‘They don’t want to let me go’: Fresh grad says her employer won’t allow her to resign even after she offered to pay her notice period

SINGAPORE: A fresh graduate who has only been with her company for four months shared on Reddit that she is now caught in a rather stressful standoff with her employer because they refused to let her resign immediately, even though she was fully prepared to pay off her notice period.

Sharing her dilemma on the r/askSingapore on Friday (Nov 21), the fresh grad said that her “dream company” had recently reached out with the role she had been working toward for years. 

“This is pretty much my dream job: dream company, role, industry, everything,” she said. “The only catch is that they need someone to start by the end of next week.”

Wanting to secure the opportunity and having enough savings to cover the notice period, she submitted her resignation and informed HR that she intended to leave immediately with salary-in-lieu.

However, to her shock, HR rejected her resignation without hesitation. In her post, she wrote that the HR representative told her the company would not accept her immediate departure because the employee handbook states that management has the right to refuse an immediate resignation if a replacement has not been found. 

She said the response caught her off guard because she had already checked her contract and knew it did not contain such a restriction.

“I said that the contract I signed doesn’t say that, it only plainly says 1 month notice OR salary-in-lieu. But the HR said that when I signed the agreement, I also agreed to the terms of the handbook.”

Confused, she revisited her employment contract and found a line that reads: 

“In the event of conflict between a term of this Agreement and a term in the Employee Handbook, this Agreement shall prevail.”

To her, this meant that the contract should override the handbook on matters where the two differ, and since the contract allows for immediate resignation with payment, she believed she was entitled to do so. She informed HR of this clause, but said they have not responded since, leaving her in limbo.

“It’s stressing me out as my dream company wants me to confirm by Monday at the latest, but I’m scared this won’t get resolved by then and I will lose my job and the offer,” she added.

Seeking advice from locals, she wrote at the end of her post, “In case HR still insists that the handbook wins, what can I do? Report to TADM/MOM? Can I do the nuclear option of just not showing up to work? Help!”

“Good news, there is no slavery in Singapore.”

In the discussion thread, several Singaporean Redditors reassured the woman that her employer has no legal right to prevent her from resigning.

One user explained, “The handbook is not legally binding; the agreement you signed is. They shouldn’t stop you from paying salary-in-lieu. You should go to TAFEP and report this.”

Another commented, “It’s a job, not prison. You can leave whenever you want. You can walk out the door right now. The most they can do is request payback for the missing month.”

A third wrote, “Good news, there is no slavery in Singapore. You are always free to resign and stop working; an employer cannot refuse your resignation. Contractually, you may have to pay a financial penalty, but it is within your human rights to leave.”

Employees have the freedom to resign at any time

According to the Employment Act, employees are legally entitled to terminate their employment at any time by either providing the required notice or paying salary in lieu of notice. It is also considered an offence for employers to prevent employees from leaving their jobs or to coerce them into staying against their will.

Read also: ‘Am I wrong?’: Singaporean man calls it quits after woman who preferred higher-earning partners kept telling him she was ‘busy’