Most people in the UK resign three or four times in their working life. Each time, the rules feel new, the conversation feels awkward, and the paperwork feels like it’s designed to catch you out. None of it has to be that way.
This guide walks you through the whole thing in the order it actually happens: deciding to leave, having the conversation, working out your last day, sorting your final pay, and the bit afterwards. The legal references are linked. The tools are linked. Where there’s a more detailed article on a specific point, that’s linked too.
Before you resign
Have your offer in writing first
The single most common resignation mistake is handing in your notice before the new offer is signed and counter-signed. A verbal offer is not a job. Get the offer letter, read the notice clause, check the start date, then resign. The cost of waiting a week is essentially zero. The cost of resigning into a withdrawn offer is your current job and your next one.
While you’re reading the new offer letter, pay attention to its notice period too. Three months is becoming standard for mid-senior roles and you don’t want a surprise.
Find your current notice period
Open your current employment contract. Find the section that mentions notice. That number is what you owe. For most office workers it’s one month. For senior roles it tends to be three months. Hourly and casual roles are often a week or less.
If the contract is silent on notice, the Employment Rights Act 1996 sets a statutory minimum of one week from the employee after a month of employment. Whichever is longer between the contract and the statutory minimum is what applies. The full notice-period rules are explained here.
Work out your actual last working day
A month means a calendar month, not four weeks. Hand in your notice on 15 March and your last day is 15 April. Month-end edge cases (31 January, 31 August) roll back to the last day of the next month. Weekends and bank holidays count.
The calculator on the home page does all of this for you, including the bank-holiday awareness. Run your dates before the conversation so you can be specific when you tell your manager what your last day will be.
Sort the awkward stuff before you resign
Holiday balance, expected bonus payments, share scheme vesting dates, anything you’ve been promised that hasn’t been written down: write yourself a list now. Once you resign, your negotiating leverage on those things drops to roughly zero.
If you’ve got a bonus due in March and you’re thinking about leaving in February, the calculation is different. If you’ve got shares vesting in June, leaving in May costs you that vesting unless your scheme has a leaver provision. Read the scheme rules.
The other piece of homework is financial. Even with a new job lined up, there’s usually a gap between your last payslip and your next, plus a few one-off costs (final commute, garden-leave admin, tax-year reconciliation). PennyWise Finance has a useful guide to work out how much you’ll need to cover the gap before resigning, particularly worth a read if you don’t yet have a confirmed start date.
Handing in your notice
Tell your manager first, in person if you can
The conversation should happen with your line manager before anyone else hears. They’ll appreciate being the first to know rather than the third. If you’re remote, do it on a video call rather than email. Schedule a 15-minute one-to-one, keep it short, lead with the news rather than burying it.
What to actually say: “I’ve decided to leave [Employer]. My last day will be [date], in line with my contractual notice. I’d like to make the next [period] as smooth as possible.” That’s the whole script. No need to explain where you’re going unless you want to. No need to apologise.
Follow up in writing the same day
The conversation is the courtesy. The email is the legal record. Send a short formal resignation email to your manager with HR copied, the same day as the conversation. Date, role, last working day, brief offer to help with handover. The letter generator builds this in 30 seconds, or use one of the six templates if you want a starting point you can adapt.
Don’t take the counter-offer (probably)
Around 80% of people who accept a counter-offer leave within 12 months anyway. The reasons you wanted to leave rarely go away because of more money, and your employer now knows you’re a flight risk.
That said, sometimes counter-offers are genuinely worth considering: when the move is purely about money rather than fit, when the counter includes a role change you actually wanted, or when leaving would derail something significant (vesting, a project you care about, a relocation you can’t make work). Be honest about which it is.
Garden leave, PILON, and the three exit modes
UK resignations resolve in one of three ways: you work your notice, you go on garden leave, or you get PILON.
Work your notice
The default. You stay in the office (or remote) for the full notice period, doing your handover, attending your meetings, getting paid normally. You’re still bound by your contract throughout.
Garden leave
Your employer keeps you on the payroll but tells you to stay home. The end date is the same as working your notice; you just don’t go in. You’re still employed, so the contract still binds you, including any non-compete and confidentiality clauses.
Common when you’re going to a competitor or working with sensitive information. Whether your employer can put you on garden leave depends on what the contract says.
PILON (Payment in Lieu of Notice)
Your employer ends your employment immediately and pays you a lump sum equivalent to the unworked notice. You’re out straight away, free to start elsewhere. Since 2018, PILON is fully taxable as earnings (no tax-free element).
Whether PILON is available depends on whether the contract has a PILON clause. If not, you can still negotiate it, but you can’t insist on it. Worth asking if you have a start date pressure on the new role.
The home page has a comparison table covering all three exit modes side by side.
Your last weeks: handover, holiday, and tidying up
Build a handover plan early, not late
The single biggest difference between leaving well and leaving badly is when you start the handover document. Week one, not week four. The handover plan generator produces a week-by-week plan based on your notice length. Don’t reinvent it; just adapt one.
What needs to be in the handover doc: every project you’re running, every recurring task, every key contact, every account or system you’ll be removed from, every time-sensitive deadline that falls within the next quarter. Share the draft with your manager in week one so they can flag anything you’ve missed.
Holiday during your notice period
You continue accruing holiday during your notice period. You can usually take accrued holiday during notice (subject to your employer’s normal approval), and your employer can require you to take it. Anything you don’t take gets paid out in your final pay.
Quick rule of thumb: your annual entitlement divided by 12, multiplied by the number of months you’ll have worked this year by your last day. That’s roughly your accrued balance.
Bank holidays during your notice
Bank holidays count as calendar days in your notice period, but they’re paid days off if they would normally be in your working week. If your final working day lands on a bank holiday, most employers treat the previous working day as your actual last day in the office.
Final pay, P45, and the admin
What’s in your final payslip
Your final payslip will normally include: salary up to your last working day, accrued but unused holiday paid out, any owed bonus or commission, any expenses claims, and tax/NI calculated based on the full tax year to date. Standard deductions still apply.
Read it carefully when it arrives. Common errors: holiday balance miscalculated, expenses missed, bonus omitted on a technicality. If something looks wrong, raise it with payroll within a few days; it’s much easier to fix before the tax year ticks over.
P45
The P45 is the document HMRC uses to track your pay and tax when you move between jobs. You should receive it within a few working days of your last working day, definitely within two weeks. If it hasn’t arrived after two weeks, chase payroll politely. Your new employer needs it (or at least the parts they need from it) to set up your tax code correctly.
References
Most UK employers now give “factual” references confirming dates of employment and job title only. Some give more detail with permission. Your manager can give a personal reference separately from the company one, and if your relationship is good, ask. A personal reference from someone who liked working with you is worth ten company references.
The first 30 days after you leave
Loose ends to tie up
Things to check in the week after your last day: final payslip received, P45 received, pension contribution stopped or transferred, any owed expenses paid, any company equipment returned, personal email/phone removed from any company-managed access.
If you had private medical insurance through the employer, check when it ends. Usually the last day of the month in which you leave, but some policies tick over differently.
If something goes wrong
The most common post-employment dispute is missing final pay or a delayed P45. Both are normally administrative slip-ups rather than malice. Send a polite chase email to payroll. If there’s no response within a week, escalate to your previous HR contact or the senior person you reported into.
If you genuinely believe you’ve been short-changed and can’t resolve it informally, the next step is ACAS early conciliation. You have three months from the date of the issue to start this process. After conciliation, you can take it to an employment tribunal if needed.
Special situations
Resigning during probation
Notice periods during probation are usually shorter, often one week. The probation-specific calculator handles this. In your first month of employment, no statutory notice applies on either side unless your contract says otherwise.
Resigning to start a competing business or join a competitor
Read your contract’s restrictive covenants very carefully: non-compete clauses, non-solicitation of clients, non-solicitation of staff, confidentiality. These usually survive your employment ending for a defined period (commonly 3-12 months). Garden leave is often used in this scenario.
Some restrictive covenants are unenforceable because they go beyond what’s reasonable. If yours look broad and could materially affect your next move, get a 30-minute consultation with an employment solicitor. It usually costs £150-300 and is worth every penny.
Resigning when you think you’ve been treated badly
If the reason you’re leaving is your employer’s conduct (serious bullying, unpaid wages, unilateral changes to your role or pay), there may be a constructive dismissal claim available. The bar is high and the time limits are short. Don’t resign in anger; take advice first. The early-exit guide covers this in more detail.
Being made redundant rather than resigning
If your employer is the one initiating your departure under the redundancy rules, the rights are different and usually better. You should be paid statutory redundancy pay (and potentially enhanced contractual redundancy on top), notice pay, and any accrued holiday. The redundancy calculator handles the statutory minimum. If you’re offered a settlement agreement, take legal advice before signing; it’s usually a required step and the employer typically contributes to the legal fees.
The summary
Resignation goes better when you treat it as a project rather than a moment. Get the new offer in writing first. Calculate your last day before the conversation. Have the conversation face to face, follow up in writing the same day. Start the handover in week one. Sort the admin at the end. If anything looks legally complex (constructive dismissal, restrictive covenants, settlement agreements), get advice before you act.
The tools on this site exist because each of those steps has enough fiddly arithmetic that it’s worth automating. They’re free, your data stays in your browser, and you can come back to them any time. Bookmark whichever one matches where you are in the process.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. If you’re facing a constructive dismissal claim, a contested settlement agreement, or any other materially contested situation, take advice from ACAS or an employment-law solicitor before acting.