A business owner publicly blasted an employee after she resigned without notice after just a week in the job.
The working mother revealed how the staff member quit the £36,000-a-year role in a text message after the induction week, saying that she had ‘realised it wasn’t for her’.
Taking to Mumsnet the boss explained that even though the new recruit didn’t have a legal obligation to give notice, she had considered the practice ‘common decency’, adding that her sudden departure had left the department in the lurch.
The post divided users, with some agreeing that the worker had been ‘immature’ and ‘unprofessional’, while others argued that it was the poster who was in the wrong for sharing company information online.
A British employer sparked a debate on the protocol for resigning from a job after one week in the role (file image)
The woman asked users of Mumsnet if resigning by text should be seen as immature and unprofessional after their new employee quit after one week
The Mumsnet user explained the woman had quit on the Monday that she was supposed to start full time after not turning up to work.
She wrote: ‘Legally she does not have to give a notice period but this has left us in real trouble as a department… To replace her might take three months or more…
‘I think it is absolutely common decency to speak to the manager face to face and have that conversation with them. Not send a text stating you’re not coming back.
‘She followed up with a faxed letter but she broke the news by text. Am I being unreasonable to think this is immature and unprofessional?’
A large number of responses agreed quitting by text should be seen as unprofessional
She added that she is refusing to provide a reference for the former employee.
Some Mumsnet users agreed the woman was right to be outraged, writing: ‘Absolutely immature and unprofessional. But at least she has let you know, even if it was in the wrong way.’
Another wrote: ‘It’s so unprofessional to resign like this, I wonder if there’s something else going on like a family crisis, mental health breakdown etc.’
However others disagreed with her.
One person said: ‘So are you fed up with the fact that she doesn’t want the job, or how she told you? Because if it’s true it takes three months to replace a relatively low-paid member of staff with whom you didn’t sort out a notice period, then it doesn’t matter if she she’d resigned via scroll of vellum brought to you by a coach and horses.’
Others questioned the employers decision to refuse to give a reference despite not giving a notice period
Another wrote: ‘A text isn’t ideal, but after a week I really couldn’t be getting all irate over it. Your own behaviour is far more unprofessional – posting such an issue on here and then stating you’ll refuse a reference. And your predicament regarding recruitment and workload would be exactly the same whatever method she’d chosen to resign.’
Others suggested the employer looked at their company for answers why people don’t stay in the role.
One wrote: ‘I’d be less concerned about the method of resignation and more concerned about why someone could tell they didn’t want a £36,000 job at your workplace within one week of working there’.
Another person said: ‘Now it’s getting to be more like an employees market rather than employers, companies struggling to recruit are getting a taste of their own medicine’.
Some people advised the employer to consider why new staff members would’t want to stay in the role