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 Job offer withdrawn - after I’d already resigned!!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However, I’ve now been told my offer has been withdrawn with no explanation.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Also, this isn’t a dodgy company that has withdrawn my offer, one of the people who interviewed me is a well known journalist who has a senior role at the company.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.

@Bluntness100

You need to ask for your job back, I’m so sorry this has happened

My daughter says this is perfectly legal. Even if you’d signed a contract the most that would happen is they’d have to pay you your notice period. You know you shouldn’t habe resigned without the contract though.

I think ask for your job back, say you’ve rethought it and you really want to stay, don’t say it was withdrawn. It’s easier for your employer to keep you than hire new. But you need to make it look like you want to work there, and not it’s your worst case and you’re only staying because you have to.

I’d also email the new company and ask for an explanation. It could be a Covid/financial thing.

It’s not “perfectly legal” if she’s accepted an offer and satisfied the conditions attached to it. It’s a breach of contract but the problem is that the OP doesn’t really have much remedy beyond as you say the notice period entitlement which may be nothing in the first month anyway. The OP not having much by way of remedy doesn’t mean it’s “perfectly legall”.

Sorry about this OP but ultimately even if it’s illegal they can’t be forced to take you on. I know it’s embarrassing to go back to your old work but it’s better to be embarrassed than skint surely? So sorry this happened and them not even having the courtesy to explain it properly

Plus having an actual contract would have made no difference 🤷🏼‍♀️

So sorry this happened to you - I'm sure a lot of people would have been caught out in the same situation. Very strange to have an offer withdrawn like that

You haven't done anything wrong as far as I can see. In my experience, new employers sometimes send a contract prior to you starting, but not always. You had an offer subject to references which you accepted. As long as the references were fine, that forms the contract. There seems to be something dodgy and unethical in the way they've behaved. Having a complex interview process and then this inconsistent attitude to the actual job is suspicious.
Approach your old employer saying you've made a mistake and would like to retract your resignation (I'm sure you've done this) and contact the head of HR and the CEO of the new company in writing politely explaining the difficult situation they have put you in. A reputable company should give you some sort of reason and perhaps some recompense. There isn't much recourse in law I don't think but they might act to protect their reputation.

@2021mumma

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

In your case, you should never resign from a company at all.

The paper contract would give you very little additional protection in this situation.

[quote JuliTooley]@Bluntness100 Thank you for taking the time to ask your daughter. Based on my research it seems an employee doesn’t have many rights until they have worked for a company for 2 years, which is one of the reasons I decided to accept not having a contact in hand. It didn’t seem to offer much protection anyway.

@Eeve @islockdownoveryet @LApprentiSorcier Thanks all, I will give it a go. I don’t think the CEO will be impressed, although I think my line manager will support me.[/quote]
Correct OP. It doesn’t, unless the contract had say a longer notice period in it that they might have to pay you for.

@2021mumma

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

how do you think that protects you exactly?

You are hardly "safe" during your probation anyway

How awful for you. I worked for a very large FTSE company for many years. They were awful for starting the recruitment process and not getting final sign off from HR. They thought is was going to be a given.

Our HR were hopeless and sat on things for ages and then said NO..

I can see from Blunt - even if you had a contract its doesnt necessarily mean they are committed to you.

I'd speak to ACAS. Many places don't produce a contract until much later. A verbal agreement and your emails is as valid as a physical contract as far as I know, but I don't know how it works if you haven't started the job role yet. I'm sure we covered it in an ACAS course I went on (but only remember a few details unfortunately). I just remember being surprised that companies don't have to produce a contract from the start.
I'd also recommend speaking to your current company especially as you're still early in your notice period.

How did you get on OP? I hope that you were able to keep your current job.

No help to you but reading this thread has actually made me feel better because I recently accepted a job offer, signed the contract then resigned, but my current place then persuaded me to stay. I felt really awful having gone so far down the path with the new one only to withdraw but this has reassured me that it is standard practice to sign the new contract first.

OP, my sympathies. What a nightmare situation.

Fingers crossed that you can resolve the issue with your line manager and keep your job.

Hope you are ok OP - and do get over the embarrassment of asking for your old job back - it's more important to have an income (and it doesn't matter that they've started the hiring process to replace you, they just stop the process).

Good luck.

I also think it very odd that they wouldn't make a formal offer until you had resigned from your old job.

The same happened to me several years ago. I was young - in my 20s - and didn’t understand about having a contract. I had been offered the job via email, had a further meeting to establish my start date and show me my desk, meet the other staff etc. I resigned from my current job and was working my notice. Then six weeks later they decided they didn’t like me any more and withdrew the job offer, leaving me unemployed.

My current employer refused to keep me on as they’d already hired a replacement. I was unable to claim benefits because I’d purposely resigned from my job. I was unable to get another job at short notice. So I ended up with no income. I couldn’t pay my next months rent so I ended up with no home, and I couldn’t afford food either. I had to leave London and go back up north to sleep on my mum’s sofa. She fed me until I managed to get a job at Asda. It’s a twattish thing for an employer to do but I took legal advice and there was nothing I could do about it.

As an employer, if you were a valued and good employee, i would be jumping up and down (happy) if you wanted to come back as good, reliable, positive employees are hard to find.

But i would take the time to speak to you and find out why you wanted to leave and what we could do to make you not want to leave again.

Any update on this one have you sorted going back to you old employer?

That's terrible. Agree asking for your old job back seems to be the best option.

I hope you got your job back, OP. The new employer was disgusting.

So many people living in La La Land about ‘contracts’ in this thread.

Gosh, OP, how did it turn out in the end?

It's awful that these things happen, unfortunately it's getting worse. Join a union, at least you get legal advice for free.

Yes, I'm not sure about this 'never hand in notice until you have contract in hand' thing either. As another PP pointed out, most new employers will need a reference from your current employer as part of their pre-employment checks. Surely you should have notified them that you have a job offer before they receive a reference request?

I always ask for the job offer in writing stating role, hours and salary before I hand in notice. Even that has raised an eyebrow before which seems strange - I just want confirmation in writing of what's being offered!

With one role change it was getting dangerously close to the start date for my new role and contact had gone very quiet. I remember speaking to my current manager about it in passing (we got on well) and he had said he'd gladly take me back if it didn't work out. New employer did sort themselves out in the end but it was good to know that actually I could have withdrawn the acceptance and stayed where I was.

As long as your current employer weren't too far down the line with hiring your replacement I'm sure they'd let you stay in role.

I would absolutely retract the resignation. I'd be prepared for a bit of explanation/humble pie eating.. I expect they'd take you back over gambling on a newbie..Its totally shit but especially awful now-so got to be worht a shot! Good luck.

@Lovinglavidaloca

So many people living in La La Land about ‘contracts’ in this thread.

I agree that having a contract doesn’t really offer you much/anything in the way of job security or recourse to financial compensation if the job offer is withdrawn. I also understand that offer and acceptance via email is a form of contract anyway. Most jobs have probation as well, so you are always at risk of ending up high and dry when you decide to move to a new employer.

However I think that the benefit of signing a full contract with detailed Ts and Cs before you take any steps to resign is that you know that the new job has most likely gone through all the proper internal sign-off before the contract was drawn up. It also means that more people will have to be involved in any decision to withdraw the offer. So there is slightly more reassurance that it will not disappear.

Could it possibly be a set up?

@2021mumma

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

That's super helpful isn't it? Signing a contract wouldn't have made a difference anyway, they could still withdraw the offer after OP signed it.

@HollowTalk

Could it possibly be a set up?

yes, yes it is. 🤦