Withdrawal of Resignation on retention agreement - not fulfilled - Is the previous resignation still valid?

Dear HR Guru's,

Below is my situation and would appreciate your advise.

1. Dropped Resignation notice with my current employer before 2 months and notice period is 3 months.
2. After a week of the Resignation date, during the Retention discussion, they agreed to provide onsite travel within a month.
3. Based on the agreement I withdraw my resignation
4. Now it's been 2 months since my Resignation date, they are not providing the travel.

My questions:

1. Is the previous resignation still valid? As my employer failed to fulfill the retention agreement, can I activate my resignation again?
2. Or do I need to serve the notice period of 3 months again if I need to exit from the company?

Please advise. Thank you!

Dear member,

The replies to your questions are as below:

1. Is the previous resignation is still valid ? As my employer failed to fulfill the retention agreement, can i activate my resignation again ?

Reply: - After submitting your resignation, you had a discussion with the employer. You were given a commitment that you would be given on-site travel. How was the commitment given? Was it verbal or written? Whether verbal or written, was there a clause linking a letter of resignation with the reneging on the commitment? If the agreement explicitly mentions that the letter of resignation will remain active and it will lapse provided the company is able to provide 'x' number of on-site travel in 'y' amount of time period. If it is not mentioned clearly, then the withdrawal of the letter of resignation will be construed as your willingness to continue with the company.

2. Or do i need to serve notice period of 3 months again if i need to exit from the company?

Reply: - We the members of this forum, do not know what transpired in the discussions that followed after your resignation and after the discussion what commitment was given. Against this backdrop, it will be difficult to give comments. Nevertheless, prima facie, it appears that the withdrawal of the resignation is final. Therefore, the conditions of separation mentioned in your appointment letter are final. You need to submit a letter of resignation afresh and you also need to serve a notice period of 3 months.

General Comments: - These comments are not for the originator of the post but for his/her company. The commitments are for honouring and if these are dishonoured, it destroys the trust of the employee in the company. Now, the news of backing out by the company might have been spread to the other employees. Therefore, incidents of this kind, create an environment of distrust in the company. Nowadays, a lot of talk goes on on employee engagement. However, the company administration has to understand that trust is the foundation on which a structure of employee engagement is raised. Without trust, engagement just crumble!

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Hello - the answer is a simple yes. Your previous resignation stands annulled when you withdrew it.

Please note that generally the retention clauses are at the discretion of an employer to fulfil or partly fulfil them. They may not come to you handy and employers may cite plethora of reasons including lack of resources, business justifications for not doing do. They are right in doing that and you have accepted the retention agreement, so please abide by it now.

For you, what is imperative is - please internalize what is the reason of your job change. If you want to make a career move now - you have to serve a notice period of 3 Months afresh plus any clauses mentioned in your retention agreement barring you from taking certain actions, etc.

Thank you.