is, write a letter of resignation.
The requirements for the content of the application are not clearly spelled out anywhere. However, there is one subtlety: it is important not to use the preposition “from” when indicating the dismissal date. For example, if you want to finish working on the last day of May, it is incorrect to write “I ask you to dismiss me from June 1, 2024.” The correct way would be “I ask you to dismiss me on May 31, 2024.” In the latter case, May 31 will be your last working day.
Sample resignation letter
It is important to note that within two weeks the employee may withdraw his/her application. In this case, the dismissal will not take place. Exception: another employee has already been invited to take the employee’s place.
Sample of withdrawal of resignation letter
Step 3. Review the dismissal order
After the application is signed and submitted to the HR department, a dismissal order is drawn up . The employee must familiarize himself with the dismissal order by signing it. If for some reason this was not possible (for example, the employee was absent or refused to sign), a corresponding note must be left on the order. It will be useful if the employee challenges the dismissal in court.
Step 4. Receive your severance payment
The final calculation is made on the day of dismissal, that is, on the last working day. The employee is paid a salary and compensation for unused vacations. If the employee used the vacation in advance, then a recalculation will be made and the required amount will be deducted from the salary. There may be other payments provided for by the employment contract. For example, severance pay in the amount of two or more salaries. There are no general rules here, the terms of dismissal depend on your employment contract.
Step 5. Obtain a paper work record or information from an electronic work record
Since January 1, 2020, paper work books have been replaced by electronic work books – information about the employee, which is stored in the electronic database of the Social Fund of Russia. Such books are available to everyone who officially works after the date of their introduction. After dismissal, the employer is obliged to issue a paper work book or provide information about work activity.
If it is impossible to issue a work record book on the last working day due to the absence of the employee, the employer is obliged to send him a notice of the need to pick it up in person or give consent to send it by registered mail.
Is it possible to quit while on vacation?
An employee has the right to write a letter of resignation while on vacation. You can also set the expected date of dismissal for the vacation period. An employee can resign immediately after vacation. If you take a vacation with subsequent dismissal, then the day of dismissal will be considered the last day of vacation. In this case, the calculation is made on the day before the vacation.
Is it possible to quit while on sick leave?
The law does not prohibit resignation of one’s own accord during sick leave. In this case, the final payment will be made on the last day of work, even if it falls during the sick leave period. An order of dismissal is issued and a note is made about the employee’s absence and the impossibility of familiarizing him with the order. The work record book can be picked up after recovery or received by mail.
What should I do if I have a contract for targeted training?
Targeted training is training at the employer’s expense, taking into account subsequent work. For example, a hospital enters into an agreement for a student to study at a medical school. Depending on the agreement, the student is paid for his studies and may be additionally paid a stipend. After graduation, the specialist is required to work in this hospital for at least three years.
If such an employee decides to resign before the end of the contract, he is obliged to reimburse the costs incurred by the employer for his training. The fine can be avoided if there are good reasons:
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child care up to three years;
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raising three or more children alone;
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care for children, wife or parents recognized as disabled of group I and living in another city;
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receiving disability group I or II.
How to protect your rights when you are fired
An employee cannot be forced to resign voluntarily. The employer can be held liable for forcing someone to resign. Administrative liability involves fines and sometimes even disqualification of the manager for up to three years in the event of repeated violation of the law.
Proving the fact of forced dismissal is not easy, but possible. Correspondence, recordings of telephone conversations in the form of threats from the boss, and testimony from colleagues can be used as evidence in the employee’s defense.
To resolve a labor dispute, you can contact the State Labor Inspectorate (GIT ), on its website you can urgently submit an application to the online inspectorate, which will reduce the time of the appeal. GIT can consider not only illegal dismissals, but also disputes regarding non-compliance with the dismissal procedure itself or in cases where the dismissal order was incorrectly drawn up. If the response of the labor inspectorate does not satisfy your requirements, then the next step is to go to court.
Only by court order can you be reinstated at work. According to the law, an employee can file a lawsuit to protect violated labor rights within a month from the date of delivery of the order and receipt of the work record book. If the court finds the dismissal illegal, the employee will be reinstated at work. Or, at the employee’s request, they may not reinstate, but change the grounds on which the employee was dismissed. This will help in further job searches.