<story><title>Someone forged my resignation letter</title><url>https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/91643/someone-forged-my-resignation-letter</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>skrebbel</author><text>Hardly related, but does anyone know why resignation letters are so popular in the first place? When I quit the only job I ever had, I went to my boss and told him I wanted to quit. We had a constructive conversation.&lt;p&gt;Now, this company has a very strong &amp;quot;talk about it&amp;quot; culture, with super supportive management, etc. No bureaucracy or paperwork anywhere. Nevertheless, my boss was totally surprised that I wanted to &lt;i&gt;talk&lt;/i&gt; about resigning. Pleasantly surprised I might add, but still: In his entire career, every employee who had left had written a letter and left it at that.&lt;p&gt;Why do it that way? Of course I understand if there&amp;#x27;s fundamental disagreements or deep unhappiness, it&amp;#x27;s a good way to keep emotions out of the way. But that wasn&amp;#x27;t the case here, and everybody I know who left that company left it on good terms.&lt;p&gt;I ask because I&amp;#x27;m an employer now. I try to be a good and open-minded boss, and I&amp;#x27;d much rather have someone tell me what&amp;#x27;s going on than receive a letter out of the blue. Is this wishful thinking?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pm215</author><text>I (and the people I know) write resignation letters because it makes the intention clear (I really am resigning, not just sounding off because I&amp;#x27;m annoyed or discussing possibilities). It also gets the facts down in writing in case of later possible confusion or dispute: in particular it ought to say &amp;quot;my notice period is X and I have Y days of leave outstanding, so my final day of work will be Z&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;Basically leaving work is a formal change in status that deserves to be memorialized in writing, just as the initial contract should be in writing and any subsequent changes would. That doesn&amp;#x27;t mean I wouldn&amp;#x27;t also talk to my manager, but the letter is important too I think.</text></comment>
<story><title>Someone forged my resignation letter</title><url>https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/91643/someone-forged-my-resignation-letter</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>skrebbel</author><text>Hardly related, but does anyone know why resignation letters are so popular in the first place? When I quit the only job I ever had, I went to my boss and told him I wanted to quit. We had a constructive conversation.&lt;p&gt;Now, this company has a very strong &amp;quot;talk about it&amp;quot; culture, with super supportive management, etc. No bureaucracy or paperwork anywhere. Nevertheless, my boss was totally surprised that I wanted to &lt;i&gt;talk&lt;/i&gt; about resigning. Pleasantly surprised I might add, but still: In his entire career, every employee who had left had written a letter and left it at that.&lt;p&gt;Why do it that way? Of course I understand if there&amp;#x27;s fundamental disagreements or deep unhappiness, it&amp;#x27;s a good way to keep emotions out of the way. But that wasn&amp;#x27;t the case here, and everybody I know who left that company left it on good terms.&lt;p&gt;I ask because I&amp;#x27;m an employer now. I try to be a good and open-minded boss, and I&amp;#x27;d much rather have someone tell me what&amp;#x27;s going on than receive a letter out of the blue. Is this wishful thinking?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>michaelt</author><text>&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  does anyone know why resignation letters are
  so popular in the first place?
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
My employment contract literally says &amp;quot;Your employment may be terminated either by you or by us by providing X weeks written notice&amp;quot; and while I could work to get that language changed, I don&amp;#x27;t imagine such a change would deliver measurable business benefits.&lt;p&gt;I suspect many employment contracts are the same, lawyers having seen that clause in some 25-year-old textbook.</text></comment>