Will anyone hire me if I have to give three months notice?

December 7, 2018 12:56 PM

I'm unhappy at my job and I've been looking for a new one for the past few months. My (9 month long) probationary period ends in January which means my notice period will go up from one week to three months. I've had a few interviews recently so I'm reasonably confident I can get another job, but I'm worried no one will hire me if I have to give that much notice. I'm wondering if I should quit my job at the end of my probation period.
posted by Chenko to Work & Money (18 answers total)

Three months notice seems like a long time. Two questions:
1. What happens if you don't give 3 months notice?
2. Is your employer going to extend you the same notice period in the event you need to be let go (for whatever reason)?
posted by neilbert at 12:59 PM on December 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

If you don't have something lined up by January, I'm wondering what would happen if you gave your notice say, the week after your probation period ended. Then you'd have a whole three months to find a job.
posted by lucy.jakobs at 1:00 PM on December 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

3 months notice isn't normal. Can you explain it in more detail? Is it part of an actual employment contract? A union rule? Is it just the employer's desire for you to give such notice? Is it standard in your industry?

You may also want to ask this question or look at the archives at AskAManager.org. For lots of questions like this, she answers that unless it's part of your employment contract or is somehow standard in your industry niche, you are under no obligation to give your current employer that much notice, for exactly the reason you state: it makes it really hard to transition to a new job.
posted by BlahLaLa at 1:02 PM on December 7, 2018 [10 favorites]

A similar long notice period got covered on Ask A Manager recently (Question 5 at the link). It's quite ridiculous, but I'd love to hear their reasoning behind 3 months.
posted by deezil at 1:10 PM on December 7, 2018

Response by poster: It's part of my contract. My understanding is that it's pretty standard for more senior roles in my industry (publishing in the UK), but it's unusual for entry level positions. I had an interview for a job at Bloomsbury which also had a three month notice period so it's not unheard of.
posted by Chenko at 1:13 PM on December 7, 2018

If it's truly standard in your niche, then hirers in your niche are going to understand it. Or are you leaving this niche? If that's the case, you probably don't care about burning bridges? By offering, say, four weeks instead of 12?
posted by BlahLaLa at 1:16 PM on December 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

I'm wondering what would happen if you gave your notice say, the week after your probation period ended. Then you'd have a whole three months to find a job.

They might just fire you.
posted by H21 at 1:42 PM on December 7, 2018

Response by poster: They might just fire you.

They have to give me three months notice too.
posted by Chenko at 1:57 PM on December 7, 2018

Three months notice is standard in my field, too (tech publishing, senior role, Australia). In my contract, and in my state, if I give notice and they ask me not to return to work, the employer needs to pay me through the notice period. In this situation, I would give notice at the end of January and take the next three months to look for work. Hiring cycles are much longer for senior roles, so it won’t be disruptive to a potential employer, and you can always negotiate an early departure from your current role if an opportunity arises.

TL;DR — seniority and local employment laws/customs matter, this isn’t unusual, but the US advice of two weeks as a courtesy doesn’t apply.
posted by third word on a random page at 2:31 PM on December 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

My experience is the more senior the job, the more used people are to long notice periods. Unless you are stepping out of industry, I wouldn’t worry.
posted by frumiousb at 3:47 PM on December 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Since you mentioned the UK, it's not unprecedented. I just helped hire a team member for my engineering software team in London, and we waited for his incredibly long (by my Californian standards) notice period for at his then current job to end.

If you are though, then who cares? How can your current employer realistically punish you if you give less than three months' notice, or if you just stop showing up for that matter? Will they sue you, or what? I'm guessing not.

I asked these same questions, and this is something employers in the UK take pretty seriously. The dude we hired wanted to keep working at the job he didn't like instead of leaving immediately and having a "breach of contract" situation following him around the rest of his career.
posted by sideshow at 4:54 PM on December 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

If someone wants you badly enough, maybe they’d be willing to buy out your contract? Just asking because the dealio in the United States is not similar.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 5:45 PM on December 7, 2018

If you are in an industry and of a rank where long notice and gardening leave periods are standard contract term, then employers will understand. This is not to say it won’t impact your chances — I have regularly had to pass on candidates whose notice / leave periods were more than I could accommodate — but when I could accommodate the leave period, I did so without hesitation.
posted by MattD at 6:04 PM on December 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I think the UK is similar to NL in terms of contract validity. I'd be very wary of US-based advice to ignore your contractual notice period.

One other piece of advice-- generally speaking, as a manager I was willing to let people go early if there was no acrimony in the case and they secured handover. So often when I was looking at a candidate, they would say "my notice period is three months" and then we would see what their current employer would agree to-- I rarely had someone forced to work out the whole three months.
posted by frumiousb at 6:16 PM on December 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

I can't speak to the contractual aspects of the notice period, but would just add that—although 3 months is longer than traditional—it's entirely possible depending on your industry that it could be fine. So if you can look for jobs where the 3 month gap from "let's do this" to First Day would be a good thing rather than a bad thing, it might be something you could work around.

Lots of seasonal industries might actually be totally happy with a 3 month leadtime on bringing someone new on, if you're shopping for a job during the low season. And often that's when people have the most time to do interviews and evaluate candidates, but perversely not enough budget to actually bring someone on.

There are other industries that are similarly cyclic. Anything that hinges off the government fiscal year or government spending patterns, anything that works off the academic calendar, literally "seasonal" work... might just be worth some thought to see if you can identify interesting prospects in these industries.
posted by Kadin2048 at 7:35 PM on December 7, 2018

I work in the NHS and my notice period is 2 months, but I know my equivalent position at other places is 3 months. We know this is the case and recruitment is simply slow. It isn't a factor in deciding who to hire but i imagine it could be in another industry.

However, if a team member failed to work their full notice period then it would go in every reference we wrote for them in the future, and I certainly wouldn't want to hire someone who had done that.
posted by kadia_a at 10:46 PM on December 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

I have a 3 month notice period too. When we recruit people they also can have long notice periods. We often ask them if their current employer will let them leave early and sometimes that’s possible. If not we wait if it’s for a permanent role (we often wait if it’s a fixed term role).

It’s not the done thing to ignore your notice period, and doing so would burn bridges. I wouldn’t resign early but I am risk averse and have a mortgage to pay..
posted by plonkee at 12:11 AM on December 8, 2018

Yes, 3 months notice is standard for senior roles in my industry in the UK and we expect that new hires will have to give this much notice if they are currently in employment elsewhere. You can ask to give less notice and they might agree, but if they do not agree you are legally bound to finish out the terms of your contract (so if I were you I would ignore all the US-based advice in this thread). You can also ask to take your holiday during your notice period if it's really a concern for you, but in my experience people do not get refused jobs because they have to serve a notice people, again this is just expected. The 3 month notice period exists to provide ample time for handover and re-recruitment of a senior role.
posted by Polychrome at 1:56 AM on December 8, 2018