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Employees and employers alike have the right under at-will employment laws in almost all states to end their relationship without notice, for any reason, but the two-week rule is a widely accepted standard of workplace conduct. Now Sue Shellenbarger writes at The Wall Street Journal that employers say a growing number of workers are leaving without giving two weeks' notice.
Some bosses blame young employees who feel frustrated by limited prospects or have little sense of attachment to their workplace. But employment experts say some older workers are quitting without notice as well. They feel overworked or unappreciated after years of laboring under pay cuts and expanded workloads imposed during the recession. One employee at Dupray, a customer-service rep, scheduled a meeting and announced she was quitting, then rose and headed for the exit. She seemed surprised when the director of human resources stopped her and explained that employees are expected to give two weeks' notice. "She said, 'I've been watching 'Suits,' and this is how it happens,' " referring to the TV drama set in a law firm.
According to Shellenbarger, quitting without notice is sometimes justified. Employees with access to proprietary information, such as those working in sales or new-product development, face a conflict of interest if they accept a job with a competitor. Employees in such cases typically depart right away—ideally, by mutual agreement. It can also be best to exit quickly if an employer is abusive, or if you suspect your employer is doing something illegal.
More often, however, quitting without notice "is done in the heat of emotion, by someone who is completely frustrated, angry, offended or upset," says David Lewis, president of OperationsInc., a Norwalk, Conn., human-resources consulting firm. That approach can burn bridges and generate bad references. Phyllis Hartman says employees have a responsibility to try to communicate about what's wrong. "Start figuring out if there is anything you can do to fix it. The worst that can happen is that nobody listens or they tell you no."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Tuesday June 28 2016, @12:32PM
Turnover is a big component of the acceptability.
I worked a dumpy retail job as a starving student, one of a couple jobs I worked as a starving student, this one job sucked. Turnover in that position was about 1200% annually (yeah, like one month average employment for this McJob) and it was socially acceptable and common to quit on the spot, and I did after a couple months. That's just how it was done. If the average employee only lasts a month expecting them to stay an extra two weeks is kinda idiotic. Next job was at a competitor who was absolutely crushing them in the marketplace and had a roughly 25% annual turnover and I don't think that was a coincidence. None of the employees, or apparently customers, liked the first place.
At another extreme I worked for a megacorporation that was dying and as part of the death it was virtually impossible to replace people who quit without going up to the CEO (no exaggeration, that place was Dilbert central). So turnover was roughly 0% because they either never hired anyone or were in extreme CYA mode and took at least six months to complete a hire so days or weeks are a rounding error. I got a new job far away starting in three weeks, told everyone I started in three weeks and was out the door here on Friday (This was like a Wednesday), and my boss was forced by his boss to ask me to work the next three weeks. Nope I was outta there that Friday once I got all my short term stuff wrapped up. Gotta move, gotta find a place, simply want some vacation, etc. When you're a mortgage-slave and need the job if the boss says jump you gotta ask how high, but a good boss knows once you're off their leash then pissing you off is pointless. So there was no huge argument or slam the door on the way out, we both knew our market positions so to speak and I left on good terms that Friday. As former boss (who was bad, but not awful) said something like "well, I had to ask, although I figured you're out on Friday". On good terms everyone left happy and well documented and responsibilities transferred. If they had pissed me off, F them I'm playing some MUD online for three weeks to the minute and nothing would have been documented or transferred.
Another thing to think about is I'm in the socioeconomic class where I'm not cool with being poor. Not because I got piles of money although I'm OK that way, but part of the social class isn't to be nose to the grindstone zero dollar bank account unable to survive a weeks unemployment. I can afford to take some time off and my kids will still eat and the mortgage will still be paid etc. I don't need to declare bankruptcy because I'm outta work for a couple weeks like some coworkers I've known. So medical covers me the remainder of the month or I COBRA or whatever its called, tell the new job I can't start for 3 or 4 weeks due to having to wrap stuff up at the old job, delicate time in a big project, they appreciate that I'm conscientious and care, tell the old job I'm outta here in a couple days however long it takes to professionally wrap up my short term stuff, then I'm on vacation for weeks. Start the new job refreshed. Anyway the relevance to the story is I bet some of the "storm out and slam the door" people are just pissed they didn't tell the HR girl that its going to be 3 weeks until they can start, and the new guy is getting himself a vacation between jobs one way or the other and if it takes some drama queen antics storming off stage, well that's what it takes. Should have just told the HR girl at one company its going to be three weeks and tell the other its the remainder of the week...
Given the diversity of job responsibilities and (in)effectiveness of HR department hiring, the idea that all jobs should have two weeks notice is pretty idiotic.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday June 28 2016, @02:31PM
While I understand most of your reasoning, you kind of lose the moral high ground with this:
So medical covers me the remainder of the month or I COBRA or whatever its called, tell the new job I can't start for 3 or 4 weeks due to having to wrap stuff up at the old job, delicate time in a big project, they appreciate that I'm conscientious and care, tell the old job I'm outta here in a couple days however long it takes to professionally wrap up my short term stuff, then I'm on vacation for weeks. Start the new job refreshed.
Couldn't you just tell the new place you're starting a couple weeks later? I assume you wouldn't be working for them if they weren't a decent company and understanding of that.
Or are you saying that you really don't *want* to be "zero dollars in the bank" but you are?
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday June 28 2016, @03:02PM
I've never had an argument over it with the HR people. Probably because based on what I've heard and observed its extremely rare/unusual. I don't know why because stress free R+R time between jobs is freaking awesome. I think HR people like to argue early in the hiring process to see how you react, but by the time offers are accepted and start dates are negotiated its time for everyone to chill.
From memory my most recent line was something like "I can start on the n-th. I need some time to wrap up long term projects at work and arrange child care schedules at home and some other things". "OK see you then"
I see it as good insurance plan, maybe it would really take me over two weeks to wrap stuff up. It never does. Hard to predict but better to guess long in a situation like this than to really mess stuff up by guessing short. I'm not going to mess up my new employers orientation class or their paperwork workflow or my new bosses planning schedule by showing up a week early if I'm lucky.
If I fail to mention that I'll be finalizing my new child care schedule while taking the kids to a waterpark resort for a week, them not being interested in the details of my private life is not my problem, and I see no fiduciary responsibility since its obviously not hurting them and a well rested VLM is a productive VLM...
At least that's my rationalization anyway. Boils down to if the new employer is not paying me, what I'm doing is none of their business, and as for the old employer if I'm not working (sandbagging until a calendar date) then I'm not going to demand a paycheck for literally doing nothing.