If this had been my experience, then I probably would have been fine with not charging. To elaborate on my personal experiences. It was never about making mon

If this had been my experience, then I probably would have been fine with not charging. To elaborate on my personal experiences. It was never about making money, but always about smoothly severing ties. In my first experience both I and my new employer were frustrated as I was receiving calls every week for more than six months. The old company and the new company were different, but they had close ties which is the only reason my new job tolerated that I was spending hours they were paying for on someone else for free. When it was still going on for six months I was advised by my current boss to advise them I would have to charge to continue to support them, and see what happened. At that point they said they understood and would discuss it with their superiours. It turned out that with money as a motivating factor they finally were able to get by without me. With another employer I knew that a standard two week notice for them wasn't long enough as I was their lone sys admin, but anything longer would not have been ok for my new employer who had just lost a key employee on a major project and needed someone that could step in ASAP and hit the ground running. In that case I offerered that I could help out in the evenings or weekends for a reasonable hourly rate that was still above my normal hourly rate. They were glad to have that offer there and said they would only call me if they absolutely had to. I never heard a word from them until I got a call that their Exchange server (which I had repeatedly advised them for more than a year needed to be replaced, but they were too cheap to do so) had crashed and they urgently needed help. I came in on a Friday night after getting off work and then I worked straight through the weekend to setup a new server and recover all of the lost data. They were more than glad to pay. With another employer I was the leadon a mission criticial financial system I gave them a longer than usual notice when I was leaving to give them extra time to prepare for my departure. Then I spent my last month doing nothing but trying to make sure everyone knew what was needed before I left. I gave them the same option, for a fee they were welcome to call me whenever they needed. Almost six months went by and I didn't hear from them, then I got a call when they realized no one knew how to handle their end of year cutover. I walked them through it in an hour long call. They were very happy to have the help and would have paid; I told them not to worry about it since it was only an hour and they hadn't been pestering me in the past, but that if I got a call next year about the same issue I would have to bill them for it. No bridges were burned there; they were happy and occassionally I have run in to some of the higher ups and they always tell me how they would love for me to come back if I ever decide I need a change.