How does this benefit either party, especially if it is a high profile one where everybody knows what’s going on?
I know “being fired” doesn’t look good on a resume, but are famous people really worried about their resume? And why is “the boss” being so kind, normal schlubs don’t get that.
Does “You can’t fire me, I QUIT” really work for anyone? Can you tell an employer you resigned if they fired you and you hand in a resignation letter?
I know of a guy who resigned rather than being fired. My (well-known) employer isn’t particularly famous for firing people willy-nilly and anyway, under French law, you can’t fire people without a good reason. Having been fired would very probably have made prospective future employers very suspicious, so it was better for him, and firing him could have led to a mess for our employer and possibly end up in court (the reason was that he had started a relationship with a subordinate and they would both be repeatedly absent for long periods during the day to pursue this romance), so it was better for the employer too. When I think of it, it was probably also better for the subordinate, who wasn’t fired.
Win-win, basically.
It varies greatly between positions, but a person who resigns may forego a severance package (or not), and having a signed resignation limits future claims of unlawful termination.
When our HR department decided to fire one of my employees, they gave her the opportunity to resign instead of being fired. She took it. My guess (and it’s just a guess) is that it would make things easier for the company if she had decided to sue later on.
Sometimes you will be offered a severance package if you resign and leave quietly. If you turn it down, you’ll be fired and probably not have as good (or any) severance deal at all.
My last full-time employer didn’t fire anyone. Instead they eliminated that person’s position and the next day, instead of a “Production Manager” there was a “Manager, Production” in that cubicle.
At my old job, one manager heard he was being fired. He called his staff together in the middle of the day, announced his departure for family reasons. He left before lunch, avoiding being fired for theft.
From what I understand, when looking for future jobs, it looks better to have left of your own accord, rather than being fired for cause. So if a company isn’t just monumentally pissed at you, they’ll often show you the door, but let you wind stuff up / find a replacement, and resign of your own accord.
So I think generally speaking, it’s a way for everyone to save face and not wreck anyone’s career. Which is kind of unfortunate; there are several executives who fucked up parts of the company I used to work for beyond repair, but due to this practice, they managed to get equivalent positions elsewhere, when they really should have had to suffer a pretty serious demotion for that level of stupidity.
Often it is to the companies advantage to avoid getting the question: why was he fired?
Often the company can’t answer that question publicly and resigning forestalls many rumors and guesses.
It is usually easier on everyone unless there is a clear reason that everyone understands.
My company will confirm dates of employment and that’s it. Doesn’t matter what terms the employee left on. I suspect that many if not most companies have similar policies. When I left my last job, 25 years ago, they said that they would tell prospective employers that they would hire me back. I doubt that they still do that.
Yep, I’ve seen it multiple times. ‘Resignation in lieu of termination’ for the employee can preserve later retirement benefits and make it a tad easier to get another job. For the employer it helps mitigate against a wrongful termination lawsuit. I’d assume few lawyers are going to take on a gig like that( especially on contingency )if the company can say the employee in question voluntarily resigned.
Thats all the HR will say. Officially. I have been told several times that there are code phrases in the industry that conveys more information without incurring more liability. But I don’t know that.
What I was talking about was the inevitable rumors and talk among the remaining employees. If someone is fired, there will be much speculation and that will be damaging to the company. When someone resigned or is laid off, there are far fewer questions. Many years ago we had a senior manager abruptly resign and that is all the company would say. Even after the feds filed lawsuits against the company and eventually barred the company from federal contracts for several months. It was a tough time for us-but officially that manager had resigned not fired.
Similarly, I was twice kicked out of school, except neither time was I officially kicked out. In the first case, I was told that if I returned to school, I would be expelled, and in the second, I was “invited not to return”. Doubtless both schools did it that way to save themselves some hassle, but it also saved me hassle when a college application asked if I had ever been expelled from a school.
(In case anyone’s wondering, in both cases I ended up at a much better school that I previously hadn’t even considered. Those were two of the best things to ever happen to me.)
Back in the day, one of my former employers had used the phrase “You’d be lucky to get him to work for you” more than once, when a prospective employer called about one of our former employees. 
Ambiguous enough that it didn’t really confirm or deny anything. Nowadays, they just confirm the dates of employment, as mentioned above.
Basically, the only question that can be answered is “Is he/she eligible for rehire?” When I was interviewing people for one position and called one person’s previous employer, the person on the other end was able to communicate their unhappiness with the guy by using long silences.
Was he punctual? I can’t really answer that question.
Did he complete tasks on time? ::crickets chirping:: I can’t answer that question.
My friend that works in HR says she is only allowed to give out three pieces of information
I’m not sure if she’s allowed to laugh.
I once got fired from a contract job as a sales rep. Basically, the company found someone that would work on a lower commission. There were other issues, one being that they felt my clients liked me too much and that their loyalty was to me rather than the product.
I actually had seen this coming and I had another gig lined up. But it was one that I could start whenever. And I WAS being fantastically overpaid — their high commissions made sense at a time when the product was an unknown entry in an established market, but as the product became mainstream they began to balk at paying 25% commission on 5 figure sales.
So I waited them out and waited for them to terminate me. Then they tried to pull the “we’ve decided to go our own separate ways by mutual agreement” bullshit. At which point I pushed back and told everyone, “she’s lying, she fired my ass.” Which caused a lot of “fire and fury” between my large group of highly loyal customers and the manufacturer I had worked for. Which was my intention because I hated the idiot of a manager that fired me. It was a decision that did not turn out well for her.
Immediately after I got terminated, I picked up the phone and pulled the trigger on my standing job offer. But I had a 30 day notice to wait out, and I wanted some entertainment.
“It’s better to burn out than to fade away”
As mentioned, high level execs do it all the time, often citing that they’ve “Taken the company as far as they could.” Which is more often, I’m going to to be kicked out anyway, so might as well leave before it really hits the fan!
From the employee’s standpoint, as stated above, as far as future employment opportunities go, it’s almost always better to resign rather than getting fired. When you fill out a pre-employment form, when you list your employment history, you usually have to explain why you’re no longer with your former employer(s). I’ve put “Left for personal reasons” for some of my former jobs and while the interviewer would usually ask for more details, I have a chance to give more details than I could write out.
From the employer’s standpoint, the major reason (at least in the U.S.) is that if you resign, unless there’s a really good reason (e.g. harassment, unfair practices, negative favoritism, etc.), you resigned, you likely won’t be able to receive unemployment benefits.
If you’re fired, in general you’ll be able to receive unemployment benefits unless you deliberately misconducted yourself, e.g. continually late for work, refusal to listen to your supervisor/manager or threatened/harmed someone in the company.
When you receive unemployment, in some states, the employer’s unemployment tax rate goes up to replenish the benefits given to the former employee.
Fortunately, for the employer, if they fire someone for misconduct and can provide proof (i.e. written reprimands), they can fight a former employee’s UI claim.
In my state the unemployment application asks specifically if one was “asked to resign.” Since I’ve never been asked to resign, I don’t know what the response triggers.
Can’t say for certain about your state- but some states (maybe most) don’t consider a forced resignation to be a resignation at all for the purpose of unemployment benefits.You are as eligible to collect unemployment as if you were fired.
https://blog.shrm.org/blog/resign-or-be-fired-usually-it-s-best-to-resign
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How would they know? Is not the whole point that both the person and their former employer will say they resigned, and make no mention of ending pending firing?
Not even close, in America, you can ask anything and can state anything that can be bac up by facts. Such as attendance, salary, performance, and so on. This is why progressive disciplinary action plans are so vital to a company.
Furthermore, you are entitled to your opinion as long as you known you are stating an opinion.
I deal with hiring and firing a lot, (I find jobs via non-profit) and it’s sad that this belief is so common. True you can be sued, and a lot of companies have policies that say nothing more than the minimal to avoid being sued. You can sue anyone for anything but you won’t win, with proper backup.
A good H/R person can fire you legitimately and avoid almost all cases of unemployment claims. This is why you’re asked to resign.
I’ve seen cases of minor theft, where the person is asked to leave, because it’s easier than trying to prove it. (Though you can be fired for suspicion of theft)
By sticking solely to the fact and the facts alone on write ups, you can be assured you can fire someone without unemployment claims being paid, though I have also seen some really odd cases over the last 20 years.
Ultimately it depends on the judge/arbitrator and where their general sympathy lies.