How Much Notice Should You Give Your Employer?

Here's a piece from Kiplinger where a reader shares the story of a co-worker who left without much notice. The piece then gets to the heart of the issue: how much notice should be given to an employer when an employee resigns?

A summary of their answer:

[The worker who left] owed all of you (probably not legally, but ethically) at least two weeks’ notice, and ideally more. In most cases, a new employer will understand, and even respect, a new hire’s desire to do right by her current colleagues. And a more thoughtful resignation might have improved her odds of getting a good reference from your boss if she ever needed one.

Here's my take on this one:

• I think two weeks' notice is standard and what everyone should try to give. It's still too short for the employer, but it is standard and a generally accepted principle. If you want a good reference for later on (or at least to leave on good terms -- and you DO want this), you should give two weeks.
• That said, employers don't often give employees two weeks' notice/severance when they let them go, so why should employees do this?
• At my last job we had a guy that left with three days' notice. Ugh. It put us in a bad spot but his new employer wanted him asap. And what could we really do about it? He did offer to work nights and weekends (for free!) to make up for the lurch he was leaving us in.

I'm sure many of you have thoughts on this issue, so let me have it. How much notice do you think an employer should receive when an employee resigns?

Comments

[cmadler]

It depends on the industry and the position. For example, someone in sales who is moving to a similar position with another company will probably give little or no notice -- it's not uncommon for someone in such a position who tries to give notice to be terminated immediately. Likewise, there may be special considerations when someone is going to a competitor and works with confidential or sensitive information...and expecting that, such an employee can be expected to give little or no notice.

[Jon @ Be Net Worthy]

I think that most people don't realize what a small professional world most of us live in. Ruin your reputation once, and word gets around fast.

I would recommend that everyone give at least two weeks notice and do more if you can. You definitely want to leave on good terms.

Not only may you be asking your old employer for a recommendation, but you may very well be asking them for a job in a few years. It happens all the time. It's a very small world, and getting smaller every day.

[FMF]

+1 to Jon's comment!

[Jdmitch]

"Sadly, this spirit of trust is long gone at many companies, especially big firms. Too many employers terminate staff abruptly and coldly, escorting them from the office, depriving them of collegial farewells—sometimes even assuming they will try to sabotage the company. And some bosses, when given notice that an employee will be voluntarily resigning in a few weeks, will angrily tell that person to clear out immediately.

At a company like that, I can understand why some workers might believe it’s perfectly all right not to give any advance notice—and some employment experts would agree. The workers are just acting defensively."

Unfortunately, most companies are like this. I don't know of a single company that gives a downsized employee time to figure things out... they may or may not provide some severance but it's almost always an immediate escort out of the building... quite frankly, if a company has EVER done this... they don't "deserve" any notice...

I call absolute bullshit on the following statement in the article

"It sounds as if your firm still honors the traditional “social compact” between employer and staff, under which everyone works in an environment of consideration and trust. I’ll bet that if your boss needed to terminate an employee for business purposes (not poor performance), that employee would be given enough notice to find another job, plus either generous severance or the flexibility to continue working there while looking."