A good friend of ours (Marty) works for Huge Mortgage Company X and is giving his two weeks. He know’s full well that after he gives his two weeks he will be asked to immediately clean out his belongings and will be escorted to the door.
No biggy, I can understand they don’t want him sending a nationwide email to everyone saying F-You or whatever… Granted he wouldn’t do that, they know that, but they are covering their own ass.
Here’s the catch: He get’s a commission check the day he is leaving…can they rescind the funds? Could they legally hold them back, or take them back after they have been sent? He is thinking he will take out the funds in cash so they cannot rescind them, I told him I doubted they would do such a thing…but I suppose one never knows… Could they actually try and rescind payment after it has been transferred?
IANAL, but if this is in the US I’m pretty sure he is entitled to any and all compensation for work he has already performed.
In most cases I have been aware of – where an employee gives 2 weeks notice and is asked to leave immediately – the employer will give (at least) 2 weeks severance pay, but they are under no legal obligation to do so.
Duke of Rat has a good idea. I’m guessing the check is cut on either Friday, being the last business day of the month, or Monday, being the first. Why not get the check, cash it, then give notice on, say, Tuesday?
I’m going to shoot from the hip. A commission is earned as you earn it (if that makes sense) rather than when the company pays out their commission checks. Thus, withholding his commission would be the same as withholding his salary for days that he had already worked.
E.g. Guy quits on Friday. Company doesn’t want to give him his pay check. Tough luck for the company, he worked all week - he earned it.
Same situation here, in my non-legal, non-researched, and non-binding opinion. He worked for the company, making deals and whatnot, earning commissions. It’s already earned - and he’s entitled to it.
By the way - as a corollary - I don’t think that a Huge Mortgage company is going to try and stiff him out of his commission just because he tendered his two weeks. There’s a couple of reasons for that:
(1) it looks terrible to the other employees at the Mortgage Company.
(2) it could open them up to litigation.
I think your friend gives his two weeks, they’ll probably be pretty professional about it.
I could see an argument that if he doesn’t work his last two weeks, he shouldn’t be paid for it. I don’t agree with that argument, but I could see it.
As for the commission, he’s already earned it. It’s for stuff he’s already sold. I can’t see any legal argument whatsoever for withholding it from him.
In the states where I’ve researched the issue (not CT), the state’s labor laws provide strong protections to protect wages and sales commission compensation, including specific provisions requiring payment of money earned after employee termination. Most laws have strong penalties (often including double or triple damages plus attorney’s fees) against employers who violate these labor laws.
I would say that it is unlikely that the company would try to stop a commission check after your friends resigns. If they do, the company may be in a world of hurt.
If there is a problem, your friend should call the state’s labor department. Most will represent a salesman’s on a wage complaint (though they may not for a professional or managerial employee).
Assuming that Connecticut’s labor like is like most others, your friend has strong legal protection.
If a company is likely to fire you for giving a notice fuck them. You are not required to give one if the employment is at will. Giving notice is doing them a favor. It isn’t required it’s just a courtesy. If their expected response is to fire you they don’t deserve that courtesy.
Since when is a commissioned sales person not a “professional” employee? I come from a high tech background, and sales people dressed better, made more money, had a better chance at promotion to corporate management, were more often involved in corporate strategy and planning, and in general seemed more likely to qualify for the “professional” moniker than engineers, techs, programmers, and so forth.
It probably depends on the agreement he signed regarding the rules surrounding commissions. At a company I left recently, commissions were payable upon cash received from the customer and you had to be an employee on the day the cash arrived to receive a commission.
At my wife’s company, it is policy that if someone gives their notice, and the boss finds out that they will be going to work for a competitor, they are walked out immediately BUT paid for the remainder of their time (the notice period).
In PA I was told that if I gave notice, but they immediately terminated my employment, they owed me two weeks. The reasoning was that *they *had terminated the relationship early. This was told to me by my new boss after finding out the old one had told me to stop coming in the day I gave my two weeks.
I dunno if my boss knew what he was talking about or not, but he did run a business so I think he might have had a clue.
Exactly, he is a professional, and he is in upper management sales. He is moving to a competitor and knows he will be walked out. He got his commission today - I already told him to check out this thread. And I believe he will give his notice on Monday. He will probably pull his funds into a different account.
No harm being safe, but I think it’s unlikely that he will have a problem. As others have said, “rescinding” his commission check would be like taking back the last few paychecks he cashed once he gives notice. It’s just not done.