Every so often someone storms out of a meeting, throws their keys on the desk, and shouts “I quit.” It makes for a great story at the pub. In reality, most resignations are nothing like this. They’re calm, considered, and often typed up in a Word document titled “Notice_FINAL_v2.” The dramatic walkout is the exception, not the rule, whatever workplace sitcoms would have you believe.
But every so often the exception shows up somewhere completely unexpected, and this week it turned up in Westminster.
Nigel Farage resigning as an MP and immediately putting himself forward to win the seat back is a genuinely unusual sequence of events, and it’s worth borrowing for a moment, not for the politics, but for the mechanics. Because the same underlying question does come up in workplaces of every size, and it’s more common than the dramatic resignation ever is: what do you do when someone resigns and then wants to come straight back?
Nigel Farage resigned as MP for Clacton-on-Sea this week, triggering a by-election for his own seat, which he intends to contest. In effect, he has quit his role and reapplied for it in almost the same breath. None of the UK’s three largest established parties are putting up a candidate against him, so the practical effect is that he expects to walk straight back into the job he just left.
Whatever the politics of it, and there’s plenty of debate about the timing given the financial scrutiny he’s currently under, the mechanics are what interest us here. A person left a role and, without any real gap, put themselves forward to have it back.
Here’s an unpopular opinion: the “boomerang employee” is not the heartwarming reunion story everyone treats it as. Too many smaller organisations wave someone back through the door like a long-lost relative simply because hiring is expensive and saying no is awkward. That’s not policy, that’s just guilt with a payroll number attached. A few things are worth keeping in mind instead:
A resignation is not automatically final. As we’ve covered before, genuine heat-of-the-moment resignations can be legally shaky if the employer accepts them without any pause for reflection. But once notice has been properly confirmed, in writing, and the employee has had time to think it over, that’s a different matter. At that point it’s a clean, considered decision, not an impulsive one.
Wanting the job back doesn’t mean automatic reinstatement. If someone genuinely resigns and later asks to return, you’re under no obligation to treat that as a formality. You can, and often should, treat it as a fresh recruitment decision. That might mean readvertising, interviewing other candidates, or simply deciding the working relationship has moved on.
Be consistent, not sentimental. Small teams can feel pressure to just “let someone back in” to avoid awkwardness or a recruitment gap. But if you’d put another leaver through a proper process, do the same here. Otherwise you risk setting a precedent that resignations are reversible whenever it suits the employee.
Document the whole sequence. Confirm the original resignation in writing, note the date it was accepted, and if a return is discussed, treat that as a new application with its own paper trail. This protects you if a dispute arises later about whether continuity of employment was broken.
Whatever you make of the politics, one thing’s clear: resigning and immediately trying to walk back into the same job is not, on its own, a red flag. It’s just Tuesday. Treat the resignation itself with appropriate care, but don’t feel obliged to treat the return as automatic. A resignation followed by a reapplication is still a recruitment decision, and it deserves the same rigour you’d apply to any other candidate, even the ones who didn’t get a by-election to help them along.
If you’re navigating a resignation or rehire situation and want a second opinion before you commit either way, that’s exactly the kind of conversation we’re happy to have.
