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It was reasonable not to allow an employee whose ego was "dazzled" by other job offers to rescind his resignation, the Fair Work Commission has found, rejecting that the employer's conduct constituted a dismissal.

The Virgin Australia Airlines operations leader resigned with notice in April this year, after accepting an external role that he said "perfectly" aligned with his skillset and offered a higher salary.

When that job fell through, the employee asked to rescind his resignation, apologising for the inconvenience of his "2 x 360-degree pivots in two days". He told the employer his instinct had been "screaming" to stay but his "ego was busy being dazzled by shiny new offers".

But the employer responded that it couldn't accept his request, as it had decided to restructure the employee's portfolios...