6 ms·

What exactly happens if you break a three month resignation period? I don’t advocate doing this in generally but as a hypothetical exercise if this person just

• brailsafe 6y ago
  Was curious about that as well. I've never heard of such an obsurd amount of time, and it seems doubtful it would hold up. "You need to give us 3 months heads up no matter what, but don't worry, we don't have to give you any if you oversleep for a meeting."
  • nerbert 6y ago
    This isn’t particularly crazy in Europe. It indeed goes both ways.
    • ratww 6y ago
      In my experience it's also the same in Latin America, but the notice period is normally of 1-2 months rather than 3-6 months.
  • arethuza 6y ago
    I had a 6 month notice period in one role, 3 months isn't uncommon for senior roles, in the UK at least.
    • xchaotic 6y ago
      while I agree that this is common in Europe, if the company ceases to exist, what good is the 3 months notice for the employee? If he/she has any options, I'd leave asap and not worry about amicable terms with a soon to be non-existent entity.
      • arethuza 6y ago
        Fair point - in that case I suspect that would be highly dependent on whether there are any assets remaining in the company and how the local legal system treats employees as creditors. Mind you - if the company is going down the tubes they are highly unlikely to enforce any job contracts.
    • PeterisP 6y ago
      What would be the practical consequences to the employee if they break that notice period in UK, i.e. stop coming to work (or, especially now with Covid, simply stop doing the remote work) sooner than these 3 months have passed?
      • arethuza 6y ago
        I suspect you could be sued by your employer. Mind you I've never heard of anyone being sued in that way - can't imagine it would be worth it for the employer unless they could demonstrate a significant financial loss.
        • pw201 6y ago
          I investigated this once (while I was sitting around doing not much during a 3 month notice period, funnily enough). It's as you say, the breach of a contract is something where the employer would have to sue you for damages, and if you're sitting around not doing much, it's going to be hard to argue that losing you has caused them harm, much less enough to make it worth suing over. I didn't break the contract anyway out of some combination of feeling like it was breaking a promise and the worry that Cambridge is a small town.
    • brailsafe 6y ago
      I guess it just seemed so implausible to me. As in, what happens if 2 weeks or 4 months in you just decide that the job is sufficiently ill-suited? Is there typically a trial period of equal time that precedes such an agreement?
  • turbinerneiter 6y ago
    It goes both ways, the employer has to give the employee 3 months notice as well. But this is for when both of them can't find a mutual solution. You can always agree to terminate the contract earlier, if both parties agree. At least that is how it works in Germany.
    • puszczyk 6y ago
      Same in Poland — after 2y on a permanent job contract the leave is 3 months. It goes both ways. I can be shorter if both parties agree.
      • yetihehe 6y ago
        Yes, if both parties agree, you can leave at once, otherwise employer can sue you for damages or lost profits (if damages are small, they don't bother) and you don't have unemployment benefits.
  • ACS_Solver 6y ago
    Perfectly common in large parts of Europe. I also have a 3 months notice period, which is pretty much the standard here in Sweden for tech workers or other highly-qualified occupations. For very senior positions, 6 months isn't unheard of. It goes both ways of course, my employer is also bound by the 3 month period in case they want to fire me.
    • wonderwonder 6y ago
      How does getting a new job work? You tell the new company that you have to give 3 months notice? That's some long term planning on the part of the hiring company.
      • hibbelig 6y ago
        Don't forget that the notice period applies to all companies and all employees. So the whole culture expects that, and works with the long lead times.
      • ACS_Solver 6y ago
        Yes, but that's nothing unusual when the entire industry expects that. The last time I changed jobs, I signed a contract at the end of March, to start in August. That was the three month notice period plus most people are on vacation in July, so my new company would rather have me in August. There are contractor agencies filling the niche of providing employees on short notice (and usually for a short period), but generally having people begin 3 months later is just something everyone expects and factors into their processes. The average length of time people spend at a single job is also longer than in the US.
      • rootusrootus 6y ago
        Can't speak for Sweden, but we do pretty much exactly that with our India team. They have to give notice well in advance, and so when we hire a new team member we have to do so with the understanding that it will probably be a few months before they join the team.
      • Leherenn 6y ago
• matsemann 6y ago
  If the company is about to go insolvent it would probably be happy about not having to pay for three months. Those three months usually go both ways. But I think it would be better to keep it above board. Present it as a solution, kinda. Like, "we both want the same thing here".
• ajb 6y ago
  I guess it could be a problem in the US for COBRA (health insurance continuation)? apart from that, if the company is dead I guess there's little they can take away that you aren't going to lose anyway. [edited to add : not relevant, they're in Finland: https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/ma4mwl/the_absolute_worst_case_scenario_happened_what/grqp20p?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/ma4mwl/the_absolu... ]
  • elif 6y ago
    COBRA still applies if you leave voluntarily. Source: left voluntarily
• mnd999 6y ago
  They could not pay you. Or If your contract is exclusive they can pay you and prevent you from working for anywhere else (gardening leave). You can’t (at least in most countries) enforce the contract in such a way that you force someone to work.
• technics256 6y ago
  Depends on local law. In this case the user is in Finland under Finnish labor laws.
  • jusssi 6y ago
    I just checked for curiosity. The employer can sue for damages they'll have to show. But there's some additional factors here. If the employer misses salary payments, then they're in breach of that employment contract, and unless they can't fix the situation really soon, that's grounds for immediate termination. Also in Finland, salaries earned in a normal employment are backed by the state for up to 3 months of missed payments (the state will then try to collect from the employer). So it's relatively safe for an employee to stick with a sinking company. Just get that CV polished and start warming up the network.
    • Ekaros 6y ago
      It seems to me that they can sue for 3 months salary. Or the amount of days employee does not work. However in this situation I would imagine they have more immediate concerns so might not get around even to that.
• TrackerFF 6y ago
  Well, for one, your work references probably won't be the best. Even if you're not responsible for the problem itself, leaving your employer in the ditch, when there's a major outage - well, it just doesn't look good (barring some scenario where your employer is completely unreasonable - like not paying you). It's kinda like a firefighter that decides to turn off the hose and go home, in the middle of a raging fire. Who in their right mind would want to hire him/her in the future?
  • ghaff 6y ago
    In general, I agree. But if they get in a situation where management is yelling at them and demanding they work 20 hours a day until this is fixed somehow and they have no idea how to. Management won't bring in consultants, etc. That ship has already sailed.
    • dagw 6y ago
      demanding they work 20 hours a day until this is fixed If your manager does that, you can say "No". They still can't fire you without paying you your 3 month wages.
  • jjk166 6y ago
    > It's kinda like a firefighter that decides to turn off the hose and go home, in the middle of a raging fire. Who in their right mind would want to hire him/her in the future? The firefighter who recognizes when the building is about to collapse and gets out of there is a good firefighter.
• offtop5 6y ago
  In America absolutely nothing happens. He might have some type of agreement where he gets a severance payment upon resignation, that would be forfeited. If I was him, assuming upper management starts yelling or whatever, I would just leave. Stress can kill you, and stressing over a job is absolutely never worth it because if you die today , they'll post a req for your position by the end of business. It looks like they could probably sort something out, wouldn't be a bad idea to call up any of the old vets who retired to see if they could come down to the office and contract for a week or so.
• danjac 6y ago
  Not sure what country the person works in. In addition it could be a situation of a small town / tech backwater and word getting around, regardless of the legal question, so quitting out of contract could get you blacklisted. Ultimately though a person could not show up for any reason at all (e.g. hit by the proverbial bus) and you need to plan for that. Sounds like a company that just flies by the seat of its pants so they probably have that 3-month clause for that reason.
  • michaelt 6y ago
    In terms of personal reputation, once you're in charge of backups at a company that went bankrupt due to the failure of their backups, I'm not sure it makes much difference to your reputation whether you diligently work your notice period or not...
• hef19898 6y ago
  Depends on the contract and jurisdiction. I had one contract that stipulated a fixed penalty, which made any attempt of ignoring notice periods a calculated risk (the fine wasn't that steep). In any other case, in Germany, I would expect a law suite, incurring costs, stress and time, followed by some kind of agreement between the two parties. As an employee, you don't necessarily have the time nor the money (there's insurance for legal disputes like that so). In that particular case, my experience tells me the guy won't get any credit for finding a solution, I would consider sick leave. Burnout, whatever. Doesn't have any monetary consequences in Europe (at least no harsh ones), and Germany covers up to 6 weeks of salary. Any way, you can forget about getting goods references. Not that would get them anyway, with an employer like that.
  • detaro 6y ago
    At least in Germany, while it's in principle possible to sue the employee for damages, it is very difficult to succeed with that if it isn't downright sabotage. You can't force the employee to work, it quickly goes into negligence on your part if you can't handle an employee going missing, ..., so you'll probably not reach much more than the salary - and for that just terminating the contract early would be easier, either in agreement with the employee or one-sided after they stopped showing up.