When I worked for a Microsoft contractor in 2015, the owners took it very personally whenever someone wanted to leave. If you gave any notice they would accept it without question, but a couple of days later security would suddenly show up and escort you out of the building. That taught me that when I do give notice to prepare to be let go immediately, have everything wrapped up and ready to go.
Career advice no one gave me: Give a lot of notice when you quit
31–40 of 405 posts
Re: Career advice no one gave me: Give a lot of notice when you quit
#322 weeks is the standard? I am amazed. In Switzerland where I live, it is 3 full calendar months. And I thought Switzerland is very similar to the USA... My god 2 weeks lol, someone quits and he is gone the next day. How is this legal?
I would think that labour laws most definitely are different in those countries. Although USA does have variability by state
Re: Career advice no one gave me: Give a lot of notice when you quit
#332 weeks is the standard? I am amazed. In Switzerland where I live, it is 3 full calendar months. And I thought Switzerland is very similar to the USA... My god 2 weeks lol, someone quits and he is gone the next day. How is this legal?
In the US, it's generally considered important to the economy that employees have good job mobility. There's plenty of stories of awful employers / managers; so job mobility is generally considered how workers protect themselves.
In general, because workers can pretty much leave whenever they want, employers need to make sure there's good financial incentives and good working conditions. Some employers will provide things like retention bonuses, stock plans tied to staying employed for a certain length, or other incentives that employees give up when they quit.
As far as a mandatory 3 month notice period: As an American, the few times I've been in a "bad" job, I've just wanted to leave. A 3 month period would just make me miserable. I'd rather have some kind of financial incentive to stay to a certain date.
Re: Career advice no one gave me: Give a lot of notice when you quit
#34This is terrible advice, the company will never give you a heads up if they are going to fire you. Do what's best for you. Keeping a good relationship with your current employer comes second.
Re: Career advice no one gave me: Give a lot of notice when you quit
#35Giving notice? Be ready to be walked out of the building, which I believe would be as likely as the Pollyanna scenario outlined in the OP.
{In which case the part about 'get benefits longer' goes out the window.}
Re: Career advice no one gave me: Give a lot of notice when you quit
#362 weeks is the standard? I am amazed. In Switzerland where I live, it is 3 full calendar months. And I thought Switzerland is very similar to the USA... My god 2 weeks lol, someone quits and he is gone the next day. How is this legal?
In most US states, you can go into the boss' office and say "I quit" and walk out the door.
Re: Career advice no one gave me: Give a lot of notice when you quit
#37I saw many times notice longer than 6 months; the record so far is more than 2 years, but these are special cases:
- very high level people like VP level or above - 6 months during which they fully onboard a replacement
- a former colleague that was past retirement age, but they had no replacement for him so they convinced him to stay longer (he gave 2 years notice)
- my boss is on notice for retirement in more than 18 months from now (he can retire any day he wants, he was the age and he is meeting all criteria)
But other than that, I don't recommend a notice longer than 1 month, that is enough for almost any case.
Re: Career advice no one gave me: Give a lot of notice when you quit
#382 weeks is the standard? I am amazed. In Switzerland where I live, it is 3 full calendar months. And I thought Switzerland is very similar to the USA... My god 2 weeks lol, someone quits and he is gone the next day. How is this legal?
I'm also amazed by the stories of managers who immediately layoff workers who said they will quit. Why ? Is this like some "Oh no you're not deciding to quit, I decided first you're fired, I call dibs !" ? The dude said they will leave anyway. And doing the layoff will just allow him to leave without extensively teaching someone else. This should be illegal as well.
It really depends on the worker, in my experience, and their approach to the situation.
I had one person who gave a full year's notice, so that we could hire, train, and integrate the new worker before she left. It was glorious and resulted in zero down time.
I have had another who gave one month's notice, and spent the entire time being toxic. Digging out from under that took the better part of three years. The overlap for technical knowledge was just simply not worth the headaches in the team.
It's highly subjective, but it really does depend on the person, in absence of a clear "they're out immediately policy". But as a manager, my preference is to select a date roughly one week out from the notice and use that as the exit day. That way the worker can close any relationships they have, positively, but if they go sour there isn't really enough time to screw up the rest of the team.
In the context of your statement, we only hear one side of the argument. Remember that there is always a second perspective. I know that I have had folks who I have told to just go the same day they gave notice who tell their friends that I'm an uncaring asshat. The reality is that I fully expected them to be toxic in their remaining time.
Re: Career advice no one gave me: Give a lot of notice when you quit
#392 weeks is the standard? I am amazed. In Switzerland where I live, it is 3 full calendar months. And I thought Switzerland is very similar to the USA... My god 2 weeks lol, someone quits and he is gone the next day. How is this legal?
Same for me in the UK - 3 months seems to be standard for people that have institutional knowledge. I know other positions have shorter times.
Edit: although I’m not sure how it would play out if I decided to just do nothing for those 3 months if I were to leave
Re: Career advice no one gave me: Give a lot of notice when you quit
#40This is terrible advice. Great that it has worked for the author but it does not mean it's a good idea for everyone. 2 weeks is the standard and as long as you give that you maintain good relations. Most people are not as valuable or important as they like to think they are. I have seen very important people leave / fired and things still go on. (Twitter is still working - isn't it?) Once you tell that you are leavin…
It's so bad it feels like straight up management propaganda