Comments | terryfish: Notice periods of doom

terryfish

Notice periods of doom

Jul 16, 2004 14:42

So, I finally got a replacement for my contract today from MIPS (I lost my previous one) and discovered that my notice period is... wait for it... three monthsIs it just me, or would you, as a company, not particularly want a dissatisfied employee remaining for three months after they give intention to go ( Read more... )

Comments 10

velvetpurrs July 16 2004, 06:46:19 UTC

Nah... even with a 3 month, they can pay that off rather than having you work it, or if they think they'll have probs recruiting, they can keep you on for it instead...

terryfish July 16 2004, 06:47:48 UTC

Yeah, they can pay me off, but equally they could put me on gardening leave. No chance to work for new exciting job, but plenty of time off I s'pose

velvetpurrs July 16 2004, 06:54:21 UTC

Yep - and you get to spend the time job hunting (which, even if you're doing it full time, can take more than a month to achieve from start to finish), and have money coming in while you do it still...

terryfish July 16 2004, 06:59:02 UTC

Well, I'm sufficiently paranoid that I don't think I'd leave a job without having another lined up

acheron_hades July 16 2004, 06:57:53 UTC

Is it just me, or would you, as a company, not particularly want a dissatisfied employee remaining for three months after they give intention to go?

Personally, I'd never want a dissatisfied employee on the premises for a second longer than necessary - but then I'm a paranoid with a deep distrust for most of the rest of humanity ;-)

If you start making noises to indicate your lack of gruntle, perhaps you could come to some arrangement with them to shorten the notice period?

terryfish July 16 2004, 07:00:04 UTC

I don't want to rock the boat too much until I'm sure I've a role to go to elsewhere.

There's nothing the bunch of people I work with can do to ameliorate my situation, and I'd just feel bad making them feel bad about me feeling bad (IYSWIM)

I like (most of) my co-workers and I like the premises, the grounds, even the company really. I just hate the work I have to do.

acheron_hades July 16 2004, 07:36:52 UTC

*nods* I can understand that.. maybe once you have something else lined up, you can ask nicely and see if you can get the notice period reduced..

terryfish July 16 2004, 07:43:05 UTC

I'm going to do that, but first I need an understanding future employer :-(

ethelthefrog July 16 2004, 07:49:49 UTC

All my engineering jobs have had a 3 month notice period. I've worked exactly two of those months in both jobs I've left. When you look at it, 3 months is in nobody's interest and employers seem to be willing to recognise that.

ewx July 16 2004, 09:23:11 UTC

I suspect the number of people stupid enough to actively work against their employer's interests for those three months is quite low. (On the other hand, the number of people who'll fail to work particularly hard during such a ridiculously lengthy notice period is probably rather high.)

I had a three month notice period at NetConnect, and had somewhere around a week or two of handover work to do during that period. So I might have ended up at Zeus a couple of months earlier if NC hadn't had their heads up their bottoms.