Is it possible to quit without working for two weeks?

The reasons for dismissal can be very different. It is believed that if such a decision is made, the employee must work for another two weeks after writing the application. But this is not entirely true: in fact, there is no obligation to work off, enshrined in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. There is an obligation for employees to notify management of their desire to resign two weeks before leaving their position. There are other subtleties regarding two-week work, as well as completely legal ways to get rid of this need. So, let's start in order.

Question: Can I quit without working for 2 weeks? I don’t have an employment contract in hand, but I work for 6 months and receive a salary. View answer

Why is training needed?

First of all, “working off” is the wrong word to refer to another 2 weeks of working time after writing a letter of resignation. In fact, the employee does not work off anything, but simply notifies the employer in a timely manner about the termination of cooperation.

Can an employee resign of his own free will without working off ?

The requirement of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation that an employee must notify his superiors about his planned departure from work is quite understandable: within two weeks, the management of the enterprise has the opportunity to find a replacement for the quitter, and the employee manages to complete his work affairs and transfer unfinished projects to his successor.

Question: Can an employer delay the dismissal of a retired employee without working until the end of the inventory when changing the financially responsible person? View answer

Employee obligations

As the law states, every employee is required to notify his supervisor of his intention to leave his position at least 14 calendar days or two weeks in advance.

The countdown begins from the date of submission of the application to the boss and his acquaintance with him. But it is worth remembering that not all employees must warn management about their desire to leave their job: those who are on a probationary period , as well as employees on seasonal or temporary contracts not exceeding two months, are not required to comply with this regulation. They only need to submit an application three days before actually leaving work.

Question: Is it legal to dismiss an employee of his own free will after two weeks, and not from the date of filing the application, as the employee indicated, despite the fact that he does not have the right to dismissal without service? View answer

For your information! For those who, by law, have the right to notify their superiors three days before dismissal, in order to speed up this process, it is most reasonable to choose a period with a large number of weekends or non-working holidays when leaving work. This is very convenient: I wrote an application before holidays or weekends and after them I am already free.

Is it possible to fire an employee without working for two weeks?

Above, we examined the reasons that oblige an employer to fire an employee in one day. But the director may consider other reasons valid or simply meet the employee halfway and immediately sign the application.

An employer can dismiss an employee on the day the application is submitted, without working off. In this case, the basis for dismissal will change - dismissal by agreement of the parties. Dismissal by agreement of the parties differs in that, in addition to the order, a dismissal agreement is signed with the employee.

If the dismissal is formalized simply with a “Dismiss” visa on the application, write in the work book - the employment contract was terminated at the initiative of the employee, clause 3. Art. 77 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
If an agreement is signed with the employee and an order is issued, the employment contract is terminated by agreement of the parties, clause 1 of Art. 77 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

In judicial practice, there are cases when employers force an employee to sign a statement on his own, while putting down false dates. It is unacceptable! Only an employee can initiate an application at his own request. Such requests from superiors are illegal and can easily be challenged in court. The least that a violator faces is payment to the employee of the average salary for the entire period of forced absence.

Ways to avoid two-week detention

There are a number of options that allow you to leave your job without prior notice to management.

A voluntary decision by management to release an employee from two weeks of work. If you have a good relationship with your boss, then you can approach him and try to come to an agreement. Quite often, managers accommodate their employees, especially if they have some important and valid reasons for urgently leaving work. It happens that the director signs a dismissal order the very next day after submitting the application. Therefore, you should not neglect this option, as practice shows - this is the simplest and most painless way of dismissal without working off. By the way, if, on the contrary, the relationship with the management is bad, this method can also work - not every director will want to keep an unpleasant person on the company’s staff for extra days.
Special circumstances. If the boss is not ready for negotiations and has no desire to put himself in the position of the employee, then there are still ways to leave the position without working out. There are categories of employees who, due to current circumstances, are in principle not obliged to warn management about their upcoming dismissal. These include:
employees upon reaching retirement age;
conscripts for military service;
employees whose rights have been repeatedly violated by the employer. However, evidence of this must be recorded in some documents. Excess of authority by superiors, violation of articles of the Labor Code, or some other unlawful actions - all this may be grounds for an employee to leave his position without prior notice to management.
Other reasons. For example, if an employee has serious health problems or special circumstances in the family and some aspects of his personal life, he may well leave work without notice. It could be:
an employee’s change of region of permanent residence, including due to a sharp deterioration in health;
pregnancy; (

Going on vacation: dismissal without notice

Another way to leave work without subsequent work is to go on vacation (including at your own expense).

This option is also possible if the vacation has not yet been used, because According to the Labor Code, upon dismissal, management is obliged to provide an employee with two options for vacation compensation: either pay vacation pay in monetary terms, or provide vacation for a period of two weeks of work. In any case, it is better to coordinate your choice with your manager in advance. However, even if an agreement fails, management does not have the legal right not to allow an employee to go on vacation, just as there is no right to refuse to fire him immediately after returning from vacation.

Sick leave instead of working off

The Labor Code of the Russian Federation nowhere directly states that after writing a letter of resignation, an employee must work for two weeks. This is most likely due to the fact that the law protects the rights of hired personnel more than employers. In fact, the above fact is a loophole for those who do not want to work out under any circumstances. For example, many quitters use sick leave as a way to leave a position without prior notice to their superiors.

Everything is done very simply: the employee writes a letter of resignation, and then goes to the clinic and registers sick leave there.

Thus, the certificate issued by the doctors will indicate the time frame within which the employee is released from work. And since most often two weeks are given as sick leave to people with minor health problems, then after the allotted period you can safely go to the personnel department for a work book and to the accounting department for pay slips.

Dismissal of an employee without working at his own request

To dismiss an employee on your own, you need to issue an order. The order is based on the submitted application and includes its details. As the basis for dismissal, indicate - clause 3, part 1, art. 77 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

Submit your dismissal order no later than your last day of work. But keep in mind that the accounting department must prepare for the dismissal of an employee and make all the necessary payments and calculations. Therefore, it is better to issue an order in advance. Together with the order, a note-calculation is drawn up. Familiarize the resigning employee with the order; if it is impossible to obtain his signature, make an appropriate note. Before issuing it, make a note of dismissal in your work book indicating the article.

Even if the employee has not worked the required period, he retains all rights. On the last working day, it must be calculated, wages, vacation pay and compensation, if any, must be issued, and all documents must be submitted. The employee also retains the right to appeal to the prosecutor's office or to court if management violates his rights.

For all days of delay in payment, management must pay the average salary. The work book must also be returned on time, otherwise you will have to compensate for material damage for each day the book is retained, because its absence does not allow you to get a new job. The date of dismissal is entered in the book as a number when the employee receives it. If the employee did not come for the book and refused to receive it by mail, the employer has no responsibility.

Calculate salaries and prepare personnel documents in Kontur.Accounting. Accounting, taxes, salaries, reporting sent via the Internet in one online service. Get free access for 14 days

Dismissal due to employer violations

If the terms of the employment contract are violated by the employer, 2 weeks notice is not required; you can stop working immediately. However, you should not look for violations to avoid a two-week conscription - there are other legally acceptable ways. In addition, for such dismissal to be lawful, the fact of violation of the terms of the employment contract must be recorded and proven.

To do this, an unfairly offended employee must take a number of procedural actions: file a complaint with the relevant authorities (trade union, labor dispute commission, etc.) and wait for the results of the inspection. The results will not necessarily be in favor of the employee: often the employer’s violations are controversial and unprovable. In this case, the employee’s only option is to go to court.

If the employer does not accept the application

If the employer, for any reason, refuses to accept a request to stop working, we recommend following the following algorithm:

Send the document by registered mail with acknowledgment of receipt.
Work until the date of dismissal; on the last day, the employer is obliged to make payments and issue all necessary documents.
If the payment has not been made and the documents have not been issued, file a complaint with the labor inspectorate, trade union, prosecutor's office or court.

In case of litigation, the costs are paid by the unscrupulous employer. And if it is proven that the employer’s actions led to losses due to the inability to work, the plaintiff is entitled to compensation for moral damages.

Dismissal through court

Sometimes it happens that the management of an organization does not want to let an employee go without work, even if the latter has all the necessary legal grounds, documents and certificates for this.

In this case, to restore justice, the employee has the right to go to court. However, this is not always appropriate, since court proceedings usually last several months and take too much effort and time from the parties. It is much easier for the parties to try to agree on dismissal without working on a voluntary basis. This, among other things, will help maintain good relations between them.

To summarize, we can say that dismissal without service is quite possible. There are legal methods for this that require documentary confirmation from the resigning party, as well as some legal loopholes. With the right approach, any employee can find a way to leave work without prior warning to their employer.

What if you change your mind about quitting?

The application has been written, two weeks have not yet passed, but the employee’s plans to leave the employer have changed? That happens. What to do in this case, if the employer has nothing against continuing the working relationship?

The law allows the resignation letter to be withdrawn any day before the date specified in it. Two weeks before “hour X” is not a special “buffer zone”, but ordinary working days, during which the employee enjoys all the rights of an officially employed person. There are some important nuances to consider.

If you intended to take leave before leaving work and change your mind, it is advisable to withdraw your application before the start of your leave.
If the boss says that he has already invited a new employee to take your place, demand a written agreement - mere words are not grounds for refusing to withdraw your resignation letter.
If the resignation letter was written forcedly and under pressure, it can also be withdrawn. If management refuses to return the application, and this most often happens, ask for a written refusal explaining the reasons.
In all cases where the employer interferes with the employee’s legal right to withdraw his application within the prescribed period, he can go to court. Judicial precedents indicate that in such cases, judges most often side with the hired personnel.

If two weeks have passed, you have not withdrawn your application, and your boss is also not against you staying, you can simply continue working as usual - no additional steps are required to complete the application. Since there was no order or issuance of a work book, the dismissal did not officially take place, the application simply becomes invalid.

Dismissal under a fixed-term contract or from seasonal work

In Art. 292 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation states that an employee with an employment contract for a period of up to two months (fixed-term contract) is obliged to notify the employer of the desire to end the relationship at least 3 calendar days in advance.

A fixed-term contract can be concluded not for a specific date, but on a condition - for example, while the employee whose job is being retained is absent. For example, this is done when it is necessary to replace the functions of an employee during maternity leave. The employee notifies the employer of his desire to resign 3 days in advance. If the employee returns, then the colleague replacing him does not need to work out anything - the employment contract is terminated on the same day.

Convenient tools for recording personnel events, generating orders and other documents

If the employment contract is concluded for seasonal work, the notice period is similar - 3 calendar days. They do this in writing. The process is regulated by Art. 296 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.