Ask HN: When to notify your employer you are going to leave?

I decided I'll resign by the end of the year and I'm thinking if it's better to tell my boss about it now or to tell him when the resignation date is close.

If I tell him now is good because I give them enough time to look for a replacement but is bad because I'll be in a weird limbo for three months.

If I tell him days before leaving they'll have less time to look for a replacement but I'll avoid being in a employee/non employee limbo.

What do you think?

Always give 2 weeks, no more, no less. If you give too much notice, there is the chance that they terminate you right away (you are not invested in the company long term, why keep you), or as soon as they find a replacement (what if that happens quickly). I have worked for companies where as soon as you put in your 2 week notice they just pay you out 2 weeks and terminate your employment that day.

Were you hired with any clause that determines notice on either side? Often tech hires have a mutuality clause. Were you hired and paid on a monthly basis? This may affect things, but you might only have the statutory 2 weeks? Others are right, once notice is given people are often walked out and all login credentials cancelled. What has happened to others like you at this company in the past - if you know.

While this is generally true, there are situations where departments cannot afford to lose you (yet are handcuffed by the higher-ups to the point where they can't incentivize you to stay), and if you know for sure you're in that situation (usually that's less true than you think), then maybe giving them some extra notice would be good.

But you shouldn't feel like you have to, it's on the company for not being better prepared and having some contingencies and some knowledge and responsibility sharing of some sort in place.

Like someone at my job just gave three months notice today, and my company would be insane to let him go early. They are utterly reliant on him. And it will take time to train someone to follow in his footsteps.

I hope they do hire someone before he leaves that he can train, and not just let him leave without replacing him like they've done so many other times before, because they would be in deep trouble this time.

Like maybe they lose their clients from missing their contractual obligations and the department will have to shut down trouble.

But if I were in those shoes, I probably wouldn't give more than a month at the very most, though.

The one time I did that, I was the only programmer at a small company, and I felt like I'd be leaving them in a really bad position if I didn't give them more notice.

But it didn't seem like the company took advantage of that month anyway, and didn't hire anyone for me to train during that entire time. I mostly just documented what I did as best as I could for two weeks and then just did my normal job until it was time to leave. But they let me keep working the entire month, and didn't force me out early.

I'd be very careful with this. While it's true that this can happen, you could be burning a lot of bridges if you did this. I would see how other people are treated when they quit and see if they get rid of people right away or honor the two week notice before pulling this. You could make the entire department hate you on top of obviously never being able to work at that company again.