Help! Job offer withdrawn - after I’d already resigned!!

[JuliTooley]

Hello,

I’m absolutely devastated right now. I accepted an amazing job offer a little over two weeks ago via email, after a round of interviews and some writing tasks.

I handed in my notice at my current job expecting my final day to be a week today, with a start date the following Monday.

I was a bit concerned as the company suddenly stopped replying to a couple of questions I asked but I assumed there was an innocent explanation.

However, I’ve now been told my offer has been withdrawn with no explanation. Is this legal? I know my references were fine, admittedly one only gives factual references as company policy (big cooperate company) but the others were good personal ones from people I’d consider friends.

I’m kicking myself right now but I don’t have an actual contract, just email exchanges confirming things such as start date and salary.

Also, this isn’t a dodgy company that has withdrawn my offer, one of the people who interviewed me is a well known journalist who has a senior role at the company.

I’m financially screwed, not to mention this is an utterly humiliating situation to explain to friends, family and colleagues.

Any advice?

Ps sorry if this rant makes no sense, I am so upset.

It seems so unfair.
An offer was made, you accepted the offer, therefore it seems to me that a contract was formed.
If you have proof of the offer and it was not subject to any further requirements ( eg references) then although you cannot make them give you the job, perhaps you could claim for breach of contract?
I don't know, I'm clutching at straws, but it could mean some recompense for the situation, if that was the case.
I would definitely attempt to withdraw my resignation
So sorry this has happened.

@2021mumma

I would never resign from a company without a contract in hand. I’m sorry but you’ve made a huge mistake here.

I'm missing how this is in any way helpful , did you post just to make the OP feel worse?

Interviewed by ceo of a well known corporate and they said they couldn't make an offer until you confirmed your start date?. What email correspondence exactly do you have and do you have anything in writing about the offer being held back until you resigned?

A well known corporate will have an HR department. Write to the HRD and ask for a copy of their recruitment procedure, noting your disappointment and the impact on you. If the company is genuine, and if you have proof of the offer etc, I believe they will deal with this in some way.

Are you able to make contact with the people that interviewed you? The high profile person? Say that you are going to suffer real financial loss due to their not honouring their contract (and emails etc can make basis of contract). It's not all he said/she said, you've been exchanging emails...
But the other question is, if they do honour the work role, do you want to work there?

I don’t think you made a mistake OP, I have never had a signed contract prior to starting a new job. Had offer letter only etc and it sounds like you have had that via your email thread.

It’s an awful thing to have happened, but not unheard of, sadly. One of the reasons I have always left previous employers on good terms, new opportunities don’t always work out, I have gone back to previous employers in the past.

Please don’t feel you are anyway at fault. Wishing you all the very best for the future.

Never ever ever hand in any notice until you have received an unconditional offer from a new employer, accepted and had it confirmed in writing because companies do change their minds.

@Ch3rish maybe someone else will read this post also with a job offer and wait for a contract before resigning. OP has acted too hastily, in past I’ve been asked by recruitment companies have you handed in your notice yet, and I’ve said not till I have a contract. Then the contract swiftly arrives. I know of job retractions before and it makes a big difference if you have a contract or not.

What big difference does it make? Only your notice pay which in many places is only a week or two until you pass probation.

I don’t understand how you can wait until references have cleared before resigning. My last background check was conditional on my current employer (as in the one I was about to leave) providing a reference. The background check agency contacted my manager identifying themselves as engaged on behalf of company X to check my reference. So how would one be able to get away with that and not resign first?

I can't believe you were treated so badly by a company with that kind of profile. How utterly unfair of them and stressful for you.

Best of luck with your line manager (and CEO!).

Am so sorry op. Something similar happened to dh. Their explanation was that his personality would not fit in. It was a reputable international NGO too. One that I interact with a lot lately. DH refused to take further action then covid hit n now it's been 18 months since he last had a job. It's awful. Just wanted to say don't be too hard on yourself

This happened to my friend with a relatively large global company at the beginning of the pandemic. She had a contract in place and it was still a pain to get support from the company who had left her high and dry (the company she handed in her notice to had already got to offer stage with a replacement so didn't offer her job back). In the end she did got 3 months salary paid by the new company but like I said, it wasn't easy and she had access to free legal help as my OH is a solicitor.

Unfortunately it can happen to anyone at anytime in recruitment. Don't beat yourself up but lesson learnt; just start looking again and perhaps sign up to job seekers or any other benefit that could help you right now x

To all of those saying OP should have waited for a signed contract it makes very little difference. They can still withdraw and the max they’d have to pay is your notice period, which could be one week during probation.

Don’t best yourself up OP. At least your potential new employers showed who they were before you started working for them.

Try to withdraw your notice and good luck.

Op if you have an offer in writing (even over email) then it is a contract of sorts. Of course full t&cs help but it is common to wait to have full info before drawing up full t&cs, such as start date etc.

Legally there isn't a huge amount you could do, however it's also not uncommon for big companies to payoff someone in this position to save their reputation and risk of being accused of discrimination (which you can do at any point, you don't have to wait 2 years).

Best bet is to speak to your current employer about staying, they will want assurance that you won't still be looking elsewhere and leave again in a month though. At the same time, speak to Acas for free advice on approaching the company you were due to start with.

It's legal alright. Happened to me at the end of 2019. Left my boring but secure retail job to start a new one in insurance. Offer was suddenly pulled a week before the start date.

i think you will have to eat humble pie,
get a good lie about why you want to stay

Hope you manage to keep your current job

@turnitonagain

I don’t understand how you can wait until references have cleared before resigning. My last background check was conditional on my current employer (as in the one I was about to leave) providing a reference. The background check agency contacted my manager identifying themselves as engaged on behalf of company X to check my reference. So how would one be able to get away with that and not resign first?

You inform your currently employer. It’s incredibly unprofessional just use someone as a reference without their permission anyway.

OP I know it feels embarrassing but it’s surprisingly less rare than you’d think. I’ve had staff ask to retract their resignations a couple of times. On both occasions, even tho I’d started recruitment, I was happy not to have to go through it because it takes SO much time to recruit and train up someone new.

Big girl pants up and go for it.

Try to let go of the other company. They know it’s unprofessional, they’re doing it anyway and nothing you say to them will change that - it’ll just continue to eat away at you.

Good luck.

I thought you just had to accept the written offer not actually sign a contract. I've never been given my contracts until first day on the new job all the way to nearly two weeks later after starting.
I had an offer withdrawn after accepting an offer. They sent me the offer by email, I replyed to accept the offer by email. They actually paniced and tried to get me to take a similar role in one of their other locations.

A similar thing happened to me once. I resigned, let my team know I was leaving and my new job fell through.

I asked for my old job back and my manager agreed to allow me to withdraw my resignation. It was embarrassing and I hated having to explain it to everyone. But in a few days it was old news and forgotten. My colleagues were mainly relieved I was staying. Hold your head up you've done nothing wrong. Hope everything works out for you.

@SmallPrawnEnergy I did inform my manager. But just to raise that for many jobs it’s impossible to wait until you have a final signed contract before resigning because the contract is contingent on a background check from a the position being exited.

I feel companies put new employees in a difficult situation as a result. They either resign before signing or they don’t resign but tell their manager that they have a job offer - which could lead to issues as well. I worked at a company where no one with one specific manager ever made it through their notice period as he’d become hostile towards them.

Hi op, been wondering how you got on?! X

What questions did you ask? I bet it’s the questions! My boss is a nightmare for reading into things and imagining problems where there really are none!!

I hope you managed to sort this op