Left Job Without Notice: Can an Alumni Letter Prove My Resignation Was Accepted?

Hello Sir,

I joined a software services company a few months ago in Bangalore. I worked for just 5 days, and on the 6th working day (Monday), I sent an immediate resignation through email due to personal problems within my family and left for my hometown. I left the company during the first week of the probation period.

Now, after 2 months, the company has sent a warning letter by post, asking me to pay 25 days of salary out of 30 days for not serving the one-month notice period. They requested a reply within 15 days, or they would initiate legal action against me. I did not respond to their letter, and one of my relatives mistakenly accepted the registered post while I was out of town. I received an email about an Alumni letter 2 months ago. Could you clarify if this means they have accepted my resignation and relieved me from services? Can I use this as proof in the future?

I have lost the offer letter provided by the company, and I only have a few emails they sent after my resignation. I do not possess the soft copy; I only have the salary structure sent via email.

I am looking forward to your valuable advice.

Sekar

Dear Sekar,

They are stupids and wasting their money as well as energy by contacting you. Unprofessional HR guys are sitting there and communicating with you. Please enjoy your present job and do not reply or entertain them.

Dear Sekar,

Just follow the advice given by Malik, sir. Don't worry, let them send notices whatsoever. You just ignore and don't waste your time by unnecessarily replying to it.

Sanjeev

Sekar,

While I am not entering into a discussion on the merits and demerits of such a practice, my intent is just to share with you the practice that some companies follow in the event an employee leaves employment without serving the due notice period. Some companies are following the practice (of course, they do not see the futility of making an employee serve against his will for the balance notice period and risking, in the process, the many pitfalls associated with a lower level of engagement on the part of such an exiting employee) of treating the act of absence of an employee during the notice period as absconsion from service. They normally send a letter asking the employee to report back within 'x' number of days on the receipt of such letter failing which the employment will be terminated from the company's end. In case the employee comes back, they may choose to either discuss the employee's underlying drivers for having quit and possibly try and retain him with some advice / note of caution around the act of having suddenly discontinued serving the company during the currency of the notice period, or, as happens in most cases, relieve the employee forthwith (in some cases, ask the employee to continue serving the balance notice period).

In the event that the employee does not respond to the first letter within the time stipulated, the employer would send the termination letter through registered post and keep the receipt for records as proof of the employee having been struck off from the muster roll and the fact that this act has been shared with the employee. In such cases, the employer will, in case there are any recoverables from the employee, ask the employee to square off the amount before the employer sends the service certificate and other documents. In practice, I have not seen any benefit emerging through such a practice other than an increase in paperwork and administrative burden on the HR department of the employer itself. Most employees do not care to square off the recoverables from them; however, in a few cases, I have witnessed employees coming back to the employer after almost a year when they may require their Form 16. In such cases, I have witnessed the practice of the employer remaining firm on their stand around the employee squaring off the amount first before they dispatch the Form 16 to the employee, and some employees have complied with this.

My considered opinion is that notice periods cannot be rigidly enforced in this manner, but at the end of the day, to create a level playing field, you cannot have a situation where it's a free for all in so far as the employees are concerned in that they too need to respect the notice period obligations off them as expected off any professional. However, this should not mean that the employers need to be so ham-handed in their approach towards enforcing the notice period requirements.

Although there are no laws forbidding Sekar to continue and ignore them, there is a professional responsibility. The world is very small!

I went through the above harmful suggestions to Sekar from all. I feel very sad that senior professionals like Mr. Malik are unable to counsel and motivate an employee on an act (not illegal/immoral) but yes, very unprofessional. All the above suggestions are going to harm Sekar in the future. It's like a kid sipping a wine secretly and the parents are motivating the same.

The better advice would be: Sekar should write a detailed email to his former employer about the situation very honestly and reconcile his relationship, though he is not going to be re-employed with them.

Also, Mr. Malik and others, please express your true feelings if you have 5 employees coming and joining you for a week as your deputy/deputy manager and all leaving you without any info/notice.

Dear all, please be honest to suggest and before advising anybody, put yourself into both the shoes (Advisor & Advisee).

Dear Sekar, going through your emails I feel you're still in a nascent career of your life. Please write a simple email to your ex-employer and close this. If you need any advice on the mail, let me know, I can guide you.

Dear Sekar,

Before providing any inputs, I just want to know whether you have signed any appointment letter or not.

If you have signed any appointment letter, then the company can legally take you to the labor court as per the termination clause mentioned in the appointment letter. Please refer to the copy of the appointment letter provided by them.

Many companies have different termination/separation policies in the case of probation. However, if the employee has signed the appointment letter (or any judicial bond), then the employee is liable to fulfill the termination clause.

As per my suggestion, please reply to the emails sent by your last company and provide us with the termination/separation clause given in the appointment letter for better understanding.

Please feel free to contact the undersigned for any further clarification/assistance.

Thanks & Regards,

Kumar Gourav
Human Resources

I have signed the offer letter, but I did not receive the appointment letter. I think both are different, right? As per the agreement, I have to serve a month's notice during probation. However, I have only worked for 5 days, and they never assigned any work to me. I did not even receive an employee ID. I had temporary transport/ID, etc. I submitted everything on the day of resignation, and they agreed over the phone.

I believe that in this difficult time, they saw an opportunity to make money. If they were asking for 10 or 20 thousand, I would be ready to pay, but they are asking for 72,000. I never requested a salary or relocation reimbursement. Now, I am not worried; I have prepared myself to face the problem. I will print out all the documents I have if they take legal action.

If they did not accept my resignation, why would they send an Alumni email at the end of the same month? This indicates they accepted and relieved me of all services. I never prevented them from responding to me; they could have replied after 15 days as per the offer letter, or else they would have terminated my employment. Nowhere did they mention taking legal action.

Dear,

Don't spend much more time on the notice, enjoy your new job. No need to reply or to do anything else.

Manu