Everything you Should know about Employee Absconding

absconding

HR on Cloud, Recruitment

ABSCONDING – This is the most unprofessional and unethical way for any employee to separate from their organization. An absconder is a person who leaves the organization without resigning or following the correct process of separation.
An employee who abstains from their job without intimation and remains untraceable is referred to as an absconder.

Why do Employees Abscond from Work?

I clearly remember an incident when a sales executive absconded in the fifth month of his employment.
He didn’t provide any official intimation through a resignation, nor informed anyone in the company about his whereabouts. Nobody in the team knew the reason for his sudden disappearance.

 

The entire Sales team couldn’t understand and accept the incident since he was happy in his role. The manager was in a fix, as the sudden exit of this employee had created a void and built pressure on the entire team.

The company had invested heavily on employee development. The leadership blamed everyone including the hiring manager, and the recruiter for not doing enough in hiring the right employee.

Unfortunate situation to be in but happens often!

Reasons for absconding could be organization related, employee related, manager related and even related to the market situations. Some reasons why the employee absconded include:

  • » Extreme disinterest in job role
  • » Lack of commitment from the employee
  • » Negativity at workplace
  • » False promises made during recruitment
  • » Conflict in individuals and organization’s goals
  • » Absence of rewards and recognition
  • » Not being able to cope up with work pressure and stress
  • » Strict manager who does not believe in people related practices
  • » Better job prospects
  • » Personality issues
  • » Conflicts between team members or supervisors

An employee takes the decision to abscond when he feels extremely uncomfortable to discuss his impending exit with his supervisor, HR or other senior employees.

Hence whatever the reason may be, an absconding employee indicates a serious breakdown of communication in the company.

What to do in Absconded Cases?

A lot of time and effort is invested in nurturing employees and includes skill development, training needs identification, reward and recognitions, and building relationships,
Hence, when an employee doesn’t show up for work for an extended period, say upwards of 2 weeks without any intimation, one should expect the worst that it is an absconding case.

Such matters need to be investigated thoroughly and appropriate steps should be taken to avoid recurrence.

Communicating with an absconder

You can use the following sequence of steps when such an event happens in your organization. Do keep copies of all communications with the absconder on the employee file.

  1. Contact the absconder telephonically and by sending an email.
  2. If there is no response, then communicate by sending an official (registered or courier) letter on the last known address of the employee.
  3. Quote the appropriate sections of your employee handbook and enquire reasons for not coming to work. Ask the employee to report back immediately.
  4. If no reply is received within a stipulated period, send a warning letter clearly indicating that a termination action will be taken if the employee does not report back to work.
  5. If no reply is received within 15 days of the warning letter, you can take a legal action by sending a notice and terminating the absconder’s employment.

Note: It is important to terminate such as employee once you have exhausted all options of trying to get in touch with the absconded employee. Keeping the employee on your roles can be a challenge in many ways.

Your statutory responsibilities

As an employer, you will still have to pay absconder’s salary till the time he has worked in the company.

If the employee has a leave balance, the same should be either used to adjust the last working date or appropriate adjustments should be made in the final payout to the employee.

All statutory payments (such as taxes, pension fund payments, health insurance etc.) owed to the employee and government must be paid till the last date of working of the employee.

If the absconding employee owes dues to the employer, such as pending loans and advances, pre-paid dues, loaner devices etc, the employer can claim to recover these through the court. Employer can even adjust the same towards any money owed to the employee.

Do make sure that you keep all documents related to the payments and dues for at least a period of 5 years or longer (based on your local laws)

How to minimize Employee Absconding Cases

The following areas can be worked on to avoid the situation of absconding employees

Policy formulation

Frame an HR policy on uninformed absenteeism and employee absconding.

There should be a legal clause in the job contract about absconding. The clause should enforce the employees to follow the policy of separation or else suffer the outcome of legal action taken against them by the employer.

Recruitment and onboarding

At the time of recruitment and selection, it is important that proper background checks and profile checks of the candidates are done, before onboarding them in their new job.

After all, a recruiter would want to hire and retain a genuine job seeker.

HR Responsibilities

  • HR should have frequent interactions with the employees and be aware of their satisfaction levels and challenges faced. Get feedback through engagement surveys and pulse feedback.
  • There should be adequate focus on employee development through training and mentorship.
  • A transparent, objective performance management process should be introduced to get feedback from employees and their managers. This should be introduced as a formal mechanism to involve all stakeholders.
  • Monitoring goal progress regularly and conducting frequent check-ins to provide continuous feedback ought to be an integral part of the employees’ job role within the organization.
  • A comfortable work environment should be created for the entire workforce.

Devise retention strategies

Besides adopting the above HR practices, it is also important to proactively introduce and implement good retention strategies in your organization.

Devise ways to retain your employees. Give them a platform to express their views freely. Recognize and reward top performers. Once, your workforce is engaged and motivated, there will be an automatic reduction in employee absconding cases.

Last words

We all work as employees in organizations so if we decide to quit our job, we should do it in a professional manner. Do not burn bridges while leaving the organization.

An absconding employee leaves a very poor impression on everyone and we should avoid being remembered as such an employee at all costs. Who knows the absconded employee needs to work for the same company again, or there was their reference check in the company.

If you must leave, submit a resignation to the appropriate supervisor or HR. Discuss the reason for your exit and don’t label yourself as an absconding employee.

TAGS: Employee Onboarding, HR, Human Resources, Recruitment

66 thoughts on “Everything you Should know about Employee Absconding”

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  9. My company terminated my contract and asked me to serve the notice period of 30 days (from October 4th to November 4th), which I did…

    But when the brought my calculations, I realized that my end of service payment was not correct, they deducted my annual leave payment, so I refused to sign the cancelation letter until the payment is complete…

    Before I could write the Ministry of labor to submit my complaint, they have already put me absconding the same day I refuse to sign the cancelation paperwork…

    Labour told them to pay my money and remove the abscond,….. My money has been paid completely, but the absconding case is taking longer than expected,

    the Ministry of labor keep postponing and now I got another offer from a different company that is putting me pressure to start or they will cancel my offer with them…

    What can I do now ‍♂️, cuz I don’t know what to do to facilitate things and secure this new offer…

    Thank you in advance for your response

    Reply
  10. Still I’m working as per notice period. Could the sponsor do an absconding case file? It’s possible.

    Kindly advice to me asap.

    Thanks

    Reply
    • If you are serving the notice period, then there shouldn’t be any problem. Notice period and related issues are generally spelt out in the appointment letter and in company’s HR policy. You may like to refer those.

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  17. Hi, I have absconded from an MNC in March 2021. I just been there for hardly 15 days. Did not receive any asset or id card from the company. No benefits received too. I joined another company(better technology) and been working there since. Seemingly, on my absconding the first company credited all my PF amount to my account. But the problem is, my current company is not showing my UAN number in the payslip. When asked, the reply I received is “Please be informed that you need to connect with your previous employer to complete your transfer process as you have chosen DSC attestation and transfer done through you previous employer”. I am just puzzled on what could be done to resolve this?
    FYI, my PF account in ePF site shows all my employments including the absconded and current one.

    Reply
      • I have worked in a startup company for just 6 months and I have resigned my job by sending email to the company and hr without serving notice period. They didn’t provide me relieving letter. But I have offer letter and payslip for this company. After that, I have joined another company without releiving letter and worked here for 2 years and Relieved properly. I’m having all the documents from my second company.
        I’m unable to hide my first 6 months experience because PF was created in that company. I have resigned without serving notice period, because of this i don’t have releiving letter for that 6 months and I’m unable to hide it due to PF account creation. What should I do?. Anyone have joined MNC without releiving letter? I have 2 years of experience in my recent company with having all the documents properly. Eventhough I’m having all the documents from my recent employer, Still all the companies are asking my previous companies releiving Letter also(where I’m unable to give my first company releiving letter) What should I do? Is my career is doomed? I’m really worried about it.
        My first company where I have worked 6 Months are not ready to give me releiving letter because of not serving notice period and I have talked to them as much I can. But they are not accepting. Can someone please advice me. I’m in a critical stage

        Reply
        • Don’t worry. Talk to the HR of your previous company and agree to pay notice pay in lieu of the notice period that you didn’t serve.

          Reply
  18. I make a huge mistake, I left the abc organization after 1 month by informing on call to manager & sending resignation mail by giving some personal reason from personal mail id on sunday as i need to join xyz organization on next day i.e monday. Now i received the offer from 123 organization where i informed that working in xyz organization & they are ok for that but the need relieving Letter of abc organization although abc organization mark me as a absconded employee & send termination letter. I already talked with abc HR that i will be ready to pay the notice period amount & give me relieving letter but she denied to do so.
    1.Kindly suggeste what i can do in this situation or is it any possibility to get the relieving letter from abc organization. Also if they ready to give the relieving letter what will be the reason they mentioned & is it useful for me in future.
    2. This one month absconding will impact on my future career as its reflecting in my epfo history or what i can do as i am too much worried & confused due to that.

    Reply
  19. My friend got a new job she resigned her resignation letter was well signed by the employer, given employer’s ID photocopies front and back of the ID as required by MOI for job transfer then having issued all to her the employer didn’t allow her to serve her notice period he sent her away within 1 week he also signed a release letter for her after the given week he gave her the Q.I.D but refused to give her the passport the next day she left her employer’s accommodation to bed space as she waits for her transfer message from the ministry surprisingly the employer reported to police that she run away after almost a month police arrested her as i talk now she’s at C.I.D headquarters for investigations

    Reply
  20. 4 year ago i have joined a company but after 3 month due to family issue i have resigned but not complete my notice period and leave job and my exit formalities not completed. So at present i have apply a many company but my background verification is rejected due to absond status to previous company. So I communicate the previous company but they said your exit remark is exit without notice and this is old case so we cannot change.they clearly deniy. It is very important for me to rectify my status and relieving.kindly suggest me how can I do.

    Reply
    • You should meet the HR dept of your previous company and explain your problem to them. The company policies in many organizations generally asks you to either serve the notice period or fulfill the bond amount before leaving.

      Reply
  21. Hi I absconded from a job after just working 6 months without serving the notice period or payback. I’m not interested to join back or need their employee reference in my career, didn’t hear from them over a year too, so is it okay I let it go as I don’t have money to pay them back? Will there be big legal issue later on?

    Reply
  22. Hi,

    I have absconded from a reputed MNC company 4 years back in India, now I have received an offer from same company in another country.
    Since they have already released an offer as well, would there be any problem later?

    Thanks.

    Reply
  23. I left a reputated Organization almost 2 years ago with a formal resignation over mail and company exit portal. I received letters from that employer but I didn’t respond to them. Now they have marked me absconded and settlement amount of Rs.45000 is also due over me.

    Please suggest if I pay the amount, will they remove my absconded status and give me normal releiving. And same will e updated on Employeer verification portal or not

    Reply
    • This is largely dependent on the employment policy of your organization. Why don’t you approach their HR department and discuss your concern with them.

      Reply
  24. Due some family resion have to discontinue my job and with all formal process i resgined from the job letting all my manger and hr know. Also i do have bond of 20 month and 3 month notice period …And company is forcing me to work from office in covid situation dont know what to do they are asking for bond amount also ….and im not in situation to go to office and work also dont have money to settle amount …plz suugest

    Reply
    • Ideally you will either have to serve the notice period or fulfill the bond amount. Its better that you reach out to the HR dept of your company and discuss your reason for discontinuing your job.

      Reply
  25. I was not contacted by any source of of contact i.e through email , call or letter when I informed the team leader that I will be joining the work after two days , that time I was informed that the absconding has been raised so I should go office and submit the identity card in the office , and after few days when the company gets in touch with me that time I should go and get my FNF done
    So can you suggest me what can be done in this case

    Reply
  26. I Resigned from company but did not serve notice period which is 3 months and discontinue to go office . But hr has revoked my resignation and marked absconded now what to do. Will I get my PF amount after all this.? Since the pf is going in trust of same company . Please suggest what to do.

    Reply
    • If possible, you should settle all your dues with the company. Although As per the PF rule, you can claim your PF amount.

      Reply
  27. I’m one of those people who are being absconded, my reason was because of due to COVID-19, then i was send an message to come on the 4th of May but I didn’t instead I come on the 10th then the manager told me that I was just absconded, so I don’t know what to do can you please advise me.

    Reply
  28. Hi

    I absconded two years ago,I haven’t received any further notice since I resigned. I don’t owe any company’s devices or loan. In fact when I left nearly $50,000 sales I have given to the company, it was like scam business so I don’t wanted to proceed further so I sent resignation mail. I did not serve notice period. By now I would be terminated or they can send me legal notice?

    Reply
  29. I was Absconded from my service due to 2 days absent from my job. Next day my boss not allowed me to join back.
    Can u suggest me what to do?

    Reply
    • You should approach the HR department of your organization and discuss your problem with them. This is largely dependent on the employment policy of your organization.

      Reply
  30. i am one of the person working in central government job not yet completed prohbition i am thinking to abscond from the job suffering from personal issues what will happen please reply me

    Reply
    • As mentioned in the blog, it is not a good idea to quit your job without informing your organization. Submit a resignation to the appropriate supervisor or HR. Absconding will not only leave a bad impression about you, but can affect your professional career as well.

      Reply
  31. Iam one of the people who absconded at due to misunderstanding with my supervisor and my manager ok I was send a telegram of which I was supposed to reach my place before 25 march for the hearing but i received it on 02 April and go to the office I was only given my service certificate and uif certificate, so what the law says about this

    Reply

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