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There’s no law of the land that requires employees to give two week’s notice before leaving a job, but social convention means that most people do, if possible. It gives employers a head’s up that they’ll need to fill a position, and by being “polite” about leaving, the employee feels as if they left on a good note and would be able to ask that boss for a recommendation down the road.
There is no social convention that asks employers to extend the same, though, and someone on Reddit wants to know why.
Why do employers expect a 2 week notice when you’re about to quit, but won’t give you a 2 week notice when they’re about to let you go?
Here are 14 of my favorite answers.
14. They only care about themselves.
The difference is that your employer has their own interests in mind, not yours. Their priority is to their business, so giving you two weeks notice to be “nice” usually isn’t on their radar.
It’s also a big risk for the employer to give you advance notice of your firing. Employees often pretty much stop working after that conversation, do a poor job, or flat-out sabotage their work. They get angry and blow up at their supervisor or coworkers. They may try to get other employees to quit or act out in protest. In short, they become a wildcard, and that is usually too big of a potential problem for an employer to risk it.
13. They don’t appreciate you.
I worked at a company about 10 years ago where I was one of the few who knew how to run and transpose certain reports. I liked the company and was leaving for school and wanted to go back so I actually gave a month notice. I knew they’d have to hire someone and train them.
They found someone internal to take over for me in a couple of days so I spent a lot of time at their desk training them. Well, Wednesday of the next week my manager called me into the office to say they were letting me go because I was never at my desk and I wasn’t doing my work (a lie).
I filed unemployment. The company tried to fight it, saying I was let go for performance. However, a month before I had my annual review and had all high marks, and had never been in trouble.
Unemployment found on my favor and the company ended up having to pay me unemployment for 6 months. Instead of just paying me for two extra weeks, they f%cked themselves.
12. There’s no loyalty.
Gone are the days of loyalty when it comes to employers. Most employers don’t have pension packages or anything like that, so there’s not a good reason to stick around long term. 401ks can be transferred. You have to look out for yourself #1, just as businesses are looking out for themselves. If it’s not financially or strategically prudent to keep you on staff, a company will let you go, often regardless of seniority. However, the reverse can be said as well. If you feel that a company is not fulfilling your financial or personal growth potential, you should look for an opportunity elsewhere. Don’t wait for them to magically fulfill those things.
I know it’s easier said than done, though. It can be scary and high risk to leave a job. It’s weird for me because my first two jobs in my career ended due to financial-related layoffs. But they ended up being the best things to happen to my career. In both cases, the next jobs I took paid substantially more. I’m not sure I’d be making as much as I am today if I hadn’t been “forced” to leave a couple jobs. Had I not been laid off, who knows how long I would have stayed there, stunting my personal growth? What that tells me is that the time to leave a job (for me) is sooner than I think.
11. They don’t care if you hate them.
In most places in the US nothing requires you to give them 2 weeks. You may leave without even telling them you’ve quit. You will never be able to work there again though.
And this is the difference. Employers who are firing you will never want you to work for them again, so they will lose nothing by simply walking you out the door. They don’t care if you’re upset at them.
If you don’t care about upsetting all of those people, go ahead and walk out. They’ll never rehire you. If you go somewhere else and someone who you’ve upset by walking out is there, they may not hire you.
If a company is forced to lay you off because of a business change or downturn and they do wish to rehire you, they will give you at least 2 weeks notice and keep on good terms with you so that if business makes it possible for them to rehire you they can.
10. There are good ones out there.
Most employers I’ve had experience with do actually give notice if you are being let go for anything other than misconduct.
9. Way to go, Australia.
It may be different where you are, but here in Aus, if you’ve been employed long enough the employer must pay you out for two weeks when that happens.
8. Most of us don’t work under contract.
Apparently your employment laws suck.
In Germany you usually give or receive notice 2-3 months in advance, sometimes longer, depending on your contract.
7. A lack of common decency.
Yeah, severance packages are a thing. Many places will give you months of pay, or in some cases will continue to pay you until you find a new job.
Just like they don’t have to do that, you don’t have to give them two weeks. It’s just common decency as a human being to allow your colleague proper time to find a replacement, or find a job. If your boss asked you to do something egregious, you would probably quit the next day; if you had a major fuck-up, you’d probably be fired the next day. Otherwise, most employers/employees will give two weeks’ notice out of respect.
6. It’s a cultural thing.
It’s the same reason that Americans still think it’s impolite to talk about salaries among coworkers- companies influence culture to their advantage.
Nothing requires you to give a two week notice, however people venerate business so that they seem to think there’s some sort of law about it.
I know my manager at a menial sandwich making job did.
5. A paid holiday as a sendoff?
In Austria that’s not possible, the longer you work for a company the longer the notice has to be, up to a full month paid!
But also has a drawback for employers as a person who knows he doesn’t have a job any longer might not take his work seriously!
That’s why companies often send their employees in paid holidays.
4. It’s not the law.
In the UK, they do.
My contract says they must give me a month’s notice before letting me go.
However when I was made redundant they gave me my notice and told me to go home, with my month’s pay in advance.
So it definitely varies where you are.
I imagine in the US because legislation are influenced by corporations it’s a less worker-friendly.
3. They don’t want you to exact revenge.
The reason they don’t give you advance notice about firing you is because they don’t want to take the risk of you f%cking anything up in anger towards the company.
2. Because they can.
That would make sense right?
I hate double standards. I stood up for myself in a salon of all places (I know probably not the best comparison). This place had a rule that if you were something like 10 minutes late, you get a charge and they most likely won’t be able to see you.
I had an appointment be like 20 minutes late. I mentioned that “Gee you charge us when we are running late, but if you are late what’s your penalty (they had a bookkeeper/assistant so they could have called to say that they were running late…)? They said I was right and gave me a free service. I wasn’t doing it for the service and they gave it to me just to shut me up, but I wanted a legitimate answer.
1. They have no business reason to do it.
It’s so they can find a replacement for the position.
If they let you go chances are they have already found a replacement.
I think this should be a thing, truly!
If you run a business, would you be in for this? Why or why not? Tell us in the comments!
