What is a respectable amount of time to give notice for a job you’ve enjoyed?

21 comments

1. Depends on the field of work but most are two weeks advanced notice to your employer and ESPECIALLY your coworkers who will have to do your work when you leave

2. It definitely depends on the job, including time to find a replacement and/or train them. Two weeks for a clerical type job, a month for more technical or specialized fields. In my field, 90 days is customary.

3. My advice is to offer 2 weeks. Be prepared for them to ask for more time and certainty you can stay in that scenario. Do not go longer than 4. Everyone needs to move on and team needs to reconfigure. The longer you stay as a lame duck, the worse it is for everyone that remains.

   I’ve stayed 4 weeks at 2 different places and I don’t think I’d do it again.

4. This past March, I left a position at a company where I’d been employed for 17 1/2 years. I was the only person supporting an enterprise level application for six customers handling a LOT of specialized and unique situations. I gave two weeks.

   Sure, they could have benefitted from me staying longer. Sure, it would have been nice of me to stay longer. Except employers generally don’t care. You’re a line item. They will find a warm body to fill your spot soon enough.

   And ultimately, you’d be helping them more by leaving in two weeks because that teaches them to practice the “hit by a bus theory”. What if you had been “hit by a bus” and were no longer able to fill the role you’d been filling? If they would have needed 90 days to get up and running, the business would actually find that portion of their operations in serious jeopardy, wouldn’t they. And feel free to exchange “hit by a bus” with “idiot running a red light and t-boning you while you were running errands on a weekend”. End result is the same – you’re instantly unavailable.

   So, give the customary two weeks. If you want to be truly nice, offer the occasion evening or weekend as a part timer (W-2, not 1099/contractor) for dedicated knowledge transfer sessions with pre-defined agendas. Ultimately though, it does nobody any good to keep you around. If you want to move, move on already.

5. If you enjoyed it and don’t want to screw over your coworkers who will pick up the slack from you being gone, I’d give as much of a notice as possible but do NOT give notice until you have a guarantee of a job. I’ve seen people give notice just because they have an interview somewhere and then not get the job and they end up unemployed.

   I gave six weeks, four days to one job because it was a cross country move and I had a huge lead time on the new job. Granted my job did nothing to even look for my replacement until two days before I left, but they have 48 days of notice.

6. Minimum courtesy tends to be 2 weeks, but I’d suggest leaving enough time to help train someone to take over your responsibilities (we can’t answer for you how hard it would be to teach someone to do your job)

   Maybe prepare thorough documentation of everything you do, to make the handoff as smooth as possible, then submit a 1 month notice?

7. Minimum 2 weeks. Max 1 month. You don’t usually want to do more than that to avoid company letting you go too early.

8. i like to give a 2 day notice, as in im leaving this bitch today. im in the trades so its not my problem to find my replacement

9. [deleted]

10. I hired a guy, who had 10 yrs at his previous job. He had asked for 2 weeks notice to give to his employer.

    I obliged, as I thought it was respectable.

    He has been with me 2 yrs this December.

11. Check your local employment laws and your contract.

12. I would never give notice.

    Make sure you soak up your PTO/accrued vacation time and then call it in the day after your last day.

    Every thing else, unfortunately, leaves you exposed to all manner of company shenanigans, management revenge, etc.

    Never forget: Business is war.

13. Voluntarily giving the notice is so weird concept to me, both ways. Where I live this is the value defined by law and it’s always exactly that.

    Well I’d see around if I have to do it, maybe asked whose who has done it already.

14. 2 weeks is customary, I once gave a job 1 month so I could finish a project where I was the lead. But consider the risks.

15. How many jobs fire people without any notice? Do what’s best for you. Don’t be guilted into staying or training your replacement.

16. 2 weeks. That’s 2 weeks more notice than they would give if they wanted to part ways.

17. Double check your contract, the last 2 jobs I’ve had were 1 month in the contract. My current job is 90 days.

    If it’s not in there then 2 weeks is standard.

18. Two weeks. It’s more than they’d give you if they wanted to let you go.

19. Depends on your field but a month is common.

20. The last position I left I gave 2 months. They treated me well and I wanted to give them plenty of time to find a replacement, get them hired, and shadow me before I left.

    The only reason I left is that I maxed out my upward mobility and to go farther, I would have had to move to a place I didn’t want to.

21. Chat to your boss about it.

    Have an honest conversation about why you are leaving. If it’s about money, they may offer more or match the offer you got. If it’s about the work, ask for a change.

    I would offer 4 weeks. 1 week to advertise. 1-2 week to interview. 1 week handover to new person.