Leaving, but not leaving yet: etiquette?

Ditzy_Mitzy

A friend is in a position that some must also have found themselves in: she knows that she will be leaving her present employment, but will not be doing so for a period of approximately three or four months.  Notice period is four weeks, so logic suggests that she should say nothing until the resignation letter goes in a month prior to departure.  Doing that will mean nobody has any suspicions about the friend's departure, so employment should continue as normal.  

The friend has concerns, however.  She is on good terms with management and has no desire to leave them in the lurch with a surprise resignation.  It will be a surprise, as nothing of the sort has been intimated and nobody believes the friend has any thoughts of going.  Management, recently, have discussed various plans for the coming year with the friend including project work.  Friend knows she may not see those projects to fruition, so feels guilty about committing to anything.  Declining the work without good reason is likely to raise suspicions. 

Should friend, then, come clean to her manager?  

elsien

Is there a chance that the job she is going to may still fall through, given the slightly vague start date? 

Jillanddy

I can see arguments both ways. I think for me a factor to consider would be why she is leaving.... Why is she leaving? That might inform the various options open to her.

Ditzy_Mitzy

elsien said:

Is there a chance that the job she is going to may still fall through, given the slightly vague start date? 

Jillanddy said:

I can see arguments both ways. I think for me a factor to consider would be why she is leaving.... Why is she leaving? That might inform the various options open to her.

Should have said: friend is leaving to go into full time education, there is no 'other job' to consider.  

400ixl

If she was to say she was planning to leave in September and they said OK, and gave her 4 weeks notice with immediate effect, how would that impact her? That is the risk she is running by saying anything.

If that risk is low or manageable then it may be worth a conversation if she was likely to want to re-join the company following further education. Personally I would just carry on as normal until nearer the time. Businesses are resilient and pretty much no-one is indispensable and the business will continue to run. 

Jillanddy

400ixl said:

If she was to say she was planning to leave in September and they said OK, and gave her 4 weeks notice with immediate effect, how would that impact her? That is the risk she is running by saying anything.

If that risk is low or manageable then it may be worth a conversation if she was likely to want to re-join the company following further education. Personally I would just carry on as normal until nearer the time. Businesses are resilient and pretty much no-one is indispensable and the business will continue to run. 

Assuming that she has 2+years service, they can't give her notice for no good reason. If they have good reason, then it doesn't matter whether she wants to leave or stay!

Given the circumstances and the fact that she wants to be a "good leaver" - if you like the employer, you never know whether you may want to go back, or need them again for some reason - I would suggest that she formally gives two months / 8 weeks notice (obviously two months before she wants to leave) with that notice specifying the date upon which she intends to leave. That is double the amount of notice that she must give, and allows the employer time to plan an exit strategy and handover. But right now is far too soon, and you never know what might happen in the next month or two. If she isn't feeling safe doing that, then that's her answer - give the required amount of notice and nothing more. No point feeling guilty - no matter how much one likes the employer, you can be assured they will never give you more notice than they are required to do!

Andy_L

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

A friend is in a position that some must also have found themselves in: she knows that she will be leaving her present employment, but will not be doing so for a period of approximately three or four months.  Notice period is four weeks, so logic suggests that she should say nothing until the resignation letter goes in a month prior to departure.  Doing that will mean nobody has any suspicions about the friend's departure, so employment should continue as normal.  

The friend has concerns, however.  She is on good terms with management and has no desire to leave them in the lurch with a surprise resignation.  It will be a surprise, as nothing of the sort has been intimated and nobody believes the friend has any thoughts of going.  Management, recently, have discussed various plans for the coming year with the friend including project work.  Friend knows she may not see those projects to fruition, so feels guilty about committing to anything.  Declining the work without good reason is likely to raise suspicions. 

Should friend, then, come clean to her manager?  

It won't be a surprise: they're getting a months notice. As they haven't imposed a longer notice period they must be happy with that much notice

Undervalued

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

elsien said:

Is there a chance that the job she is going to may still fall through, given the slightly vague start date? 

Jillanddy said:

I can see arguments both ways. I think for me a factor to consider would be why she is leaving.... Why is she leaving? That might inform the various options open to her.

Should have said: friend is leaving to go into full time education, there is no 'other job' to consider.  

As other have said, she is not obliged to give more than her contracted notice. Whilst, theoretically, she is not at risk of being give counter notice and told to go in a month there is always a chance that might happen or that her working life becomes difficult in more subtle ways.

A compromise might be to tell the employer, as a courtesy, that she is considering returning to full time education in the autumn so could she defer starting on any new major projects until she has decided. They may of course make her an offer that makes her change her mind.....

pjcox2005

Subject to finances being able to weather it, I would make it be known I'll be going back to full time education in 4 months.

I wouldn't officially resign until a month out but it helps people get sorted and more structure in handover. It's hard to recruit, unless really unskilled role with no training then nobody will be coming through the door tomorrow. They'll need to sort recruitment process, advertise, interview, offer, new employees notice period so the company would be really daft to try to speed up the friend leaving and as pointed out, if over 2 years service then they'd have no grounds to move them on anyway.

Appreciate that's not for everyone, I think i just quite like being upfront with people. Normally works out well.

TELLIT01

Under normal circumstances, i.e. another job offered but a delayed start, your friend should not say or do anything until she has to hand her notice in.  If the amount of notice required is not enough for the employer to find a replacement, that is a failing on the part of the employer not the employee.

This situation is somewhat different.  If she is definitely going into education and there is no reason this will not happen, she could let them know informally a couple of months before she it due to leave.  I wouldn't do it any earlier because none of us know what is round the corner in life.

tealady

I left a job to go to full time ed. It was a job I hated but told my boss as soon as I could, then formally handed my notice in nearer the time.
My job was offered to a temp after the date that I could not rescind my notice.
Happy bunnies all round.