M and S resignation

[Guest]

my mum is employed at Marks and Spencer, she had a small disagreement with a manager over A shift swap On a Employee wattsapp group. The manager asked “shall I take this as your resignation” in frustration due to the issue my mum has said “yes” she then deleted my mum from the group.

my mum has chased up this incident this morning with her union rep who says the store cannot take this as a resignation. My mum was then contacted by the manager in question saying they had spoken to the store manager Who says they have spoken to people services (HR) and are happy they can take the response as her formal resignation. This does not seem correct to me? Are the union the best way to go with this?

[ULA]

What did your Mum say on the WhatsApp group that led her manager to ask whether she had resigned?

[Ely10]

Purple is my mum. Thank you for your help.
manager says she has spoken to HR etc, should/ could we ask for a copy Of that correspondence? To make sure the story the manager has told us correct.

[ULA]

I am trying to understand how when your mother says in screenshot one "OK no worries" to the "we will talk about this separately" does the conversation in the middle screenshot lead to the the person asking if your mother is resigning. Is there a missing part of the conversation. Is there a missing part to this exchange.

Why did your mother say that she agreed to resign and would bring in her notice the next day, if that was not her intention?

[Ely10]

I believe photo 3 on here is the middle part of the conversation and has posted incorrectly by me.

so would be photo 1 photo 3 photo 2 is the correct sequence.


my mum felt backed into a corner and embarrassed infront of the rest of the staff, so acted rashly in a bit of a state.

[ULA]

In my opinion unless your mother has, as per her WhatsApp message confirmed in writing her resignation, this could potentially be considered as a "heat of the moment" resignation when she was angry or upset and it may not have made a rational decision for her to terminate the employment and she might regret it. I guess the first thing to ask is does your mother want to stand by her resignation?

If not then this is may be her best "defence". In the heat of the moment resignation ideally the employer should consider giving the employee the opportunity to retract their resignation after they have had time to calm and give say a period of 24/48 hours before approaching the employee to find out they they want to stand by their resignation.

That said an employee who resigns cannot unilaterally withdraw that heat of the moment resignation just because they change their mind. It will normally be the employer’s decision, not theirs, as to whether or not they can do this, particularly if unambiguous words such as “I resign” or “I quit” have been used.

Employment tribunals have previously held that where there are "special circumstances", apparently unambiguous words should be considered in context and it would be risky for an employer to rely on that resignation without further investigation. "Special circumstances" have been held to include pressures on an employee for example, provocation or coercion by a manager.

I think the best solution for your mother is to, as soon as possible, speak to HR and explain it was a heat of the moment response to the stress and pressure of the issue regarding swapping shifts.