When starting work with my employer in Florida almost a year ago I signed a “relocation payback agreement.” This agreement states that “in the event I shall resign my employment for any reason whatsoever, or shall be dismissed by the Company for just cause, due to violation of the Management Code of Ethics, or conduct giving rise to immediate discharge (other than performance), then I shall repay to [company name withheld] all or a portion of the amount paid by the Company on my behalf or reimbursed to me in connection with the relocation of my residence.”
I am not happy with my current employment because the primary project for which I was being hired and why I accepted the job offer is not coming to fruition for financial reasons. However the expectations and functions of the job description were all verbal. Now that I am close to my one year employment anniversary I have begun seeking other opportunities. I fully expected this job search to take some time, at least more than few weeks, but wouldn’t you know it, I found something almost immediately.
My question is that if my date of hire was 06/26/2006, and therefore my obligation to repay relocation expenses terminates 06/26/2007 per the agreement stated above, what would happen if I were to tender a 2-week notice of resignation on 06/15/2007 with effective date of termination of employment 06/29/2007?
My effective date of termination of employment is after the relocation payback agreement expires so therefore I would not be required to reimburse the company for relocation expenses. My concern is though could the company upon receiving my notice of resignation choose to terminate me immediately which would then be before the expiration of the relocation payback agreement? And if the company chose to terminate me immediately because I submitted notice of resignation, am I then obligated to repay the company per my relocation payback agreement stated above.
I should add that my relationship with my current employer has been nothing but excellent. Just over a month ago I received an unexpected pay raise along with a verbal “doing great, keep up the good work”. However, my current employer is “financially strapped” so I wouldn’t put it past them to try to terminate me early in an attempt to recoup some or all of the relocation costs back from me.
My prospective new employer is not willing to allow me report to work any later than the first week of July so therefore simply delaying my 2-week notice of resignation until after the expiration of the relocation payback agreement is not really an option. I could quit with no notice after the relocation payback agreement has expired but I personally believe that not giving notice is ethically wrong (even though the employer can fire me on the spot without notice). Or I could hand in my 2-week notice of resignation after the payback agreement has expired and use my vacation time during this two week period to allow me to report to work with my new employer, but as far as I am concerned this is basically effective to quitting without notice as well. Per my personal ethics, the right thing to do is to hand in the 2-week notice as planned and expect my current employer to be as ethical as I am and to honor that notice of resignation. My fear though is that my current employer may not follow the same code of ethics that I am trying to adhere to.

