Does your country have a probationary period when you start a job?

16 comments

1. It’s becoming more common, which is a darn shame, honestly. Usually between 3-6 months. A “provanställning” takes a huge step away from your otherwise very strong employment protection. You can be fired for anything in 2 weeks notice, and workers can quit immediately.

   The usual employment protection means that the notice is anywhere from 1 to 3 months of notice when quitting or getting fired and you cant get fired for anything, either of course. It’s very hard to get fired here.

2. Yes, 6 months. It’s applied in 99,9% of all new employments. During this period, either party can cancel the contract with a notice period of 2 weeks without giving a reason.

3. Yes, it’s up to six months here. During that time either side can end the contract with two weeks notice and there doesn’t need to be an actual reason for them to fire you.

4. Yes usually 2-4 weeks in the private sector and 6 months in the public sector. The public sector uses a longer period because it’s harder for them to fire their employees outside of the probationary period while the private sector can in many cases although unions can be a headache for them. Some jobs get around this entirely by just having temporary contracts employees need to keep renewing.

5. Yes, maximum of one month, in some collective agreements it’s shorter. In this period both employee and employer can end the employment contract immediately and without reason.

6. Yes, they are typical. In my experience, it is 6 months for the private sector and 12 months for the public sector. I think 3 month probations may also occur in the private sector.

7. Yes, 3 months where you or the employer can part ways without any fuss.

8. In Sweden the probation period is usually 6 months. During this you can be let go the same day for really any reason (you broke the expensive machine or looked at the boss wrong).

   On the flipside, once you are fully employed it can be quite hard to fire you. The company must try to give you other assignments or relocate you. If the company need to downsize then there is a law that’s basically ”Last in, first out” where whoever was hired most recent will be the first they let go.

9. The most common period for a probation period is 1 month, during which either party can dissolve the contract for any reason. Most of the time companies start off by giving new employees 12 month contracts though so if after a few months it doesn’t work out you don’t have to wait too long to ride it out.

   Edit: the legal maximum is nothing at all for contracts shorter than 6 months, 1 month for contracts shorter than 2 years or 2 months for contracts longer than two years. Exception may apply on certain collective labour agreements.

10. In general it’s 1 month for temporary jobs, 2 month for low skilled jobs, 6 months for high skilled jobs.

    But it can also be longer if the unions traded a longer probation period for other benefits. For example my job has 9 month probation, but once you finish it’s almost impossible to fire you.

    I don’t really like this system because some people take advantage of it and do no work at all, and everyone else has to do double work. One guy would just show up a couple hours late every day and do nothing, and it took 4 years for HR to fire him.

11. In Czech Republic the standard probation period is 3 months although it can be up to 6 months for higher management positions. It’s been a while so I don’t know for sure but I think in Romania the standard one is 1 month. In both cases both the the employee and the employer can terminate the contract on the same day.

    After the probation period it’s much harder for the company to fire you but also you have to give a notice period as well (which can be almost 3 months in Czech Republic).

12. 3 months for entry-level jobs and 6 months for higher positions. If you do the job well enough you get the contract for longer periods like 3 years or for an unlimited time, it depends on a job. The possibility you will get fired during the probationary period is very small, you almost never hear of it, unless you do something very stupid 🙂

13. Depends on the company, but most do. Mine had a probation period of 6 months. And I earned 20% less during that time.

14. It’s usually six months and you can’t be fired for any/no reason, it has to be because of problems with work. I assume that in practice it’s easy to make up some reason if they want to get rid of the person, it just can’t be discriminatory. It’s also forbidden to fire someone during the probationary period because the business doesn’t have enough work. I had someone at my job who was fired on their last days of the probationary period because they couldn’t handle even the simplest tasks. I don’t think that it was a surprise to the person, they hadn’t been able to learn a task that is usually is very easy to do with just written instructions, they needed personal instruction even after few months. A person I know had that happen but with no notice, after being told that they were doing a very good job. I don’t think that hiring people and letting them go before they get more employment protections is common but apparently some companies who have an easier time recruiting may do it.

15. Yes. It’s not mandatory but very common. It can be prolonged up to 3 time.

    The numbers of day can varies according to the kind of contract : temporary, long term, unlimited and the kind of contract.

    It can varie from 1day to 8 months. Most a the time it’s 3/4weeks

16. It was formally abolished in 2014 when the new labor laws went into effect, although these laws also reformed the notice periods that employers and employees must respect.

    The notice period rises more or less logarithmically with the time you’ve worked for the company; it rises sharply in the beginning and then flattens off.

    However, this also means that if you’ve worked at a company for less than three months then the employer only needs to give you one week’s notice. This period might as well be seen as a probationary period even if it’s not officially called that.