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Notice period confusion
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MiLady
Posts: 12 Forumite
Dear All,
I started a new job in October and within days knew that it wasn't for me, but as part of my induction period I had the opportunity to visit other areas within the same hospital (I am a nurse). While in another department I was approached by a manager who expressed a desire to have me working with her and I agreed that I preferred that department too. I immediately applied for a job and at the beginning of this month was offered it.
I visited HR who hadn't given me a contract at that time to confirm my notice period which they told me was four weeks and I have this in writing. I handed my notice in on 12/12/12, but this week I have been told by my current manager that because my new job is internal my notice period will have to be negotiated because the rotas have been done up to mid February and releasing me before the end of January will make it difficult to cover my job. I have this and my notice letter also in writing. This leaves me with a notice period of around 7 weeks, 3 more than contracted and I am owed 7-14 days annual leave depending on my final leaving date.
I have done some searching to see where I stand on this matter but I can only find information on employers trying to lay you off early. I wouldn't mind so much, but I am not enjoying this job at all and am now suffering with stress related insomnia because I dread going into work each day. I have suffered with this before and last time I had a tonic clonic seizure, which I do not want a repeat of.
Any help much appreciated
MiLady
I started a new job in October and within days knew that it wasn't for me, but as part of my induction period I had the opportunity to visit other areas within the same hospital (I am a nurse). While in another department I was approached by a manager who expressed a desire to have me working with her and I agreed that I preferred that department too. I immediately applied for a job and at the beginning of this month was offered it.
I visited HR who hadn't given me a contract at that time to confirm my notice period which they told me was four weeks and I have this in writing. I handed my notice in on 12/12/12, but this week I have been told by my current manager that because my new job is internal my notice period will have to be negotiated because the rotas have been done up to mid February and releasing me before the end of January will make it difficult to cover my job. I have this and my notice letter also in writing. This leaves me with a notice period of around 7 weeks, 3 more than contracted and I am owed 7-14 days annual leave depending on my final leaving date.
I have done some searching to see where I stand on this matter but I can only find information on employers trying to lay you off early. I wouldn't mind so much, but I am not enjoying this job at all and am now suffering with stress related insomnia because I dread going into work each day. I have suffered with this before and last time I had a tonic clonic seizure, which I do not want a repeat of.
Any help much appreciated
MiLady
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Comments
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Well if your contract says four weeks then four weeks it is. The consequences are their problem not yours.
I would simply make it clear that you will be leaving on this date. It may be worth mentioning that the job is making you ill and that you would like to leave earlier. Imply, but don't actually threaten, that your doctor will sign you off sick.
Most firms are sensible enough to realise that there is limited value to be had from forcing somebody to work when they really don't want to be there. Nobody is indispensable!0 -
The answer is in your contract; if it says you have 4 weeks notice, and you have agreement from HR, then whatever happens after that is somebody else's problem.
I'm interested how you've accrued 7-14 days annual leave since October - I need a job like that!0 -
I'm interested how you've accrued 7-14 days annual leave since October - I need a job like that!
Well, beginning of October to mid January is three and a half months.
With the statutory minimum leave this would be eight and a bit days, rounded up to nine.
Plenty of people get more that statutory. 36 to 40 days is not that uncommon depending on the field of work.0 -
Well if your contract says four weeks then four weeks it is. The consequences are their problem not yours.
I would simply make it clear that you will be leaving on this date. It may be worth mentioning that the job is making you ill and that you would like to leave earlier. Imply, but don't actually threaten, that your doctor will sign you off sick.
Most firms are sensible enough to realise that there is limited value to be had from forcing somebody to work when they really don't want to be there. Nobody is indispensable!
Sorry - I totally disagree. Notice is not relevant here - the OP is not leaving their employment, but effecting an internal transfer within the same employer. They are entiled to leave their employment with four weeks notice, yes - but they are then not entitled to another job in the same hospital; and the employer has every right in law to effect an internal transfer at a point when it is convenient to them.
We are not talking about "most firms" here - we are talking about a hospital and patient care, during a period of time when many medical facilities are busy, overstretched, and a period of time during which many people want some leave and therefore rota's can be difficult to organise.
I appreciate that the OP is not enjoying the job but the OP is a nurse. A nurse who applied for this position of their own free will. I accept that they have made a mistake and the job is not for them - but they have another five weeks until the end of January when they can transfer to another position. The employer has given a very valid reason for being unable to effect the transfer - and more to the point, there is no law that can make them transfer the OP at all. Given that "the end is in sight" within a few weeks, surely the OP can manage to get through a few weeks without veiled threats or hints of going off sick if they cannot have their own way. Or in fact, doing so. I am sorry, but in my personal opinion it says little for the nursing profession if a member of it cannot manage three weeks more of work when patient care demands it. It would be entirely different if they were facing the next decade in a job they hate, but that is not the case here.0 -
If this is an internal transfer, then I don't see how the notice period is relevant. The employer will not change so the employment is not ending - OP is simply moving departments. There is no need for resignation as continuity will be preserved and her employer remains the same.
Therefore, I would agree that this is for discussion between the departments. However, OP needs to be careful. Making even veiled threats to go off sick with stress if she does not get her own way will not look good to the employer, whose HR department will cover her new role as well as her old.
As a first step, I would suggest the OP speaks to her new department, expresses how eager she is and asks them to help her move quickly.0 -
Sorry - I totally disagree. Notice is not relevant here - the OP is not leaving their employment, but effecting an internal transfer within the same employer. They are entiled to leave their employment with four weeks notice, yes - but they are then not entitled to another job in the same hospital; and the employer has every right in law to effect an internal transfer at a point when it is convenient to them.
OK, sorry I misread the OP. I assumed she just wanted to leave her job and the firm (hospital) were trying to stretch the notice period.
However, I don't agree with the views in your later paragraphs. If the OP has a medical history and if this current work is genuinely making her ill then that is also very relevant.
Perhaps she should just get signed off sick?0 -
OK, sorry I misread the OP. I assumed she just wanted to leave her job and the firm (hospital) were trying to stretch the notice period.
However, I don't agree with the views in your later paragraphs. If the OP has a medical history and if this current work is genuinely making her ill then that is also very relevant.
Perhaps she should just get signed off sick?
I made it very clear that there was a difference between my opinions on the law and my personal viewpoint. You are entitled to disagree with either.
However I still hold to my view that three weeks in a job that you don't really enjoy with terms and conditions such as those enjoyed by the NHS is hardly comparable to decades spent in a job you abhor but have little choice but to carry on with - as many. many people must. If someone cannot manage the former without developing stress, then perhaps they are in the wrong profession? Whilst I acknowledge that stress is a serious condition, the circumstances here are hardly dreadful. And it concerns me that we now have a culture in which people get stressed at the drop of a hat because they cannot have their own way, which in my view demeans the position of people suffering work related stress from intolerable working conditions. The OP here is a victim of nothing but their own bad choice - for which they are not to blame, but neither is management - and has a period of a few short weeks before that situation comes to an end.0 -
I do not need to justify myself0
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Oh, another poster who think that "genuine replies" only come from those who agree with them? What a surprise. Sorry, but a few weeks in a job that you don't enjoy is not a sentence - three decades is.
The legal fact - and it is a legal fact from a qualified barrister - is that it doesn't matter one jot what you think they should be able to organise. Unless they are prepared to change this decision then they are operating within the law, there is no notice period, and if they decided that you couldn't start the new job until March they could. You are not leaving for another hospital, so your argument is irrelevant.0 -
As others have said, you are entitled to give four weeks notice and resign. However, if you resign it is unlikely that the hospital will keep your new job open.
I think you just have to stick it out. 6 weeks is not very long, and new jobs always get much easier after the first two weeks.0
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