Dangers of forced resignation

to a firing is couched as a resignation, workers are often left wondering just where they stand.
First, there’s the emotional shock of being out of a job, of questioning one’s self-worth and having to tell one’s relatives and friends that at least for a time you are unemployed. Then, there are questions about the specifics of the departure and what about minimising the damage from the demise of one job as you head on to the next.
Forced resignation or “squeezing out” is when an employee is required to depart from their position due to some issue caused by their continued employment.
A forced resignation may be due to the employer’s wishes to dismiss the employee, but the employer may be offering a softened firing. In a high-profile position, the employee may want to leave before the Press learns more negative information about one’s controversial nature.
To avoid this and to allow the dismissed employee to “save face” in a more “graceful” exit, the employer will often ask the employee to resign “voluntarily” from their position. If the employee chooses not to resign, the processes necessary to fire them may be pursued, and the employee will usually be fired. The resignation thus makes it unclear whether the resignation was forced or voluntary and this opaqueness may benefit both parties.
It can also be explained as a situation whereby employee resigns because their company or one or more of their representatives, such as a supervisor, director, etc, is intentionally creating a situation where the employee’s work environment is so hostile and intolerable that there is no way the person can stand to show up on the job anymore. In those cases, it can be argued that the worker was a victim of calculated move. In other words, they were forced to resign because it was the only reasonable choice, considering the circumstances. Some bullish and stupid employers even swear . . .“it’s either you resign or you face disciplinary hearing committee and either way, you are going home anyway”.
Below is one classical case of forced resignation that I came across. This is a senior manager at one of big organisations in our country and had this to say:
“The person who previously held my position was very well liked, so much in fact that he was regularly invited to office social functions. I was having trouble with the lack of training and feedback. Co-workers were difficult when I had questions and I usually was only given small bits of information that I needed in a rapid-fire pace as I frantically tried to take notes. Even though I am a person who takes initiative, I was told I was doing things the wrong way and sent down another directionless path. Eventually I stopped really trying. I normally am a confident person, but I found my ego in tatters and the stress of walking on eggshells was taking a toll on my health. As it turned out, my wife was offered a promotion, which would take us all out of the area in October and that was a dream comes true.
“However, before I could tender my resignation, my supervisor and an HR representative showed up at my office door and announced that ‘it wasn’t working out’ and that they decided on a separation of me from the company. I was happy to be able to announce that I was planning a move in October and would be resigning. It was agreed that I would resign that day. The next day, a co-worker called to tell me that the previous holder of my position was being welcomed back the next day.
“I don’t want the job back, but I feel I was truly being set up to fail, especially since the boss and former employee were having lunch together last week. I know I wasn’t doing my best work, but I didn’t think it was worth being fired over. My tasks were completed on time and correctly but a scenario to see me out of the gate was created and as I speak I am watching TV at home pondering my next move.”
Suppose you have an employee you want to get rid of for a variety of reasons, but you’re worried that firing her might look like race or age or gender discrimination. So you try to force her out. You re-assign her to a windowless office half the size of what she had. You assign her the least desirable work. You tell other employees to shun her. After a few weeks, she quits.
Then . . . surprise! You get slapped with the lawsuit you feared. The employee’s action relies on the legal concept of “constructive discharge”. It means that conditions at work had become so intolerable that any reasonable person would have quit. It doesn’t matter whether you fired her or she threw in the towel; if a court rules the circumstances a constructive discharge, you’re just as liable. In terms of the Labour Act Chapter 28:01 Section 12B (3) (a), an employee who feels squeezed out because of circumstances may still resign and sue for constructive dismissal. In other words, forced resignation is just as good as unfair dismissal.
Apart from the above some employers also usually give the employee an unreasonably difficult assignment hoping she will fail or materially unilaterally change the employee’s job content, arbitrarily demote or unjustly appraise the employee; sabotage or frustrate the employee’s attempts to get the job done. Some simply “kick you up” through fake promotion, given an “advisor or consultant position” and an empty job description so that you will have nothing to do, but read many newspapers and magazines. All those who used to report to you no longer report to you; all those documents you used to authorise, no longer finding their way to your desk, the status is gone and no more decision-making and instead your former junior has taken over and now attending those high-profile meetings that you used to attend and you can only attend by “special” invitation. By the end of the day you find yourself irrelevant and may decide to go as a result.
Where an employee is forced to resign, because the alternative would be dismissal by the employer, the employee can still claim unfair or wrongful dismissal. If you feel that you have to resign (e.g. because of dangerous working conditions or your employer’s behaviour), you may be able to claim constructive dismissal. If you are thinking about claiming constructive dismissal, you should raise the problem as a grievance before you resign. If you don’t, an Employment Tribunal can refuse to hear your constructive dismissal claim or reduce the amount of compensation you receive. Be careful, though, because constructive dismissal is not always easy to prove. Forcing employees to resign will also cost you lots of money.
Disclaimer: I do not accept any liability for any damages or losses suffered as a result of actions taken based on information contained herein. The information contained herein does not serve as alternative to legal advice.

Taurai Musakaruka is Human Resources Practitioner. Feedback e-mail:[email protected]