“Newsom’s original request for resignation letters came as a surprise to many and angered some so much that they are refusing to comply with the request…
“There’s nothing about this that I regret,” Newsom said Thursday. “In fact, I wish I had thought about this earlier because some folks have come with a renewed sense of purpose into my office and an understanding … now they get that this is a team.””
I can’t figure out what the point was, if not to make his staff resent him.
Do the letters have any legal meaning?
Can’t he fire these people any day of the week with no letter?
I’m positive you still get the same unemployment and retirement benefits whether you are fired or asked to resign, absolutely no difference there.
Just a WAG, but if you are fired, there is always the possibility that you could claim that you were fired due to discrimination. I am not sure that the strategy above protects the employer, but it might. In any case it might make it more difficult to pursue a lawsuit.
A coerced resignation isn’t going to prevent an unemployment claim, and it’s not going to have any meaningful effect on discrimination lawsuits. Especially if it is an open-ended one, like these are.
The jobs seem varied enough that some of them might require some sort of advice and consent or generate an administrative review; most probably don’t.
This seems to be a symbolic thing–“I serve at your will, you may replace me at your whim.” And it seems to have been done because the mayor is considering a house-cleaning when he is re-elected.