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How to quit a zero-hours job?

This is anonymous as I don't want my employment details associated with my TSR account.

I was hired to work with Hollister as a stock associate a while ago. I'm on a zero-hour contract. They asked me if I could work Black Friday and Christmas during the interview, and I said yes because at the time, I was available for both of these.
I turned up for my Black Friday shift and 40 mins into it, they asked me to go home as they had too many people working.

A few weeks ago my boyfriend surprised me with flights for a holiday over Christmas. I thought it would be okay since I'm on a zero hours contract so legally I'm not contracted to work every week. He already bought them so I couldn't say no anyway.

Today I told one of the assistant managers that I can't work over xmas any more, as I'm not going to be in the country. She then started quizzing me over how long I've been employed (its been about 1.5 months), and then asked why I told them I'm available, if I'm not. I explained that my boyfriend surprised me with the flights after I got hired.

She then said I have to discuss this when I'm next in for a shift. I have a feeling they're going to try discipline this or fire me. I've already been planning to quit the job after this month anyway, as I do a competitive/busy degree and won't have time for work since I'm doing my final exams soon.

If I can, I might as well put my notice in now, since I can't even work over xmas. Does anyone know if I need to write a letter of notice, or if I can just tell them that I want to quit since its zero-hours anyway?

Thanks in advance

Reply 1

_Eureka_

It's more polite to write a letter/email.

Reply 2

bones-mccoy

You can just leave if you're on a zero hours contract, just how they can fire you on the spot as well. I would still write a short letter or email, though, it's only polite. They're probably going to be annoyed as they would you have expected you to be available over their busiest period but there's not much they can do.