When and how to resign?

If you are free to leave, resigning still requires a minimum of organization and compliance with certain rules so that your resignation takes place under the best possible conditions.

What do you mean by resignation?

A resignation is the fact of interrupting your employment contract intentionally and solely because of you. It must not be known or forced by the employer and must not take any other form. Thus, any abandonment of position or unjustified absence from your work cannot be considered as a resignation, and may give rise to dismissal for serious misconduct or for real and serious cause on the part of your employer. Furthermore, your resignation must not be made with the intention of harming your employer, under pain of condemnation to pay damages to the latter.

How to resign?

Notify your manager first

One of the first steps to take, once your resignation has been decided, is to first inform your responsible direct. To do this, make a formal appointment with him to explain your decision. Even if you don’t have to justify yourself, you can still explain your choice to him in order to stay on good terms.

Clearly state your desire to resign

An employee who resigns is an employee who wishes to terminate his employment contract. This choice must result from a real desire of the employee to leave the company and must be unequivocal. The employer must not be aware of your intentions to resign and you must prove your willingness to leave your position. For this, even if legally nothing formalizes a resignation, it is recommended to send your letter of resignation with acknowledgment of receipt to your manager. Indeed, if your resignation is not clearly established, the employer can requalify it as a formal act of termination, resulting in dismissal without real and serious cause by the Labour Court.

If your employment contract or your collective agreement does not impose formalism in the event of resignation, you can quite simply inform your manager orally, but it is better for you to write. An email, or a handwritten or computerized letter, is preferred.

If, on the other hand, you have written obligations in terms of resignation, comply with the rules imposed by your employer so that your resignation goes smoothly.

Give notice

Even if you want to resign and leave your job, you cannot leave overnight. Indeed, you will have to respect a notice period generally defined in the collective agreement of the company or by the practices practiced in certain professions. It is generally set at one month for technicians and three months for executives. In some cases, the employer can exempt his employee from notice, who can then leave the company immediately. The employer will then have to pay him compensation for notice, equivalent to the salary that the employee would have received if he had completed his notice period.

What are my rights when I resign?

Once your resignation has been presented and accepted by your employer, you will be entitled to the payment of certain indemnities. If you still have days of leave to take before the announcement of your resignation, you will then be able to benefit from compensatory allowances for paid leave. If you are concerned, you can also claim compensation from the non-competition clause, unless your employer has waived this claim. Concerning the rights to unemployment, if your resignation is carried out in good and due form, that is to say by your doing, in a clear and unequivocal manner, then you will not be able to benefit from unemployment. On the other hand, if you have been forced to resign or if your resignation is due to non-payment of salary by your employer, you will be able to claim payment of your unemployment benefits.

Resignation: can I retract?

In the vast majority of cases, resignation results from a thoughtful, deliberate and unequivocal act on the part of the employee. However, case law accepts that the employee can reconsider his decision if his resignation was given on a whim, during a fit of anger, on pressure of the employer or if the employee was not in his normal state. In these cases, when the resignation is neither clear nor equivocal, the employee may make an act of withdrawal provided that he notifies his employer within a very short time, preferably in writing. The employer then has an obligation to reinstate the employee. In case of refusal on the part of the employer, the employee will be able to seize the Labor Court. The employer will then have to assume the legal and financial consequences of his refusal, generally with the payment of compensation.

Is it possible to resign from a CDD contract?

A CDD contract, which defines a start date and an end date of the contract, does not generally give the right to resign. However, there is an exception, when you justify hiring on a permanent contract. This CDI can be signed in a company other than the one for which you make your CDD. According to’article L1243-2 of the Labor Code, the employee must respect a notice period not exceeding two weeks. We usually talk about authorized early termination of a fixed-term contract and not resignation. The employee can also request an early termination of his contract in the event of serious misconduct on the part of the employer, to follow training or to take up another job (in the context of specific fixed-term contracts such as the employment support contract or the employment initiative contract). The employee and the boss then sign a joint agreement for early termination of the contract.