Is a signed employee resignation policy/contract legal?

[Ledrak]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? SC

Can I legally enforce a contract that I have my executives sign saying that they must give "X" number of weeks written notice if they intend to resign or pay monetary penalties and/or face legal action for any damages incurred to the company as a result of their resignation? I ask this because I have nothing in place right now and I just had a high level executive resign out of the blue with no notice at all. He just up and quit, and now all the stuff he was working on is practically lost. So I have to have someone new come in and basically start what he was doing over from scratch. I want to try and prevent this from happening in the future. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Zigner]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? SC

Can I legally enforce a contract that I have my executives sign saying that they must give "X" number of weeks written notice if they intend to resign or pay monetary penalties and/or face legal action for any damages incurred to the company as a result of their resignation? I ask this because I have nothing in place right now and I just had a high level executive resign out of the blue with no notice at all. He just up and quit, and now all the stuff he was working on is practically lost. So I have to have someone new come in and basically start what he was doing over from scratch. I want to try and prevent this from happening in the future. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Sure, go for it. It might scare some of your less sophisticated employees, but most would see right through it and realize it's unenforceable.

 

[Ledrak]

Sure, go for it. It might scare some of your less sophisticated employees, but most would see right through it and realize it's unenforceable.

So you're saying there's nothing anyone can do? An employee can quit anytime without giving any notice what so ever, and regardless of whether it causes the company to incur damages we just have to accept it?

 

[RRevak]

So you're saying there's nothing anyone can do? An employee can quit anytime without giving any notice what so ever, and regardless of whether it causes the company to incur damages we just have to accept it?

Pretty much. Just as you have the ability to fire them for whatever reason you wish, they have the right to quit for any reason they wish and in whatever time frame they wish.

 

[TheGeekess]

So you're saying there's nothing anyone can do? An employee can quit anytime without giving any notice what so ever, and regardless of whether it causes the company to incur damages we just have to accept it?

Just as you can fire somebody for no reason at all whether or not it causes them any personal hardship.

 

[Zigner]

If the employee intentionally causes damages (ie: reformats the computer or changes all the passwords) then you may have recourse. But, if the employee leavings just makes it hard for you to finish the project...no. We abolished slavery long ago.

 

[Ledrak]

Thanks. Silly me for thinking there would/could be some sort of legal obligations for both sides...

 

[cbg]

Forcing someone to work for you beyond the date when he or she no longer wishes to work for you, used to be called slavery.

 

[Proserpina]

Thanks. Silly me for thinking there would/could be some sort of legal obligations for both sides...

Silly you for forgetting the obvious part - that BOTH sides have the freedom to end the relationship without penalty (with certain exceptions which do not apply here).

 

[commentator]

Since we work in a basically "right to fire/right to quit" world, it comes down to, and as we used to always tell people in labor department trainings, notice is a courtesy. You could even say, "professional courtesy." It shows that your person, even though they got a better offer, were committed enough to you and your project that they gave you the courtesy of notice and helped you replace them and eased out the transition from one employee to the next one.

That your employee did this to you, as you say, a relatively high level employee, and did not even offer to discuss the matter with you, let you make a counter offer if they've gotten a better job, or let you try to work with them if they quit due to a personal reason says you need to consider one of two reasons.

One: You're a terrible employer, they don't feel committed enough, or you've been treating them such that they feel like they will enjoy telling you that you can go fish as soon as they get a chance to leave

Two: They are not a good quality professional person, they don't mind if they burn bridges, do not care about future references, they are fickle and changeable, and are not the type of person you wanted there in the first place. Therefore you are as well off replacing them.

If you were to put such a contract statement demanding notice into your hiring agreement with your next employee, (and believe me, I have seen such contractual statements in hiring letters) then it would show a true professional that you were insecure about your job and wanted to COMPEL notice because you've had people walk out and quit on you before. This does not speak well for your business.

You may in the course of your hiring process mention that you would appreciate the courtesy of notice if the person is going to have to leave you. That's about as good as it can get, and it works much better to entice and engender cooperation than to compel or demand it, especially when you have no stick to beat them with to force compliance.

 

[swalsh411]

He just up and quit, and now all the stuff he was working on is practically lost.

He's a thought. Maybe you should think about having employees save the stuff they are working on somewhere other than in their head. Life happens. People die, get sick, move away. The success of a given effort should never be dependent on just one person.

 

[Ledrak]

I appreciate all the advice. Going forward I'm definitely going to require that everyone save their work, contacts, etc. to a central database to try and prevent something like this from happening again.

 

[LeeHarveyBlotto]

Thanks. Silly me for thinking there would/could be some sort of legal obligations for both sides...

Seems it's exactly the same on both sides, although the complaints about it usually come from the other direction.

 

[eerelations]

This can be done, however it has to be quid pro quo - if the contract states "you must give X weeks' notice (or pay in lieu thereof) of resignation" then it should also state "if we let you go we will give you X weeks' notice (or pay in lieu thereof)" - if you're not willing to adhere to part two, then you can't have part one. If you are willing to live with part two, then you need an attorney to draft this contract, this is too complicated for laymen.