I agree but it ended up being a rather difficult situation to prove. We had to start moving and training some else to do parts of her job in light of and in anticipation of her verbal resignation. She then made the claim this was in “retaliation” for complaining about her working conditions and that her job description and work not being the one she thought she was hire for (even though she had signed an acknowledgement of the very same) and although we did everything we could reasonably do to mitigate this, i.e. offering her a more flexible work schedule to accommodate her long commute and child care issues, even offering to let her work from home some days. During the unemployment telephone hearing, she completely denied that she had ever told us of her intentions to quit after finding another job, claimed that she had never said this and since she had only said this verbally and never put it into writing and strung us along for months, we were pretty much screwed. PA is very liberal in granting unemployment. All the burden falls to the employer and even when you have proof of a termination for cause or a voluntary resignation, more times than not they will rule in favor of the employee.
I have an “iron clad” policy.
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER have verbal communication in lieu of a written and signed statement by all concerned on ANY action that may become a legal quagmire or a potential financial “land mine” no matter how small the issue.
You have to realize that as an employer you are actually hiring your own potential lawsuits and you must fully expect that sometime in the future that good, hardworking employee will turn and “bite your hand” in trade for easy money through suing you at the first opportunity.
50 years ago it was a rare thing. With the complete destruction of morals of today’s society, it’s simply another thing to do......kind of like winning the lottery.