Giving Notice

April 4, 2004 6:42 PM

How much notice should I give? I like my job and my boss, but I've been accepted to grad school. My company has a habit of procrastinating on hiring new people (a month or more), but I have a lot of responsibilities that will need to be taken over immediately. It might even be beneficial for someone to take over the week before I leave, so I can give them some training. Should I stick with the traditional two weeks, or give them a little more leeway?
posted by ArsncHeart to Work & Money (12 answers total)

What's it gonna hurt to give them more leeway?
posted by Stan Chin at 6:49 PM on April 4, 2004

what's in your contract? i've always had 1 month notice terms.
posted by andrew cooke at 6:56 PM on April 4, 2004

I once gave my employer three-month's notice, because I had completely databased the company's capital inventory and automated much of the inventory procedures. Plus, I wanted to train our secretary how to use what I had written so she could get a major pay boost.

Although that was almost 20 years ago and most everyone there then is gone now, the new director (who never knew me) still gives me glowing references.

Build bridges; don't burn them.
posted by mischief at 6:59 PM on April 4, 2004

Extending Stan Chin's comment, if early notice is going to somehow cause you problems, I'd give them two weeks. On the other hand, if you're fond of them and want to give them a heads up, I'm sure they'll appreciate it.
posted by jragon at 7:01 PM on April 4, 2004

If you're at-will, and you trust your boss, give them the notice now. They will appreciate having the extra time to transition the new employee in; you'll leave on good terms and have good references.

Since it sounds like you don't have a formal, anal employer, that's probably the way to do it. Otherwise, if there's some kind of policy about dumping people as soon as they give notice, you'd want to wait until the last possible minute. But you shouldn't have anything to worry about. Strengthen your bridges and get good references.

on preview, what everyone else said. I'm redundant, like your backup server.
posted by PrinceValium at 7:03 PM on April 4, 2004

BTW, our secretary went on to become the network administrator for that site.
posted by mischief at 7:08 PM on April 4, 2004

I had the same situation. I chose to give them advance notice (they actually knew I would be applying to grad schools), and when I accepted an offer, I told them right away. The upshot was that I was able to train the incoming replacement, work fewer hours while I was packing and getting ready for the move, and they have given me the option of part-time summer employment, should I want it at some point.
posted by fionab at 8:17 PM on April 4, 2004

Unless you have a reason to hate your employer or reason to believe that they will dump you as soon as you give notice, give them all the notice you can - they will appreciate it and remember you well for it. This can be valuable down the track when you need to provide references for your next job.

I am not sure whether it applies to you, but a common practice here where the company pays notice out rather than allowing the employee to serve it, is to wait until the day before you plan to leave, then hand in your notice for 2, 4 or whatever weeks, knowing that they are going to pay out the notice period.
posted by dg at 8:23 PM on April 4, 2004

If all parties involved are rational and trust each other, then the more notice, the better.
posted by davidmsc at 8:51 PM on April 4, 2004

Rule of thumb: the worse the employer, the less notice I give. Up to and including "fuck you, I'm outta here" and leaving that instant, never to return. But if you like them, and you trust them, give them more than you think they'll need.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 11:46 PM on April 4, 2004

I actually just gave my current employer four months notice. He knew I was applying to schools for fall, however, so I would have had to make up very elaborate lies to not tell him exactly when I'd be leaving.

The last job I left I gave two weeks out of necessity--I had to start my next position quickly and ended up overlapping the two jobs as it were. I liked my boss a lot, but the company was unkind and had I given them more notice, they likely would have just shitcanned me immediately.
posted by jennyb at 6:17 AM on April 5, 2004

I've given three months notice in the past as well for a good employer. Wasn't a problem at all, although I was annoyed with how they wasted it by waiting until I was almost gone to hire a replacement who wasn't qualified, but that wasn't really my problem. I was always happy to answer questions after I'd left too.
posted by ursus_comiter at 7:06 AM on April 5, 2004