The employees may wish to quit their job for better opportunities. But, they cannot leave a job without prior notice. They have to inform their employers about their decision to leave the job in writing. The number of days between the submission of the resignation letter and the actual departure day is called a notice period. This period starts when the employee submits the resignation letter to the employer and ends on the day of departure. Here, let’s know What is a Notice Period?
Importance Of The Notice Period
Most of the time, the job contracts state the number of days for a notice period. If it is not mentioned, then the employees must provide a notice period of at least one week. The following are the advantages of providing a notice period:
- Search For New Employees
The company can start searching for new employees to fill out the vacant position left by the current employee. It ensures that the work handled by the current employee doesn’t get affected.
- Search For A New Job
The notice period allows the leaving employees to start searching for another job or career path. It ensures that the employee doesn’t remain unemployed after quitting the current job.
- Distribution Of The Work
The current employer can distribute the work under the quitting employee among the other colleagues until he/she finds another one for the same position. The leaving employees can start training their colleagues during the notice period to do their work. However, all of them have to do their current work too.
- Being Prepared Mentally
The notice period can make the ends meet. The departure will be easy because everyone will be prepared mentally for the day. The employee will be leaving in the kindest way possible and maintain the professional contacts because none knows how the contacts will be helpful in the future.
Reasons For Quitting The Job
The employees may have many issues that make them quit the job. Some of them are as follows:
- The employee finds it hard to travel to the workplace or must be shifting to an area far away from the workplace.
- The employee may wish to pursue higher education or change the career path.
- The employee cannot handle the responsibilities, work environment, or working hours.
- Personal conflicts between an employer and an employee.
Steps To Submit The Notice Period
Submitting the notice period to the employer includes formality. The following are the steps to be taken while submitting the notice period:
- Deciding The Departure Date
The employee must provide a notice period of a minimum of two weeks. The additional notice must be in line with the employee’s position and responsibilities in the company. The employee must also communicate with the new employer to decide a commencement date. The employee might also choose to have a gap between the two employments.
- A Talk With The Manager
The employee may meet the employer to inform him/her about the resignation. The employee must make an appointment with the manager for the same reason and must not try to dive deep into the details during this conversation. The employee will have to mention the final date of employment including other overall details.
- Evaluating The Counteroffer
If the employee is in an important position, the company may offer another role or an increase in salary to the employee. Thus, the employee must carefully think about the offer by analyzing all the factors and make a confident decision.
- Writing The Resignation Letter
It is a formal letter to be kept in a file and referred by the employer and HR department whenever needed. The resignation letter or the notice period must include the following data:
- The date of submission
It helps the employer to remember the date the employee submitted the notice. It proves to be important while following the rules for the notice period.
- Contact information
This section includes the employee’s job title, full name, current address, email id, and a valid phone number.
- About the resignation
This section must include the departure date from the company, the reason to leave the company, and feedbacks to the manager. However, the employee must be as polite as possible while writing this.
- Thanking the employer
This section must be short and crisp while mentioning the employee’s gratitude towards the company. The employee can also wish well for the colleagues and the company as a whole in this section.
- Signature
This section includes the typed name of the employee and a physical signature.
- Informing The Colleagues
The employee may inform a handful of close employees about his/her resignation after submitting the resignation letter. The employee must start training the colleagues to deal with his/her work until the company hires a new employee for the same position. Similarly, guidelines must be made, and files must get organized for others to study. However, all of them have to continue working with their daily jobs.
- Additional Duties
The employee must complete all the pending tasks and release documentation, submit the company’s assets such as laptop, mouse, pen drive, keys, books, ID, etc., and pay all the charges in the company.
- Being Confident
Changing the job is a milestone that affects the resume and career of an individual. Thus, the employee must take correct decisions and be confident to face further struggles in life.
Exceptions For Notice Period
There are a few exceptions when the notice period won’t work. Some of them are:
- The employee may quit the job immediately if there has been serious misconduct from the company’s side.
- The employer may terminate the employee immediately if the employee damages the company’s image, violates the policies of the company, or proves to be unproductive.
- Any of them depart its way if the company follows the at-will laws.
Length Of The Notice Period
There is no fixed rule for the length of the notice period. The employees are still expected to provide a two-week notice period. However, the employees at higher positions must provide a notice period of more than that to ensure the smooth execution of the responsibilities.
The companies generally mention the notice period while making the selected candidates sign a contract. If the notice period is not mentioned, the minimum length of the period must be two weeks.
Rules For Taking Holidays During The Notice Period
Mainly, the employees at the higher positions have to follow some rules as follows:
- If they want to reduce the length of the notice period, they must politely talk to the employers about the same instead of directly breaching the contract.
- The employees receive their normal pay including their ongoing benefits during the notice period.
- If the employee wants to take a holiday during the notice period, he/she will have to talk about it to the employer. Then the employer will decide whether to approve the request. If the employer allows the employee to take a holiday, the employee will be paid normally.
- After the employee leaves, he/she will get paid for the unused holiday allowance. The employer may also instruct the employee to take holidays that he/she did not take.
- The employees must go through the contract to know about the leftover holidays.
If The Employees Don’t Want To Work During The Notice Period
The employer cannot physically stop the employee from getting out of the building forever. But, the employer may potentially sue the employee thinking that the contract is getting breached due to the absence or violation of the notice period.
The employer will have to present the proof regarding the financial loss and/or other damages caused due to the absence or violation of the notice period. The employer may also drag the employee to court. If the employer wins the case, the employee might not get allowed to work anywhere else until the notice period ends.
However, it happens rarely in the case of the employees working in a lower position. The chances of getting sued to depend on the company, the position of the employee, and the impact of violating the notice period on the company.
Working Somewhere Else During The Notice Period
It might be considered a breach of contract. The employer can take legal actions against the employee working somewhere else during the notice period. The employer may prove that the employee left to work for the competitors or the employee possesses a threat to the secrets and goals of the company.
Template Of A Resignation Letter
The resignation letter must be polite, short, formal, understandable, and to the point.
The following template shows the basic structure for writing a resignation letter:
Name Of The Employee
[current address]
[valid email id]
[valid contact number]
[current date]
[Company name]
[company’s address]
[company’s zip code]
Respected [Employer’s name],
Here is my formal resignation from the post of [post name] at [company’s name] effective from [number of weeks] from today, [current date].
I was fortunate to be a part of the pool of skillful employees at [company’s name]. This company has helped me a lot in enhancing my career.
Please do let me know about my duties during the transition period. I wish the best for you and [company’s name] for the future.
Sincerely,
[employee’s name]
Example Of A Resignation Letter
The following is a sample resignation letter with a notice period of 2 weeks:
Martha Stewart
The 3rd Street, New York
+1(123)123-4567
10 October 2021
ABC Company
The 6th street, New York
303456
Respected Peter Kameron,
Here is my formal resignation from the post of technical Project Manager at ABC Company, effective two weeks from today, 10 October 2021.
I was fortunate to be a part of the pool of skillful employees at ABC Company. This company has helped me a lot in enhancing my career.
Please do let me know about my duties during the transition period. I wish the best for you and ABC Company for the future.
Sincerely,
Martha Stewart
Conclusion
The resignation letter and the notice period are the two most formal things that require strong attention and confidence. The employee must know what he/she is doing and what will be the circumstances of the same. However, both the employee and the employer must be given a chance to have fair play. Notice period helps the company in hunting for eligible candidates to fill up the position whereas, helps the employee in reaching a milestone in his/her career.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What Is the At-Will Law?
Answer:
According to US labor law, an employer may terminate any employee for any legal reason without warning. For that, the employee must be first hired ‘at will.’ Even the court won’t allow for the claims made by the employee to make up for the loss caused by the termination.
- What is ‘garden leave’?
Answer:
After submitting the resignation letter, the employer might ask the employee to stop working in the company immediately. But the employee has not been terminated. He/she will remain as an employee of the company till the notice period ends. It is called ‘garden leave.’ The employee cannot work for other companies during this period. ‘garden leave’ is mostly provided when the employers don’t want to include the employee in the transition process, especially if he/she is going to join their competitor.
- What is ‘pay in lieu?’
Answer:
When the employee submits the resignation letter, the employer might ask him/her to leave immediately instead of working for the mentioned notice period. But, the employer will pay for the remaining days according to the notice period even if the employee doesn’t work. It is called ‘pay in lieu.’ However, it must be mentioned in the contract that the company would pay the employee even if he/she doesn’t work during the notice period. The employee has been immediately terminated by the boss and is now free to work somewhere else.
- What Is A 30-day Notice?
Answer:
It is generally applicable for individuals working in higher positions. According to the 30-day notice, the employee provides a notice period of 30 days instead of 14 days (2 weeks). During the transition period, the employees have to train their replacements to work instead of them. It might also be a demand of the contract or an effort made to let others complete the pending projects.
