How to approach notice period?

agrinnall

You seem to be studiously ignoring the suggestion to schedule your start date at the new job to give you the 2 week break, as suggested by guest (#2) and LilElvis (#9), which suggests to me that what you really want is a confrontation with your current employer.

sangie595

Fireflyaway wrote: »

I see your point about it being a breach of contract, but me quitting is kind of different to them sacking me, to my mind anyway. I'm one person who lives off a wage. No money for me could mean bills not getting paid etc. Me leaving them will be of virtually no consequence to them. I do hardly anything ( one of the reasons I want to leave) and virtually nobody is behind what I was recruited to do. I actually think they might be happy to see me go.
I totally get on paper the idea of leaving with no notice is unprofessional but the place has annoyed me so much and in the bigger picture, nobody can force you to stay in a job. I'm a free man! I am a little concerned though that I'm just so fed up I will make a bad choice like sending a resignation postcard from a tropical island or sending in a cake with I QUIT iced on it......:rotfl:

But you aren't a "free man"! As you correctly observe, you are a wage slave - you must have your income. But that is no excuse - I presume that you are an adult? You entered into a contract. Now you want to break it because... Well actually, just because you want to!

It is four weeks, not a lifetime.

But how about... When your shiny new employer gets rid of you for whatever reason comes into their head, and you need a reference from that inconvenient former employer.... When they have a shiny new job five years from now and tell you to stuff your application form in the bin because they've seen your true colors already??? There are never good enough reasons not to burn bridges - they may be needed. But to burn them because you are fed up?

Sanne

I guess I'm only going to repeat what others have posted but options are...

1. Hand in your notice and ask if you can take your remaining holiday allowance. If, as you say, they'll be glad to get rid of you they might just agree instead of having to pay you for the days
2. Advise your new employer that you can only start in 6 weeks. Obviously depends on how urgently they need someone and if they are prepared to wait for an additional two weeks - something you'll need to judge
3. Just leave without working your full notice period. As previous posters said, not a good option if you want a positive reference and you're in breach of contract

Obviously it's also am option to hand your notice in before you have somewhere to go and hope you find something in two weeks. Quite obvious risk is that you have a break that's longer than intended. Really depends on the job you're working in, I have interviewed a few people where the plan has gone wrong but there are also jobs where this is completely valid and possible.

Fireflyaway

I have holiday booked for mid august so could just suggest I start after that if I am lucky to be offered something. That would mean I can work 4 weeks as required plus have some extra breathing room.

PossiblyOverworked

The earliest you could have an offer is, say, the 3rd or 4th week of June (given that it's already mid month and you are yet to go on the interviews which are some time in the future)... so a month's notice would take you to about the end of July, and then it would be a couple of weeks that you'd be working at the new employer before taking your holiday.

I'm not judging you in asking this but - do you need 2 weeks between jobs, and the booked holiday, (if you would have only been at the new employer 2-3 weeks at that point)? If so I would just explain to the new employer that you already have that holiday booked and would they prefer you delay your start until you come back from holiday - but you are available on the xx of July should they want you to - I think it's likely that they'd delay it given that managers and other people who would have to train/mentor you etc are likely to be away / covering for other people who are away / etc during that time. Particularly as it would be the school holidays.

Btw if it's a more "career" type of job than a minimum wage type job that people generally don't stay long at - it may be that people in your field are sometimes on more than a month's notice and therefore the employer would have to wait longer anyway!