How to resign from a job: notice, final pay, health cover and 5 letter templates

What to settle before you pick your last day (final paycheck rules, vacation payout, COBRA), how much notice the law asks for in the US and UK, and five resignation letters you can adapt.

Most guides to resigning stop at the conversation and the letter. Be polite, give two weeks, thank your boss, don't burn bridges. That advice is right, and you will find it here in short form.

What they skip is the part that costs money. When your last paycheck arrives, whether your unused vacation gets paid, and how long your health insurance lasts all depend on your state, your plan and sometimes on the date you pick. Those are worth checking before you hand anything in, so this guide starts there. The letter templates come after.

Settle three things before you pick your last day

Once you've said "I'm leaving", your leverage on dates is gone. Ask HR or read the handbook for these three answers first. You can ask about policy without saying why.

When your final paycheck arrives

There is no federal deadline. The Department of Labor's page on last paychecks says it plainly: "Employers are not required by federal law to give former employees their final paycheck immediately. Some states, however, may require immediate payment."

So the rule is your state's, and states differ a lot. Two examples, quoted from the statutes:

• California. Labor Code section 202(a): "If an employee not having a written contract for a definite period quits his or her employment, his or her wages shall become due and payable not later than 72 hours thereafter, unless the employee has given 72 hours previous notice of his or her intention to quit, in which case the employee is entitled to his or her wages at the time of quitting."
• Texas. Labor Code section 61.014(b): "An employer shall pay in full an employee who leaves employment other than by discharge not later than the next regularly scheduled payday."

The California rule rewards notice. Give at least 72 hours and you are owed your wages on your last day, not up to three days later. In Texas, notice changes nothing and the money comes on the usual payday. For any other state, your state labor office has the rule. The DOL keeps a list of them.

Whether unused vacation gets paid out

This varies by state too, and in many states the employer's written policy decides. California is the strict end. Labor Code section 227.3 requires vested vacation to be paid as wages at termination and says a contract or policy "shall not provide for forfeiture of vested vacation time upon termination."

Elsewhere, read the PTO section of your handbook before you set your date. Some policies only pay out if you gave a set amount of notice. If yours pays nothing, taking the days off before you resign is legitimate, and it's your time.

When your health insurance ends

Quitting counts for COBRA. The DOL's employee guide to COBRA lists "termination of employment for any reason other than gross misconduct" as a qualifying event, and a resignation is a termination of employment. What the guide says you get:

• up to 18 months of continued coverage on your employer's plan;
• a premium that "cannot exceed 102 percent of the plan's total cost", which means you now pay the share your employer used to pay;
• at least 60 days to decide whether to enroll, and at least 45 days after that to make the first payment.

COBRA applies to employers with 20 or more employees. Many states have "mini-COBRA" laws for smaller ones.

The question to put to HR is "does my coverage end on my last day or at the end of that month?" Plans differ, and the DOL guide mentions plans that extend coverage "until the end of the month". If yours does, a last day of October 1 and a last day of September 30 leave you with very different gaps.

COBRA is often not the cheapest bridge. Joining a spouse's plan usually has to be requested within 30 days of losing coverage, and a Marketplace plan within 60 days, per the same DOL guide. Know which one you're using before your last day, not after.

How much notice you have to give

In the United States

Two weeks is a habit, not a law. No federal statute sets a notice period for an employee who quits. The DOL's page on termination says that outside discrimination, whistleblower and complaint protections, "the termination is subject only to any private contract between the employer and employee or a labor contract between the employer and those covered by the labor contract."

So if you signed a contract or a union agreement that sets a notice period, that is your number. Notice is also no guarantee of two more weeks of pay. Some companies walk people out the moment they resign, especially in sales or when you're joining a competitor. Before you resign, ask HR or check the handbook for whether the company pays out the notice period in that case. If it doesn't, have your savings plan for two weeks without a paycheck.

Two weeks remains the right default when nothing else applies. If you run a team or own a project mid-flight, offer more if you can. Your manager will remember whether you left them enough time.

In the United Kingdom

The legal minimum is low, and it doesn't grow. Under section 86(2) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, "The notice required to be given by an employee who has been continuously employed for one month or more to terminate his contract of employment is not less than one week."

Your employer's minimum works differently. Section 86(1) makes it one week per full year of service from two years, up to twelve weeks. So after ten years your employer owes you ten weeks of notice, while the law still asks one week from you.

Your contract can set a longer period, and if it does, that is the notice you owe. GOV.UK adds that "Your contract will tell you whether you need to give notice in writing - otherwise you can do it verbally", and that giving too little notice can put you in breach of contract. Either side can waive notice, or agree to a payment in lieu of it, which is also in section 86.

Check your contract for more than the notice period

While you have the contract open, look for the clauses that outlive your job:

• a non-compete or non-solicit clause, and how long it runs;
• a repayment clause for a signing bonus, relocation or training;
• vesting dates for equity or bonuses, so you don't leave a week before one;
• what counts as company property you must return.

If a non-compete looks broad and your next job is at a rival, read it with an employment lawyer before you resign, not after.

Tell your manager before you send anything

Your manager should hear it from you, in person or on a video call, before the letter lands in their inbox or HR hears it from someone else. Keep it to a few sentences. You are leaving, here is your last day, you will help with the handover. You don't owe a reason. If you give one, make it the true one in its least dramatic form ("I've accepted a role that's a step up in scope").

Don't resign before you hold a written offer with a start date. A verbal offer can still change, and background checks can still fail.

Expect a counteroffer if you're doing well. Decide your answer before the meeting. More money rarely fixes the reason you started looking. If the answer is no, say so on the spot and send the reply in template 5 below so it's on record.

Five resignation letter templates

The letter is the record, not the conversation. It needs your intent to resign, your last day as a date, and an offer to help with the handover. Thanks are optional, grievances are out. Send it to your manager and copy HR, then keep a copy outside company systems.

Replace everything in brackets.

1. Standard two weeks' notice

The thank-you line names one real thing. "Thank you for the opportunity" says nothing; your manager can tell.

2. Short notice

Use this when you can't give two weeks, because of a new employer's start date, a move or your health. Say what you can offer instead of apologising at length.

Only offer after-departure help you will actually give. A bounded offer ("two weeks, by email") is easier to keep than "anytime".

3. Resignation by email

For remote teams, or when HR asks for it in writing after the call. The subject line should make the email findable in a year.

4. When you're leaving for a competitor

Name no employer. You don't have to, and it changes nothing in your favour. What matters here is showing that you're handling access and information cleanly, because that's what the company is worried about.

Offering to step back from sensitive work before anyone asks makes it less likely you're walked out the same afternoon. Do the access check from the contract section before you send this one.

5. Declining a counteroffer

Send this the day after the conversation at the latest. Waiting a week reads as negotiating.

Your notice period

A few habits make the last weeks go well:

• Write the handover as a document. List each open item, its status, the next step and who to ask. A conversation is forgotten by Monday.
• Tell colleagues and clients after your manager has agreed how. Some managers want to announce it themselves, along with who takes over.
• Keep the exit interview factual. One or two specific, fixable points help the next person. A list of complaints won't change anything at this stage.
• Save your personal files and contacts early. Your access can end before your last day. Take only what is yours.
• Return everything on the property list and get a confirmation by email.

Keep the next job on track

Get the written offer and the start date first, then resign. With several processes running at once, it's easy to lose track of which company is waiting on what. HiredFolio keeps every application, contact and next step in one place, and you can save each posting from the job board with the browser extension. That way the offer you're waiting on doesn't slip while you work out your notice.

Track your applications with HiredFolio

If you're about to quit without an offer, it helps to know how long a search usually takes. Our guide on how many applications it takes to get a job has the numbers. If your notice ends near the holidays, read what December hiring data shows before you plan your search around it.

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