Company tells employee her contract ends in 9 days, demands she write a resignation letter: 'I’m not resigning'

Ally Perry • Writer and Editor

Jun 27, 2026 11:45 AM EDT

It isn't fair to fire someone and pretend that it was their own decision.

All jobs come to an end, and every so often, that end will not be the one the employee would have chosen. The working world can be cutthroat, especially in these times, and none of us who contribute to it are immune to feeling the sharp end of a role we were taken out of before we were ready.

There aren't really a lot of ways to prepare for a firing or a layoff that you didn't see coming, and that is part of what can make it so difficult. Ideally, those who still need to work would only leave a job if they had another lined up. On top of that, the switch-up from apparently being a valued member of the team to a mere former employee can be brutal.

Few companies are really capable of relieving people of their duties in a way that works for everyone, but some of them can be particularly nasty about it. Ultimately, they want to do it in a way that benefits them over the worker, and this can lead to a scenario that is a whole lot more stressful than it needs to be.

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A woman faced an unpleasant surprise from the HR department at her company when they told her that her contract would not be renewed and her job would end in just over a week. As well as this, they expected her to sign the template of a resignation letter that they had drafted.
She found this confusing, as she wasn't resigning, but HR wouldn't budge on their demand despite her querying why it existed and whether it was necessary. She was suspicious of the whole process, and she wanted answers as to why it was happening and what she could do about it.
HR told me my contract ends in 9 days, then asked me to write a resignation letter

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