nvm. nothing to read here
The standard is to have the employee leave immediately for the security issue and HR issues involved. When I left one adjunct teaching job, I saw the writing on the wall for a month and it would have been mutual had they been honest. I repeatedly asked if they were planning on having me back and I kept getting BSed - even on my last day. After my last final all of the offices were closed and so I went home and inputted grades the next day. As soon as grades were official I got the email of don’t come back and by the way, make a special trip here to return your key (which I didn’t need that last day) and teaching supplies. Fuck them. I’m not driving 25 miles one-way when I would have turned all of that stuff in while I was there.
Moral of the story, when they know you’re leaving, they think they can’t trust you. Why? Because sometimes they’re right <Insert a few stories Mrs. Cad has told me including the guy who filed a workers comp claim after “slipping” in the parking lot being escorted to his car after being fired.>
I work at a not for profit. I have told my boss I am steadily searching but even though I trust her and like her (generally) I don’t intend to give any more than two weeks. Not my problem after that.
Twenty five years ago my boss’s boss wrote me a glowing letter of recommendation to a couple of grad schools. He then kept asking if I had been accepted. I gave him the good news that I had been accepted at my first choice school about 300 miles away and would be starting in six months. Warm congratulations all around. Then things went sour in a hurry.
He then transferred me from a store in an affluent suburban area to an urban hell-hole, where the last store manager had quit after he had been left tied up in the stockroom by robbers who had hidden in the store at closing. In those six months I experienced a lock-down due to a gang war in the parking lot, an armed robbery of the pharmacy, a junkie pulling a knife on the pharmacist who wouldn’t fill an obviously forged prescription, an either drunk or mentally ill woman disrobing and defecating in the store aisles, and worst of all a drug abusing pharmacist who tried to blame the clerks for the drugs he stole. Not to mention the dozen or more employees I dismissed for stealing.
Basically as soon as I was a short timer, I was disposable. He knew I was too honest to quit and take another short term job by not disclosing my plans to a new employer. He knew I needed the money for school. So he did what was best for the company. I sucked it up and did the best job I could at the new store, and not a word of complaint to the bosses.
I swore I’d never give more than two weeks notice again. But I actually did give six weeks notice again at my last job change, because I wanted to take a week off to go house hunting in my new job location. They knew I was looking because I wanted to move closer to my parents. They knew it was only a matter of time and they were happy to give me a week off if I would come back and transition my projects in an orderly fashion.
A lot of it depends on the industry you’re in. If you’re likely to have access to important confidential information that has value to competitors, you’re more likely to get escorted out immediately. It’s my experience in changing jobs that if you give advance notice and the employer wants you out right away they give you the pay up until the day you said you were leaving.
One company I worked for, a guy had given 2 weeks, and on his last day as he was leaving at 5 o’clock, the boss tried to make him stay later to finish something up. Um… no.
I’ve written elsewhere about my last day at work when I retired. It was a very small company, and I gave about a month’s notice, and helped to train my replacement. When I left at 5 PM, handing over the necessary files I’d been working on to my boss, he expressed astonishment that I was actually leaving. LOL.
I once gave a year’s notice that I’d be leaving, for a half year (with no expectation to be hired back.) That worked out great: they were able to plan ahead, I had my 6 months’ walkabout. When I got back, they didn’t need more people so I looked elsewhere, and they later took me back on when they had a big new contract.
There are cases where I might consider it today. But nobody looks sideways at anyone who gives the contractually required notice, whatever that is (typically two weeks). I’d only give advance notice from a position of significant strength (where I knew I had options if they decided to let me go right away instead.)
That’s true. It’s a reasonable position from the point of view of the security company where the ONLY thing that matters is loss due to a disgruntled employee, but it’s often not in the best interest of the company that hires the security experts. I once worked in a company where they laid off a portion and did the escort thingy. Very little work got done for the next month or two: everyone who wasn’t laid off was so pissed off at how it was handled. The best folks simply took off for better environments. I suspect it cost the company far more than if one of the employees had been disgruntled and did the worst they could think of doing.
Layoffs are hard enough on morale. Pull that stuff and it’s even worse. Of course I"m sure there are types of companies where it makes sense (a security company, for example!) But fortunately, not the kind of business I’m in, where intellectual capital and productivity are what matters.
I ended up giving my previous employer 5 months notice; I’d originally planned to give 2 - 4 weeks but circumstances forced my hand. It worked out fine but I doubt I’ll ever again be in a situation where that kind of notice makes sense.
My boss, who was in a hard-to-quickly-replace position, left with zero notice at a very awkward time and the CEO asked if I was interested in applying for the position. I had no interest in the job so pretty much had to come clean on my plans to leave.
I’d worked there for a decade, was on good terms with everyone, and my plans were flexible enough that a few months delay wouldn’t hurt, so I agreed to stay through the transition of my boss’ replacement, two major annual events, and train up my replacement(s). I didn’t have any problems with the extended notice, but I was fully prepared to leave at any time. (I only had to play the I’m-still-here-more-for-you’re-benefit-than-mine card once 
)
Can I ask what made you decide to tell her that you’re looking? My experience has been that that’s an unusual thing to do except in a case where perhaps grant funding will come to an end. I’m job searching right now and trying to be very stealthy about it. How do you know they won’t find a reason to let you go? I mean, no one knows that, really, searching or not, but I would feel pretty vulnerable if my employer knew I was trying to leave.
I’ve never as an adult given less than a month’s notice, and I’ve never been locked out or asked to leave early. The last couple of jobs I quit I gave several month’s notice. But then, I’ve worked as an adult almost exclusively in the nonprofit/education fields, and there’s a different culture there. (FWIW, I’ve quit two jobs in the last 14 years, and one “quit” was really a transfer request to a different school in the same district).
I understand the risk, but I think there’s also a risk in giving just two weeks: if the work culture is one that values loyalty and has a “we’re in this together” feel, it may hurt the recommendations if it seems like you’re working the shortest possible notice. I figured I didn’t want to burn bridges, gave shit-tons of notice, and saw that work out for me in the form of glowing recommendations.
I work in nonprofits and have done this multiple times. In most cases the future was uncertain - I may or may not be leaving at a certain time. When my husband was placed for internship I gave about three months notice immediately after we received the news.
Naturally, I had a coworker quit about two month before I left. She gave two weeks notice and I ended up having to take over her job on top of mine until I left. It was a nightmare.
Nobody ever fired me. I think it helps if you have a job that makes it difficult for you to be replaced. At my last job I interviewed many people for the job I was leaving and it was quite difficult to find a replacement. Which was rather flattering actually and gave me a stronger sense of where my skills are at professionally.
I can’t say if I recommend it or not. I’m a compulsively honest person who couldn’t keep a secret to save my life. Basically in my estimation I had no choice.
Back when I lived in Calif and was looking to find a job in AZ, everyone knew why I was taking time off to go out of state. I think they knew at least 6 months in advance. They were all supportive and when I found my new home, they looked at the pics and said nice things about my new-to-me $20,000 trailer. I gave a month’s notice and got a very nice going away party.
When I was leaving my job in AZ to get married and move, everyone knew and I tried to be sure that the new people were trained and that the procedure manuals were updated. One of the PTB found out and I was “let go” with 2 weeks of severance pay and my unused PTO.
You never know what will happen, so I’d suggest that you only give 2 weeks.
I had to give two months notice for the job I am leaving next week (that’s just the terms if my contract). Just before that, I very nearly needed to tell my boss that I was thinking of leaving, because I needed time off for interviews, but it turned out not to be necessary. I was strongly advised (by a friend/mentor) not to divulge any plans until I had a firm offer, so I managed to get the interview time by saying I had an ‘urgent appointment of a personal nature’.
Turns out my boss had twigged anyway, and he was professional about it. The management team already recognised I had outgrown my role, but had nowhere to go internally.
A young colleague of mine left a few months ago to take up a role that was more suited to her career path and qualified skillset. She did tell our boss that she was planning to leave, and nothing bad happened, but I suspect this is not universal, and it’s a cake you can’t un-bake, so as an employee, I would say don’t tell until you have a firm offer, and they shouldn’t ask.
Any properly run organisation should have coping mechanisms built in for this scenario. It may be the employees’ responsibility to help build these plans while they are there, but it’s not their responsibility to tailor their exit arrangements because of lack of continuity planning.
My company has actually provided me with an agreement that provides me with a significant financial incentive if I give 8 weeks notice. Kind of funny actually that I have an extra incentive to leave, rather than a retention bonus.
When I was working on a contract in Dubuque, my manager knew I wasn’t happy there. I gave six month’s notice that I’d be leaving “before the snow falls”, and as a result I was passed over for raises, promotions, and training, although they were perfectly happy to heap the work higher and higher on me.
Won’t be doing that again, especially considering the number of times I have been given zero notice that I was being laid off.
I’d say it depends on your employer and how you think they’ll handle it.
In my first year out of school, I’d made my decision to quit and move to Dallas where the job pickings were better for tech people in about January of that year, and started making plans accordingly, to move in July-August.
In early March or so, my boss, who I had a terrific relationship with started talking about sending me on a business trip and various big projects that we were going to be doing in the fall, etc… so I explained my plan and said that I’d be happy to work on all of that until I left, but that I thought he deserved to know as early as possible so he could plan accordingly.
At my second job, I didn’t have nearly the good relationship with my superiors, so even though I’d made my grad school decision, taken the GMAT and was enrolled for the fall, I just gave them the 2 weeks notice. They’d have likely just cut my ass loose and hired someone new had I told them in March when I knew about all this, so I just waited until I was ready to go.
As a general rule, I would give as much notice as possible and at least two weeks. My present employer’s policy is to escort people out the day they give their notice. I imagine you can all guess what I’ll be doing the day I decide to leave here.
Sure, but as has been pointed out, if you gave (say) 6 months’ notice, I’m sure they wouldn’t be escorting you out that day with a cheque for half a year’s pay. Either they would keep you on the payroll until it suited them, or say they were terminating your contract with immediate effect but you would be paid according to the notice period in said contract. Assuming said termination was within the applicable law.
On the other hand, for those who are worried about giving notice and then getting canned immediately, the same should apply - sure, this can happen, but notice (usually) works both ways. In other words, your employer could fire you but they’d have to pay you for the notice period in your contract. To me, that’s a win-win - effectively you get two weeks’ paid leave.
In my case, last year my contract was amended (with my consent) to 12 weeks’ notice for both parties. So if I want to leave in a hurry, I can’t (at least if I want to get paid and avoid a potentially adverse reference), but equally it means if I get fired I have nearly 3 months to find another job.
In practice, I have a good relationship with my superiors so I would give as much notice as possible. I’m not sure what the legal position would be if they then tried to fire me without cause (for example, if I had given 6 months’ notice and they just said “nope - you’re gone in 12 weeks”). I’m in the UK where I think you generally get a bit more legal protection than the US in this situation. I expect I would have a good case for wrongful dismissal assuming my post wasn’t being made redundant and I wasn’t underperforming.
I also think there are cultural differences in the UK? American employers seem a bit paranoid with all this escorting out the building business. Here you have minimum one-month notice periods, handover meetings, leaving do’s…
They didn’t pay the staff who gave two weeks’ notice for those two weeks. We generally don’t have written employment contracts here. Most employers have their policies spelled out in a handbook but they are invariably subject to change at managements’ discretion - especially in “at will employment” states like Florida (where I am). In at-will states you can be terminated for any reason other than those specified by law (race, religion, etc.)
ETA: the escorting out stuff is certainly not universal. I would venture to say in most cases it goes the way you would be familiar with, except the one month notice thing.
I’ve given 4 months notice before. Of course, I was going to grad school, and my manager had written a recommendation letter for me to go, so he knew it was coming. It also helped that my lead loved me and I was one of the most productive people on said team, so they were more upset I was leaving than anything else.
Of course, I’ve also been walked out the door the same day I turned in a resignation, so these days I always give the standard two weeks and assume I’ll be told to take a hike that day. Which may be overly cynical, but it’s safe.