Is Waiving Notice Periods a New Form of Employee Termination? Let's Discuss

I am alarmed at seeing a new trend in HR. A few instances have come to my attention where an employee has submitted their resignation letter stating that they are willing to serve the prescribed Notice Period and requesting to be relieved at the end of the said period. The HR has responded very nicely by informing the concerned employee, "We are pleased to inform you that it has been decided to waive off your Notice Period, and you will be relieved with immediate effect." The company has made it clear that the employee will not be paid a salary in lieu of the early release, which is decided at the discretion of the Company management.

This, in real terms, amounts to "Termination" of the employee. After all, the employee is willing to serve out their Notice Period, and the Company management is preventing them from doing so by waiving off their Notice Period. It is very sad that such harsh HR practices are being adopted by employers/HR.

I invite comments on this situation.

In the majority of cases, an employee has an alternate job in hand. Therefore, the employee resigns. I think, in that case, the resigned employee will benefit.

New Trend in HR Practices

I am alarmed to see a new trend in HR. Several instances have come to my attention where an employee has submitted his resignation letter, expressing willingness to serve the prescribed notice period and requesting to be relieved at the end of the said notice period. The HR has responded by informing the employee, "We are pleased to inform you that it has been decided to waive off your notice period, and you will be relieved with immediate effect." The company has made it clear that the employee will not be paid a salary in lieu of the early release, which was decided at the discretion of the company management.

In real terms, this action equates to the "termination" of the employee. After all, the employee is willing to serve out his notice period, and the company management is preventing him from doing so by waiving his notice period.

It is disheartening to witness such harsh HR practices being adopted by employers/HR.

I invite comments on this matter.

Vasanth, I think you have raised a very pertinent issue. HR, sadly, in many cases, are becoming stooges at the hands of the management. In the guise of cost-cutting, most ethics have been thrown in the trash bin. I believe the practice you have referred to is nothing beyond "saving the cost of salary for 2/3 months on a resource that will not be very productive anyway." Also, a part of this has been brought on by the fact that many jobs, due to the MISs already there, require very little Knowledge Transfer. Added to this is the typically arrogant management theory that nobody except themselves does anything of merit anyway.

However, I firmly believe that this unilateral waiver of the notice period can be challenged. The person who has resigned can simply say, "I am willing to work for the notice period and have not asked for a waiver; if you want me to leave before that, please compensate me for it." Most people don't do that and take this time off to catch up on pending family commitments, and hence these issues never come up in legal fora.

I am sure there are counter views. Looking forward to a few.

Employee Resignation Due to Harassment

Sometimes an employee resigns because they are harassed to such an extent that they feel forced to leave. In such cases, the employee may not have another job lined up. If they request to serve a notice period and the employer denies this request, what should the employee do?