How much notice to give for an academic position?

January 6, 2018 1:05 AM

I am a mid-level academic administrator that just accepted another mid-level position in the same institution. I have a cordial, but not close, relationship with my current supervisor, who is well-regarded and fairly influential. When I provided my resignation, I offered three weeks notice. However, my current supervisor strongly hinted that four weeks would be "more standard" given my position. I can't help but think this was a thinly veiled suggestion that I would leave a better impression if I stayed on board another week.

New supervisor is a less-experienced faculty member who has indicated that he is flexible and wants me to stay on good terms with my previous supervisor, but is also is impatient to have me on board sooner than later. Should I insist on three, risking a blow to my relationship with my current supervisor, or push for four, risking annoyance with my new supervisor?

Other relevant details:
-One reason I'm leaving is I don't feel I have enough work. I don't see any reason to stay on board an extra week. My responsibilities will be wrapped up easily in 2-3 weeks.
-I've been here just over 2 years.
-Nobody reports to me or relies on me to get their own work done.
-Current boss seems to think we have a lot of work to wrap-up and seems overwhelmed by my departure.
-I really care about making a good impression with the new boss.
-I despise the idea of burning bridges.

Who should I be pushing back on?

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (10 answers total)

It sounds like what would help most is to solve current boss' sense of overwhelm. Give them a detailed overview of all the projects you manage or contribute to, exactly where you stand on them now (and what stage of completion you anticipate each will be at when you leave), and spelled out next steps for each? Is there an informal guide written up by the last person who held your position, that you used to get your sealegs when you first arrived? If not, would it help if you wrote one up, so that current supervisor isn't responsible for the extra burden of training your replacement? (It's their job, yes, but taking one task off their to-do list might assuage some of their anxiety, too.) Since both jobs are on the same campus, could you negotiate half-days at each for the fourth week, to make for an easy transition (and train your replacement, if there is one yet)?
posted by tapir-whorf at 1:21 AM on January 6, 2018 [5 favorites]

What amount of notice does your contract require you to give? Read your contract and have a discussion with your supervisor based on that.

Irrespective, if you practicably can leave your current job and your influential supervisor on good terms, I think you should. If tapir-whorf’s approach isn’t palatable, an extra week is not an unreasonable imposition. Your new boss will very likely understand you wanting to leave your current job on good terms - you can frame it as a matter of professionalism.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 2:45 AM on January 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

Since it's an internal transfer, can you work 50/50 for a little bit, be available for follow-up questions one afternoon per week, or similar? From what I have seen, long or very squishy departures are pretty normal in my corner of academia, especially if whoever replaces you is likely to not be local.
posted by tchemgrrl at 3:57 AM on January 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

Ex-professor here. My honest experience is:
1. Your current boss will take no steps to get things wrapped up in four weeks rather than three. Right now this person just feels like four weeks pushes out having to take action further into the future. Unfortunately time passes, and four weeks will pass almost as quickly as three. Then current boss will start angling for another week.
2. Your current boss will forget their annoyance as soon as they need something from you and/or the minute someone else at the institution annoys them.
3. A squishy departure virtually guarantees you will be working two jobs forever. It’s a bad idea.
4. The best departure is a quick one where you leave your boss/next person who has your job clear systems and documentation. Be clear about your departure date. Then depart.
posted by songs_about_rainbows at 6:01 AM on January 6, 2018 [28 favorites]

You're confident that wrapping everything up before you leave won't be an issue, but current boss is overwhelmed. Schedule a meeting with him. Before the meeting, make a list of everything you need to do before leaving. Include realistic end dates for each task. At the meeting, present this to your boss and tell him that's your exit strategy. Ask if he needs anything else from you before you go. If there is, add it to the plan and see if it changes your time frames. If it does, then consider whether another week is reasonable.

I'm assuming your boss doesn't have a clear grasp of what you need to do to wrap up, and that's contributing to his overwhelm. Hopefully getting it all down in black and white, and being very clear that you are not going to leave him with loose ends, will help him chill.
posted by bunderful at 6:18 AM on January 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

Four weeks *is* fairly standard for administrators at the university where I work, so I'm not surprised someone would say this. Can you ask HR? Can you ask around, if only to assuage your impression that this is manipulative on the part of current boss? I'd stay the extra week.
posted by unknowncommand at 7:28 AM on January 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

Make the last week 50/50 with a firm departure date. I did this and, though that last week was stressful, it worked out fine. My official start date in the HR system was after there weeks, I just spent half days during week 1 at my old office with the agreement of the parties involved.
posted by Ausamor at 7:54 AM on January 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

If you do half days in transition, make your mornings the new job. That way the old job can't have "emergencies" that spill over into the new job time.

Academia is a long notice kind of environment with internal transfers being called about their old jobs for a long time after leaving. I know from experience. Try to make the break as clean as you can, but know that four weeks is not completely out of the realm of reasonable.
posted by donnagirl at 8:02 AM on January 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

Talk to your ombudsman. Generally, these folks are underutilized.
posted by SaltySalticid at 9:08 AM on January 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

Make the last week 50/50 with a firm departure date

I’m a professor who just went through a transition in administrators, and this is what my last administrator did. It seemed to work well for everyone. Make sure to cc your replacement on all emails.
posted by mr_roboto at 9:37 AM on January 6, 2018 [2 favorites]