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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, 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.