Can you quit your job if you’ve signed a contract? When we say contract, in my mind, that means an employment contract, an employment agreement, and contract that lists the terms of the employment relationship. So, can you quit if you sign a contract? Well, it depends upon what is in the contract. Every contract is going to have the length of the term of the agreement like how long it lasts, and then how to terminate the agreement. There’ll be a section that’s called term and then termination. The termination section is what’s going to dictate how you can terminate the agreement and then quit your job. There are four ways for a contract to be terminated.
One, if it’s just a fixed-length, meaning, it’s a one-year contract or a two-year contract, and it doesn’t automatically renew, then the contract terminates at the end of it if neither party wants to renew it and that’s the end of it. The second way would be through mutual agreement. If you and the employer decide, we just want to move on, and if the agreement is met, then you can just leave. The third way is by breach of contract. What it’s called for cause, or with cause termination. If one party, and I’ll just do this from the employee’s perspective, if the employee believes the employer is in breach of contract, let’s say they are not paying the employee either on time or the amount that was agreed upon or maybe they’re not paying out bonuses, whatever it is, the employee would then have to give written notice to the employer and say, hey, you’re in breach of contract.
And then normally there’d be what’s called a cure period. The cure period simply states whatever party that’s in breach of contract has a period to fix whatever the breach is. Usually, it’s between 15 to 30 days. If they were to cure the breach, then the employee could not terminate the contract for cause. Normally, if after the cure period, whatever the breach was isn’t fixed, then it’s the option of the employee to terminate the contract immediately. And then last, and this is kind of what I would consider quitting your job, there will be, or at least there should be without cause termination. Without cause termination simply means either party can terminate the employment agreement at any time, for any reason, with a certain amount of notice to the other party. Other blogs of interest include:
You can quit your job, but then you may have to serve out a certain amount of time. In most employment contracts, the notice period will be somewhere between 30 to 90 days. In that scenario, if you wanted to quit your job and terminate the agreement, you would have to send a written notice to the employer that just said, I’m exercising my right to terminate the agreement without cause. And then, whatever the time was, say it’s 60 days, you’d say, my last day of work will be X date. And then you would have to work those 60 days. And then at the end of 60 days, you’re free to leave. Things to keep in mind if you decide to quit your job or terminate the agreement: one, many contracts would have some kind of repayment obligation if they paid out a signing bonus or relocation assistance or they’ve paid for licenses or certifications.
It’s important to determine, alright, if I terminate this contract or quit my job, am I going to have to pay anything back? If you’re a healthcare professional, there will likely be malpractice insurance obligations. So, if you must pay for tail insurance, you need to identify that and figure out what that cost will be. And then lastly, and usually most importantly, are there any restrictive covenants in the contract? Even if you quit your job, the restrictive covenants are still going to apply. The restrictive covenants would be a non-solicitation agreement and a non-compete. The two most common restrictive covenants. With the non-solicitation agreement, it’ll simply say you can’t actively solicit patients, clients, customers, employees, independent contractors, and vendors for a certain period, usually, one year. And then the non-compete is even more important.
It will state that the professional can’t work within their specialty for a period, usually, one to two years within a certain geographic radius. For healthcare professionals, it could be 10 miles from your primary practice location, or if you’re in sales, it could be that you can’t work in these counties or even can’t work within this entire state. Now, that’s broad. I don’t think that would likely be enforceable in most states, but that’s what the non-compete is. So, just because you quit the job, you no longer want to be employed there, doesn’t mean these restrictive covenants won’t apply. You need to look at the language of the contract and determine, alright, what are all the things that are going to follow me after I quit my job? Because if you just terminate the agreement, it doesn’t mean that everything ends as well.
So yes, you can quit your job, most likely if you have an employment agreement, but you are required to follow the terms of the agreement. Now, what if you just say, I have an employment agreement, I’m sick of working here, I’m just not coming back. You don’t give notice, you just don’t show up, you’re done. Well, then you’re a breach of contract and you’re opening yourself up for potential legal action, either through a lawsuit or if there’s an arbitration clause or maybe some kind of mediation. There could be damages associated with you not giving the proper notice. It could be the lost profits of the company when you just left, it could be recruitment fees and finding your replacement. So, I would suggest you have to follow the terms of the agreement.
And then, when I talk to many employees who are unhappy, I always say, look, if they are in breach of contract, you must provide them with written notice. You can’t just sit there and take it, and then use that as justification for not coming back. You must follow the terms of the agreement.
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