re: Do you give a two week notice or just walk out?

My wife's (no pics) company gave them a 3-4 YEAR notice that they were relocating. That's a pretty decent heads up if you ask me.

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They must not manage their employee's workflow very well if they can just unexpectedly lose somebody and not suffer a drop in productivity.

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Give a salesperson two weeks and they'll use the time to move your clients to their new company. Not that they haven't done that before giving you notice, but there's no sense in giving them extra time to do damage.

I've given notice knowing that they would tell me to leave immediately (walked me straight to my car). I had already cleaned out my office and deleted anything non-work from my work computer. But I gave them notice, and told my new employer that I would probably be available immediately, if not in two weeks.

Had an employee walk into office and give me 2 week notice, said he was moving to Austin, better job.

next morning he walked in and advised he was leaving at the end of week.

next morning he came to office and said h was leaving at noon, that day.

2 weeks later he called and asked for his job back. Told him I had already found a replacement.

Asked him what was going on & why he wanted to return.

Said, when he got to Austin, his wife ran off with another man.

shite HAPPENS

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celltech1981

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I've always wondered why giving an employer a 2 week notice became a thing. That same employer more often than not would lay you off with no notice whatsoever. I get the whole not burning bridges thing but why is it wrong to leave for more money without notice when the same employer would cut you without notice to save money? In the industry I work in more often than not an employer will send you packing when you give your notice. People still do it, though.

I've never walked out on a job but it I got to thinking about this over my morning coffee. Do you baws give a notice?

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Not wading through 4 pages, but I'll add what's probably been added a ton already.

You obviously don't get the don't burning bridges thing...because you aren't just quitting on the employer. There are middle managers, hiring managers, coworkers and perhaps vendors and consultants there that may depend on your position to operate smoothly in order for their job to operate smoothly.

When you don't put in a notice, then you're jeopardizing that. Not in some OMG the walls-are-going-to-fall-down-if-you're-not-there-to-hold-them-up type of situation. But a notice can usually provide an employer some time to prepare a new job opening notice to help replace you. It can also help them try to determine why you're leaving, and whether they may be able to somehow retain you. It could also allow them time to properly prepare the unit or group you work in to reassign or rebalance tasks evenly amongst folks you work alongside or with in order properly mitigate the disruption having an empty seat would create.

But most importantly...It's important to give notice because those coworkers, middle managers, consultants, vendors and other folks may not be anymore bolted down to their desks and their jobs there than you are. If they're in a similar field, the chance you may run into them again somewhere else at another job down the road is pretty likely.

Do you think those folks will think of you highly if you drug up and chunked up the deuces leaving them no time to react or prepare? What does that say about their ability to depend on you to make their jobs work or any job work?

You build a reputation by how you act. So do businesses. Just because the owner of that business may not give a red rat's arse about you, that doesn't mean the real human beings you work with and alongside don't. It also doesn't mean they don't care about their job stress levels and difficulty.

Which means when folks do something like that, it's really a dick move that says more about that person and their lack of any understanding of how work, life and sh!t like this is about way more than just them.

Now...having said all that, I will say that if you work in the financial sector, or some type of commissioned sales environment, that the two-week notice typically does not apply. Straw boss is not going to let you keep that seat hot so you can soak up some commission and leads on your way out of the door. They will ask you go to at the end of the day if not the moment you put in that notice, and they'll start trying to fill your seat quickly.

The lower the food chain in terms of sales, the higher the churn rate of those sales positions which means they've probably interviewed folks regularly and have several in mind...so they don't mind telling you not to let the door hit you where the good Lord splitcha.

I said all that to say this: You sound like you don't have a good understanding of what it means to create a professional reputation...and you also don't have an inkling about why developing a quality one is valuable. It's good that you started this thread, but with the way your post went, you sound like you have a preconceived notion of what you wanna do and why.

You'd be wrong to go with that notion, though. Just so you know.

When I graduated LSU, I worked at Blockbuster Video while finding my first "real" job. When I finally got hired somewhere, I put in my two weeks notice. It wasn't exactly 2 weeks, more like a week and 5 days.

My manager said "you know this isn't a full two weeks you're giving me here."
I was like "you know you work for Blockbuster Video, and I doubt I'm ever coming back. You can have the week and 5 days I gave you, or I can just leave right now."

At least give your employer enough time to process paperwork for you leaving there.

i will try to give you a serious reply:

its from way back when you went to work at a company and expected/hoped that would be your employer for life. that employer wasnt your friend (but often maybe your boss was) they most often showed you equal respect in the way you got treated and how they expected you to treat them. those days are long gone.

most often if you were let go, you received a "severance package" if you were let go on good terms. this often included a glowing letter of recommendation for showing to your future employer, as well as "severance pay" or money equivalent to an extra 2 weeks of pay to help tide you over finding new employment. very often, if it was known, you were also often told before it happened, out of that mutual respect, that you needed to start looking for a new job and would be let go at the end of the month.

all that stuff went away in the 80s but the idea of giving notice has continued to be pushed as a narrative by employers. there is zero benefit or credit given to employees who give notice now days and they either tell you to leave now any way or shite all over you as much as possible before you leave after giving notice.

last two jobs i left i told new employer i couldnt start for 2 weeks because i had to give notice and didnt want to leave them in a tough spot short handed, but i also added that if they required it i could start immediately without giving current employer 2 weeks notice to replace me. in both cases when i went to give notice, both times they preferred i leave right away if i no longer wished to work there. one did ask i work one more day to finish something i was in the middle of, which i did.

bottom line is, i think its an old fashioned idea that no longer carries any stigma or negatives with other employers if you dont do it.

in todays world most employers dont care since we are all considered as temporary slave labor to be used and discarded as needed. they do "hope" you give notice so it makes "their" lives easier at work so in todays world it isnt "appreciated" or seen as a sign of respect, but it is just seen as a last chance to take advantage of you before you go.

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They must not manage their employee's workflow very well if they can just unexpectedly lose somebody and not suffer a drop in productivity.

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So you want some guy that already knows he's out, still taking payroll and doing a half arse job; unless you want to watch him like a hawk and make sure he still cares; which is also counterproductive.

I always let people go right away when they come to give me notice. I'll figure out how to get done what I need to get done with the people who want to be here. I don't need some bad seed walking around talking to everyone and letting everyone know hes going to the greener side of the fence (especially since most of the time, that guy will be back in 2 months because the SURPRISE, the grass isn't greener over there either, its the color of work).

ETA: disclaimer, I mostly manage blue collar workers, not really in the 21st floor of the office type of business; I guess things could be completely different in that world.

At my previous job, within three days, I gave my two weeks, my boss gave his two weeks, and the other member of management gave his two weeks.

The company brought in outside help because of this. After about four days, I was told I didnt have to come back since they were going to transfer to a new management team.

Got a week off before starting the job I have now.