JOB ESSENTIALS
Before you resign
Twelve things that are cheap to check today and impossible to check the day after. Resigning feels like a decision about the new job, which is why all of these are about the old one.
Before you say anything
Once you have resigned, none of these four can be renegotiated. They are the reason this page exists.
Whether the new offer is actually unconditional
This is the one that ends badly. An offer subject to references, a right-to-work check or a DBS check is not yet an offer, and a resignation given against one cannot be taken back if the check goes the wrong way.
Read the offer letter for the word "subject" and ask, in writing, whether every condition has been cleared.
The notice you owe
People remember the notice they had when they joined, not the notice in the version they signed after a promotion. Agreeing a start date around the wrong number is a promise to somebody else you then cannot keep.
Find the current contract and read the notice clause, then check it against the rules before you agree any start date.
Anything you might have to pay back
Training courses, relocation, a signing bonus and professional fees are often repayable on a sliding scale for a year or two, and nobody mentions the clause at the time.
Search the contract and any side letters for repayment, clawback and recovery, and work out what leaving on your intended date would cost.
Restrictions on where you go next
Clauses about competitors, clients and colleagues are worth reading before you accept rather than after, because what they cover is often narrower or wider than assumed.
Read the restrictive covenants in the contract and take advice on them if the new role is anywhere near the same market.
Money with a date on it
Each of these turns on a specific day, and the day is usually not the one people assume. Worth knowing before you agree a leaving date.
Bonus and commission dates
Most schemes require you to be employed, and not under notice, on a particular day. Leaving a fortnight early can cost the whole thing, and the date is rarely the one people assume.
Find the payment date and the eligibility wording in the scheme rules, not in what somebody told you.
Anything that vests
Shares, options and long-term awards vest on dates that have nothing to do with the financial year, and unvested is gone.
List what you hold, find each vesting date, and see what a later leaving date would be worth.
Your holiday balance
Untaken holiday is usually money, but taking it and being paid for it are different outcomes and the choice is easier to make before a notice period is being planned around you.
Get the current balance in writing and decide whether you would rather take it or be paid it.
Your pension
Contributions stop, and some schemes have their own dates and conditions attached to the last one.
Note the scheme name and your member number, and check what happens to it when you leave.
What your final payslip should say
It is far easier to query a final payslip against a note you made beforehand than against a memory, once you no longer work there.
Write down what you expect to be paid, salary to the date, holiday, anything outstanding, before you hand anything in.
ACAS: final pay when someone leaves a job (opens in a new tab)
Before your access is switched off
Available now, and not after your last day.
Examples of your own work
The specifics that make an interview answer real are in systems you are about to lose access to, and you will want them for years.
Write down what you did and what changed because of it. Take nothing that belongs to the employer.
People, while they still remember
References and recommendations are much easier to arrange from somebody who is pleased for you than from somebody covering your work six months later.
Ask the people who would speak for you now, and keep a way of contacting them that is not a work address.
What ends on your last day
Healthcare, life cover and similar benefits stop, and the new ones do not always start the same morning. Any gap is worth knowing about rather than discovering.
List what you have through work, find out when each one ends, and check when the new cover begins.
What this page is
A list of what to check and where the answers are. It is not legal advice, and no rule, limit or amount is stated on it. Those change, and the versions that count are the ones GOV.UK and ACAS publish.
Nothing here is a reason to stay. Every one of these is worth knowing whichever way you decide, which is the point of checking before rather than after.