Broken Retention Promise: Can I Reinstate My Resignation and Leave Without Notice?

Dear HR Gurus, Below is my situation, and I would appreciate your advice.

1. I submitted my resignation notice to my current employer 2 months ago, and the notice period is 3 months.
2. A week after the resignation date, during a retention discussion, they agreed to provide onsite travel within a month.
3. Based on this agreement, I withdrew my resignation.
4. It has now been 2 months since my resignation date, and they have not provided the promised travel.

My questions:

1. Is my initial resignation still valid? Can I reactivate my resignation since my employer did not fulfill the retention agreement?
2. If I need to exit the company, do I have to serve the full 3-month notice period again?

Please advise. Thank you!

Dear member,

The replies to your questions are as below:

Is the previous resignation 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 travels 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.

Do I need to serve the 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 make 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 honoring, and if these are dishonored, 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 about 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 crumbles!

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

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 fulfill or partly fulfill them. They may not come in handy for you, and employers may cite a plethora of reasons, including lack of resources and business justifications for not doing so. 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 to internalize the reason for 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.