

Ready to leave? Why you shouldn't give two weeks' notice (2005) - ryanelkins
http://wistechnology.com/articles/1757/

======
efsavage
You should be _prepared_ to leave immediately when you give notice, but wow,
giving no notice is up near the top of the list in terms of dick moves. The
exception to this is if you're being grossly mistreated (as in harassed or
demeaned or abused, not as in underpaid).

I've given less than two weeks before, but it was a contract I'd only been on
for 3 weeks, so 2 weeks notice was excessive. Anything else, 2 weeks is a
minimum. If you're a key person at a startup or small company, 4-8 weeks is
more appropriate.

------
jimm
"You may want to give two week's notice, but from a security standpoint, you
are out the door that day. Locks are changed. Passwords and IDs are terminated
so you should have no access to files or other confidential information. That
is the reality of today's workplace."

This policy always mystified me. If you've decided to leave and have decided
to do something malicious, you would have done it _before_ telling your
employer. By the time you tell them, it's too late.

~~~
eru
Perhaps that's the case with rational people. People who do malicious things
may not be too rational in the first place.

------
jdminhbg
Getting a 500... Cache is here:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:n5nvfo7...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:n5nvfo7nIAoJ:wistechnology.com/articles/1757/+http://wistechnology.com/articles/1757/&hl=en&gl=us&strip=1)

~~~
sfall
same here

------
btilly
It should be noted that this article is from 2005.

I also have to say that my personal experience is the opposite of what this
article says. How you treat your former company and co-workers stays in their
minds, and affects their future opinion of you. Most fields, in most cities,
form fairly small communities and you _will_ wind up working with people
again. You don't want to burn bridges like this.

That said, you should be mentally prepared for the possibility of having
access yanked.

------
icey
Alternate title: How to burn bridges in one easy step

~~~
ryanelkins
It's a touchy subject, which is why I thought it would be interesting to
submit the article and see what people had to say. I'd never really considered
NOT giving notice but I thought the article brought up some good reasons to
consider. (Although this does seem geared more towards leaving a job you are
unhappy with.)

One aspect I hadn't thought of was liability. There is also the chance that
they decide to terminate you immediately and what if you needed that last
paycheck? You lose some control over your own situation by giving notice and
for some people that may not be worth keeping that bridge around I suppose.

~~~
icey
The few times that I've hired someone and they were immediately cut loose,
they just called me to let me know they were available sooner than expected.
That worked out well for everyone.

Liability is limited to the things you're actually responsible for. In the
example in the article, the employer would have to prove in courts that the
employee was responsible for the failure. Convenient timing is not grounds for
a viable lawsuit.

By leaving without giving notice you aren't just burning bridges with the
employer you're leaving; you're also letting everybody you work with know that
you are someone who will do this sort of thing. Nobody wants to work with
someone who might decide to change jobs and leave them hanging with no notice.

I know a few people who have done this; I absolutely remember them and won't
hire them if I get resumes from them. Additionally, if someone calls because
they knew we worked at the same place and they're thinking about hiring them,
the first thing I'm going to share is the fact that the person left everyone
hanging.

~~~
DenisM
_if someone calls because they knew we worked at the same place and they're
thinking about hiring them, the first thing I'm going to share is the fact
that the person left everyone hanging._

Check with your lawyer before you do that. Really.

~~~
icey
I'm not talking about someone calling me about a former employee (I've never
had someone quit with 0 notice to me directly before); I'm talking about the
case where I've worked with someone at the same company before and they left
with no notice. If they want to try to sue over that, then they're welcome to
go for it.

~~~
DenisM
I see. Poor reading comprehension on my part.

------
slantyyz
The guy forgot to caveat his article.

I would suggest that anyone on the cusp of resigning consult their actual
employment contract before resigning without notice.

Most employment contracts have a clause related to employee notice.

~~~
apphacker
Those kinds of clauses are illegal in states like California and Arizona. You
or your employer can terminate your relationship at any moment without cause.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment>

~~~
j_baker
Not true. At-will employment is more of a default than a binding rule. In
other words, you and your employer may have a contract that sets more specific
rules than what at-will employment requires. However, if you don't, then it is
implied that you are employed at will.

~~~
dmm
A contract can say any thing but courts will enforce only certain things.

------
pavel_lishin
Sounds like a very pessimistic view geared towards drones working in cube-
farms for Corporation, Inc.

~~~
prodigal_erik
Even large corporations aren't necessarily like that. When one of my contracts
at Microsoft was up, they trusted me to pave my desktop and lock myself out of
the building (by hiding my keycard in my lead's office).

------
varikin
In the example at the end, how does the lady leaving with no notice affect the
scenario. I understand how being involved with the lawsuit and server crash
could affect her next job, but why does how she quit affect it?

Overall, I think this is horrible advice. When I quit, I want to let my boss
know so he can ensure my responsibilities are covered the next day. If they
want to kick me out early for security reasons, that is fine, though I haven't
seen that often when leaving on good terms.

And what happens when my now former boss, who is mad at me, leaves for a new
company that I am interested in? I might have burned that bridge.

------
chollida1
I'd be curious to see other peoples opinion's on this article.

In my experience the moment you are an "anyone" in a company then your
employment contract almost always stipulates the amount of time that you must
give before leaving.

It almost always works both ways, with your employer being required to give
the same amount of notice before letting you go, or severance in replacement.

I can't imagine any one other than an entry level worker not having a defined
time to give before leaving.

I also think it speaks pretty poorly on someone to just announce that they are
leaving as of today.

------
j_baker
I don't think it's more accurate to say you should _never_ give notice than to
say you should _always_ give notice. Make your own decision based on the
context of your situation and your knowledge of the pros and cons.

------
ryanelkins
Here is a follow up to this article where he talks a bit more about the ethics
involved: <http://wistechnology.com/articles/2786/>

------
foulmouthboy
And people wonder what happened to things like "responsibility". This is a
professor teaching this? Whatever happened to the golden rule?

~~~
chc
In fairness, it's about as much "responsibility" as most companies show toward
their employees when firing them. I don't encourage being a jerk when you can
avoid it, but the generally accepted view that employees owe the business more
deference and respect than the business shows them is downright feudal.

~~~
brazzy
It's not true that "most" companies do the things mentioned in the articles
(firing people through a note on their desk or a fax), and in most cases that
kind of thing is done by weak managers who are simply afraid of telling people
bad news face to face.

