This interesting case in the Employment Tribunal highlights the importance of employers following a fair process, even in a situation where the founder of the company appeared to have resigned in a “heat-of-the-moment” decision.

Despite the Managing Director storming out of a fractious company meeting shouting “I won’t be back”, the Tribunal held that the company had not acted reasonably in its refusal to consider the employee’s attempts to retract his “resignation” the following day.  It was also considered relevant that directors resigning from the company had previously been given a cooling-off period to consider their decision, which was not offered in relation to the Managing Director.

When dealing with verbal resignations – especially those made in anger – employers should always consider requiring the employee to confirm the position by providing a written resignation as well, to help avoid the situation faced by the employer in this case.

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