What Happens If I Stop Showing Up to Work?
There are mornings we’ve all had where we wake up wanting to stay in bed, and think “What happens I stop showing up to work today?” In some extreme cases, this may constitute “job abandonment”, which can have serious consequences for employees and employers.
What is Job Abandonment?
Job abandonment refers to a situation where an employee is absent from work without authorization, to such an extend that they are considered to have ended the employment relationship. In other words, job abandonment can be interpreted by the employer as the employee quitting their job.
In most cases, an employment relationship must be terminated by the actions of either the employer or the employee. The employer may terminate the employment relationship for cause if the employee has committed serious misconduct. More common, is when the employer ends the relationship on a without cause basis and provides notice of the termination or pays the employee severance in lieu of the period of notice.
The employee can also terminate the employment relationship by resigning. Generally, such resignations must be clear and unambiguous statements of the employee’s intention to resign. In a job abandonment situation, the employee is considered to have voluntarily resigned or quit from their employment even though they haven’t delivered an active statement to resign. Consequently, since job abandonment is a form of resignation, this means that the employee would not be entitled to termination pay or severance upon termination of their employment.
What conditions constitute job abandonment?
Since job abandonment is considered a resignation, there is a fairly high threshold for the employer to claim job abandonment. The employer must show that the employee’s absence from work is 1) prolonged, 2) unauthorized and 3) non-communicative. Accordingly, a single day or two of absence, while possibly constituting misconduct, would not be considered job abandonment, nor would a prolonged absence due to a medical condition.
What do employers need to do to claim job abandonment?
Generally, the employer must take reasonable steps to establish all three of these elements. This includes making good faith reasonable efforts to communicate with the absent employee, possibly employing multiple methods of communication to reach them, to determine the reason for and potential extent of the absence. Employers also have a duty to advise absent employees that failure to respond or provide a valid reason for the absence may result in termination of their employment.
Often such job abandonment claims are disputed, and the employee may sue for wrongful termination. The employer can prove abandonment by showing a persistent period of unauthorized absences and failure by the employee to communicate with the employer during such a period.
Conversely, the employee may be successful if they can show that they made reasonable attempts to communicate with the employer, and if there was a valid reason for the absence, like a medical situation or another statutorily protected leave such as pregnancy, caregiver, or bereavement.
The difficulty with job abandonment is that it is in the hands of the employer to make an inference from the employee’s actions, and this can cause complexities in many cases. Additionally, many cases of job abandonment may end up being the result of poor communication, unclear policies, and unforeseen circumstances.
How can Whitten and Lublin Help if you are facing job abandonment?
If you are asking yourself, what happens if I stop showing up to work? In short, the answer is that your employer may assume you have abandoned your job, and resigned, thus giving up any rights to termination or severance pay.
At Whitten & Lublin we provide strategic employment legal services for employees who may be faced with having been told they have abandoned their job or employees seeking a leave from their employer. Reach out to Whitten & Lublin to assist you. Contact us online or by phone at (416) 640-2667.
Author – Aaron Zaltzman