Navigating a Forced Resignation: Legal Considerations and Employee Rights

Dear Sir,

I used to work at Accenture and was forced to resign after not meeting the requirements of my performance improvement plan. I believe I was put on the plan intentionally as part of a conspiracy against me. Despite showing improvement in my performance, I was pressured to leave by certain members of the top management. I raised serious grievances to HR about some of these individuals, but my concerns were dismissed. Although they have compensated me with two months' salary, I am extremely upset about being pushed out through a deliberate scheme because I opposed some of the management personnel.

Now, as I try to escalate the matter to the top management for intervention and justice, I am facing a lack of cooperation.

Please advise if I have the option to pursue legal action against the company.

Thank you,
Manish

Dear Manish ji,

On what grounds do you wish to file a legal case against the company? Is it because they forced you to resign?

The court will inquire about your education level and how you signed the document, as well as your actions post-signing. Have you reported the forced signature to the police? Do you have any evidence to support your claim?

In my opinion, you have a slim chance of winning the legal battle.

Mr. Nathrao, a knowledgeable member, gave you sound advice. It may be best to forget and forgive, and start anew.

Wishing you all the best.

Thank you, Mr. Nathrao and Korgaonkar, for your valuable advice.

The reason why I have resentment against the Accenture management is because one of the top management persons had told me categorically like 4 months in advance that I would be put on PIP and eventually asked to leave the organization, and that thing turned out to be true, which clearly shows it was orchestrated well in advance.

My immediate boss never liked me and was always against me. I was the Team lead of my process and had made my project green on all the parameters. Despite that, they said I had not cleared the PIP as it was pre-decided they would oust me from my position.

As things were getting personal during my PIP, I had tried to raise the concerns to the Service delivery Lead of our project and wrote him 3 emails for the same, but he refused to acknowledge, which clearly suggests even he was influenced by my immediate supervisor against me. Talking about the HR, they are the bell boys for the upper management. If you try to speak against management or lodge a complaint with HR, they would be the first ones to leak the information to the management.

The reason why I had to resign is that if I had not resigned, they would have terminated me. As a result, I would not have been able to show my Accenture experience, and it would have been difficult for me to explain the gap when I would have applied for another job.

The only unfortunate thing here is that I don't have any proof. All I know is that my process was green, my team was happy with me, and I had tried to raise the concern to the service delivery lead but to no avail.

Do you think if I file a case, I can oblige the company to produce all the documents in court related to my performance and also the fact that the 3 emails that I wrote to the service delivery lead were unanswered? My team leader's scorecard was better than other team leaders' in the same project, my SLAs were green, my daily metrics were green. It is just that I had spoken against many of the management folks for their wrongdoing; they did not want me in the process as I had become a thorn in their side. Some of those whom I had complained against were very good friends of the Service delivery lead who eventually called the shots. The rest is history.

So my question to you is, should I take the risk of pursuing a case against them despite the fact that the odds are not in my favor, and what are the risks attached if I do plan to file a legal case?

Thanks,

Manish

You should have asked them to terminate you instead of resigning and then contested the termination on grounds of natural justice. But, gentleman, let me assure you that once management decides on separation, it's better to move on in life. The reason I am stating this is because the court process does not end in one court. And the organization has the financial muscle to prolong the case and frustrate you by appealing in every court of appeal until the Supreme Court. You may win the case there, but at what cost?

Recently, the Supreme Court gave a judgment in favor of a former professor of IIM, Bangalore. Sometime in the late '70s, he had rubbed the management the wrong way and was terminated. The first court where he appealed declared his termination void. IIM, Bangalore got a stay order on the verdict and in their leisurely pace went for appeal. This gentleman lost his livelihood, and his ego did not permit him to move on. He was a Ph.D., mind you. He won the case at every stage of appeal and finally won. However, the final verdict came after some 36 or 37 years from the Supreme Court. The court ruled to give him a percentage of his back wages since he was not working. The judgment also stated that he cannot now go back to work as he has already crossed the age of superannuation. His family went through all the turmoil and missed out on the comforts their peers were enjoying.

We are not living in a wonderland. We are living in India. The backlog of court cases makes it extremely difficult for an individual to take on an organization unless you have the backing of a union or the media. Remember the pregnant employee who was fired from TCS and was reinstated when the media went on a rampage. You owe it to your family to give them a good quality of life, instead of undergoing stress due to the legal case and passing on the stress to them.

And in any case, you have resigned, and it will be difficult to prove that it was a forced resignation. So, take your time to ventilate your anger and go through the cooling period. Then look out for something else. Over time, you will put this behind you. The world is too big a place to brood over some unfortunate incidents. Nothing is permanent. Everything will pass, and you will have your good times.

Dear Manish ji,

Myself and Nathrao have already addressed your concerns. What will you achieve in a legal battle? If you win, at what cost? Have you considered the time, energy, and peace you will be sacrificing in this fight? Your life will be consumed by thoughts of revenge day in and day out, my dear friend. Therefore, we strongly urge you to forget and forgive what has transpired and to move forward.

Additionally, please bear in mind that nothing is permanent in this world. You are not destined solely for Accenture; the world is full of opportunities awaiting you. Embrace what lies ahead.

We wish you all the best once again.

Having resigned, how can you prove it was forced? Please take such bad experiences as real lessons and move forward.

Thank you all for your advice. I know it is tremendously difficult to forget and forgive when so many outrageous incidents have happened to you, and you are incapacitated to perform any action against the wrongdoers. But I guess time will turn out to be the best healer for me, and God will deliver justice.

Mr. Madanagopalaswamy,

Your language here clearly states that you are very loyal to Accenture. You don't even know what has happened with me, and your comments clearly suggest you lack common sense and a bit of maturity. I am equally sorry to hurt you with these comments. Maybe things like this have never happened to you, and your biased response clearly manifests that. It is easy to sit in your backyard and give advice but equally difficult to follow.

Anyhow, well done for playing devil's advocate. Maybe that would win you some laurels in Accenture.

Hi,

I see that you have been terminated on the grounds of low performance. Whatever target was given to you, if you had completed that, just make a note of it and have a word with the HR manager of the company. There is no use in going for any legal complaints. It's better you try to talk to them or move on to some other companies. There are lots of companies, so it won't be an issue for you to get a job in the same industry. Be positive and move on.

This PIP thing is a common method used by all companies. They want to create documentation before termination. Find out the labor commissioner's address for the company. Write a document with all the necessary details. Avoid mentioning personal grievances against individuals; keep it objective. Only include real, provable facts.

If you have old emails from clients or HR, print them out and attach them to the document before sending it to the labor officer. In the document, list all the HR personnel who asked you to resign, including their exact words if you remember. Provide their email addresses and phone numbers.

Let's see what happens.