Employee resigning on a weekend/holiday - will their notice period start from the date of resignation?

Hi, Can someone help me understand if an employee can give their resignation on a weekend/holiday then will their notice period start from the date of resignation or next business day? Thank you in advance for your help.

Roshni - there is a very clear guideline within every Organization's resignation/ termination policies - please read through the clauses again. Typically, a resignation must be given during business days and within business hours with a written form of communication, e.g., an e-mail. Certain Organisations do not even consider resignation a valid one if it is sent from a personal e-mail ID.

Advice - please refer to your Organization's termination/ resignation guidelines as to what must be accepted as a 'valid' resignation.

Utmost advice - Please do not confront an employee with any form of hostility, it is not an ethical practice anymore and will never be appreciated. Please make the employee comfortable and communicate with ease that the resignation would be deemed effective from xyz date due to xyz policy.

Thank you.

Notice period is a period which is required by an employer to find a replacement. Alternatively from the employee side it is a period which an employee requires to get an alternative employment. As such it does not run with days but can be flexible and a day or two will not make any difference. An HR person should be practical in dealing with such situation. A written policy is only a guide to refer and you should not replicate each and every wording in your day to day man management. If you use it (The Policy) as a tool then you will be stuck if your departmental/ the functional manager of the resigned employee needs the employee to be available for two or three days more to complete the handing over process. Therefore, it is always good if you leave it as such and read it depending upon the situation.

Dear Roshni,

Logically the “notice period will start from the next date of resignation (be it weekend/Holiday).

As rightly said by MR. Madhu T.K. the notice period is given to choose the alternative option (from each side). So if employee resigns on Friday then the period (for alternative) will start from Saturday. So the weekend should be counted as notice period.
However, in respect of Mr Madhu advice related to “An HR person should be practical in dealing with such situation”. I would like to add in some cases HRs have to answerable how they dealt with the situation and what does company policy and Contract Terms apply to the situation. Hence for them it is difficult to deal in practical and more important to keep themselves in Safe position.

Dear P-Lekha Jacobs,

I observed your suggestions are describe in proper way. 1. Description of the query 2. Advice and 3. Utmost advice.
That give clear and vide ideas to the poster how to deal with the scenarios.

In this case may be there is no Resignation / Termination Policies in the establishment. Hence query raised by the poster.