Anyone Penalized For Early Notice?

[jwkde]

I gave a standard 2 weeks notice then agreed to stay 3 1/2 weeks after I leverage a few minor things in my favor to stay the extra 1 1/2 weeks.

Frankly I would have preferred being given the immediate walk to the door. After the 'shock and awe' of my coworkers, I was bored to tears. Generally excluded from all meetings and documents. The last week was spent playing computer games.

But that was 3 1/2 years ago and life is SO MUCH BETTER now

 

[rdy2go]

I sent my retirement letter in over the holidays giving the company six month's notice of my intent to retire. They ask for this and have a phased retirement workload in the last two months while you train your replacement. When the pay raises were handed out on the last working day of the year I was slighted despite being the most productive territory manager in the company. Looking back, I should have waited another week until the raises had been announced.

Yes, they will screw you and smile behind your back. management is looking out for themselves and employees are nothing but cannon fodder. Don't trust anyone.

 

[rdy2go]

This made me think of a fellow employee a few years back that was under so much stress caused by a toxic boss, that every day he would get home from work and his wife would take his blood pressure. It got so bad that she told him that the next day, either he was going to tell them he was retiring or she would do it for him. he made his announcement, they had a retirement lunch at a local restaurant with some of his employees and he was gone. Sometimes it just comes to that.

 

[Scarecrow]

At my megacorp, most people wait until they have their yearly bonus statement in hand or until the cash is deposited in their account before announcing retirement. Bonus is for the prior calendar year's work, so by rights, retiring should have nothing to do with payout. A few well connected folks have announced 2-3 months before bonus time. Not being well connected, I will be waiting for bonus statement or cash in account.

I've always thought it would be fun to do it like this: Boss calls each of us in to his office to give us our bonus statement. I accept the statement from boss, and say "Why, thank you very much. That's a nice bonus". Then, I would say "Now I have something for you", and hand him my retirement notice.

 

[Grabberson]

Great advice! This thread is very relevant for my situation. I work for a small professional office and plan to FIRE in April 2016. They don't have a notice "policy", the husband-and-wife owners make it up as they go. Sometimes when employees give notice, they are quickly marched out the door. Other times the employee works through their stated date. Much of it seems to hinge on whether the owners "like" the person. The consensus among employees is that it's risky to give much (or any) notice. One employee waited until late on a Friday, and on the way out said "Oh by the way, I quit effective immediately". Hard to feel bad for the owners - they created that situation.

But ironically, their ambiguity is my clarity. My triggering event occurs April 1. I keep my mouth shut before that.

 

[Backdraft57]

I am suffering right now due to giving to much notice. I won't go into all the details but 2-3 weeks is enough notice for anyone. You quickly are disenfranchised and all the reasons they give you for wanting long notices don't come to fruition. I was asked to give 6 months notice to "train" my replacement, so I did. They are not even scheduled to show up to work until two weeks before my last day! Meanwhile I eat **** to maintain my good name from a 3 decade plus career. If I could do again, 2-3 weeks.


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[athena53]

I am suffering right now due to giving too much notice.

What would happen if you just told them to forget it, you're leaving in 2 weeks? Would you lose any significant financial benefits? They're counting on you putting up with this crap to keep your good name. The people you know and trust who have worked with you over the years will remember you for the good things you've accomplished. Do you really care about what the people who disenfranchised you and decided to hire your replacement to start 2 weeks before your departure think? As long as you have no intention of ever seeking employment in your field again I'd leave.

 

[2017ish]

I am suffering right now due to giving to much notice. I won't go into all the details but 2-3 weeks is enough notice for anyone. You quickly are disenfranchised and all the reasons they give you for wanting long notices don't come to fruition. I was asked to give 6 months notice to "train" my replacement, so I did. They are not even scheduled to show up to work until two weeks before my last day! Meanwhile I eat **** to maintain my good name from a 3 decade plus career. If I could do again, 2-3 weeks.

As I noted above, DW and I have given extremely advanced notice, but your situation is far different than ours. I agree with athena--your employer deserves nothing at this point. If you are quitting to retire, I'd seriously think about calling in sick after lunch today and then going back tomorrow to turn your keys in, etc. (Subject to any contractual provisions relating to finances....)

 

[Kickernick]

Plot twist. MegaCorp changed bonus policy and it fully accrued on 12/31/16. Just found out from someone else who gave notice. As a result, I will talk to my boss on 2/9 - when he delivers my review. Bonus, stock, and 401k will be fully vested. He will get 45 days notice. Very exciting - just 13 more work days until then. Thanks everyone for your advice.

 

[dadu007]

Congrats! But just making sure: you mean 12/31/2015, correct?

 

[Kickernick]

Sorry - yes 12/31/15

 

[old woman]

I gave several months notice when I didn't mean to. I was talking to my boss about someone else and told her I planned that person to replace me when I retired. So she wanted to know when I was planning to retire, I said I don't want to tell you because I won't get a bonus, she promised I would and I did. So 1/15/14 was my last day but I had from Sept to train my replacement and make sure my new boss was all the way trained too. Worked out, nice bonus, retirement lunch, retirement gift.

 

[heeyy_joe]

to answer the question of the title of this thread:

Yes. Lots. From a management perspective the money not yet vested to you is there as an incentive to KEEP employees, not reward you for what you did in the past. If you are leaving, there is no point in giving you money to keep you there. That money would be better spent by management trying to KEEP the other employees from following in your footsteps.

On the other hand, you may feel like that you deserve that money based upon what you did in the past. You are no more right or wrong, morally, than management. If you feel that way, there is nothing wrong with sticking around until that money is vested to you, then giving your notice. If they want you to stick around and train someone, you can do that. IF they terminate you immediately, it's on them.
But don't give them 3 months notice and expect them to say "Well we WERE going to give you this money if you stayed, so we'll give it to you anyway"...

+1. I gave one month notice and they dumped me immediately. "DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER!"

 

[athena53]

Sorry - yes 12/31/15

Ah, that's better. Get out ASAP! I'm not even sure why you're giving them 3 months' notice.

 

[growing_older]

Plot twist. MegaCorp changed bonus policy and it fully accrued on

Better be clear in whatever written policy you are looking at and fully understand. I've seen bonuses de-allocated up until the day they were to be distributed (regardless of "accrued" or not). Make sure there's no wiggle room between accrued and actually given to you.

 

[cyber888]

Get the money first. Once it is safe in your bank, give 2 weeks notice - and say Sayonara, I'm outta yere.

 

[Theseus]

About 6 months before my planned departure date Megacorp HR VP sent a corporate-wide email indicating a change in procedure regarding bonus payout, with terminated employees being SOL if bonus payout date had not yet occurred even if the fiscal year the payout was based on had been worked in full. Seeing as how my intended date most likely straddled those two events I was a bit miffed and immediately replied to that email with a very pointed question, asking if that policy would apply to retirement also. Mind you, such a sacrilegious offense as to question a policy edict from upon high would normally lead to local management making life even more miserable for the offender, but like I said, I was miffed. I was extremely and pleasantly surprised to get both a phone call, and email response nearly as quickly as I had sent mine - no it did not apply to retirements; and I was thanked for asking! Of course I made sure to save all correspondence in case someone tried to deny it, but it all worked out well in the end. My immediate boss had some idea of my intent before that, but not until after verifying the status of bonus payout upon retirement did I clue him in as to when, a couple of months prior. It gave me a chance to do some training with my intended replacement, that made me feel better about leaving a job I actually did like, but I just didn't care for w**king in general anymore. Towards the end I kind of made a mockery of it, as local HR 'needed' me to sign a useless form to make it official so they could formally work on replacing me. Kept telling them to make me an offer, but they didn't bite.

 

[prudent_one]

terminated employees being SOL if bonus payout date had not yet occurred even if the fiscal year the payout was based on had been worked in full.
...
it did not apply to retirements.

I guess the smart thing for people leaving is to just say they are retiring.

Always wondered how it works when certain policies are different depending on why someone leaves (quit vs. retire), especially if someone is RE.

 

[friar1610]

I haven't read every post in this thread so my comment may not be relevant. I had several jobs over a 6-7 year period after I retired (with pension) from my primary career. I always gave 6-8 weeks notice because my jobs were fairly responsible and I thought that walking out with 2 weeks notice would leave them in the lurch. I figured that might give them time to find a replacement and maybe I could have a short turnover period with that person. In every case the employer screwed around, didn't take timely action to hire someone else and ended up trying to get me to stay on (with a raise.) In every case I left when I said I would feeling not the least bit sorry for any problems it cost the company. Not that any company went out of business because I left but if I were going to get another job (not bloody likely!) I'd just give 2 weeks notice.


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[bobandsherry]

I work for a mega corp bank. There policy is clear, if notice is given before bonus is paid the said bonus will be forfeited. So, instead of 2 month notice I could have given my manager, she'll now get 2 weeks. I've not even hinted as I have no trust that said bonus would have been severally reduced if I would have said something. She and the company have made this a situation that could have been easy transition into a struggle for my replacement.

 

[pixelville]

You can almost be sure your bonus would be reduced or eliminated. Bonus is often used as a motivational incentive.
Long time ago I was going to take up a position in another group. During the transition period, economy went south followed by immediate hiring freeze across the board and then layoff announcement. Guess who the old manager put on the layoff list? Walked me out the door within 2 hrs. I had the highest performance rating (just before the layoff) and promotion given by the old manager. But that didn't stop them. If I am not "loyal", might as well reward those who are.
HR will support the manager. You can't question.
And as others pointed out, you may be asked to leave earlier than your intended 90 days.

 

[Kickernick]

Someone on my team is retiring this week, so I have had a front-row view of exactly how the policies work. I had him confirm in writing that his 2015 bonus is secure - and I kept a copy of their emails. Two weeks from tomorrow is my date (2/9) and I'll let you know how it works.


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[Senator]

Most everyone I work with for the past two years knows I am leaving this summer. Bonuses this year are down overall, I heard 70-80% of last year. Mine was 88% of last year.

My long term incentive bonus, the one that vests over time, was up slightly less than 1%.

Raise, by percentage, was almost the same (2.4% vs. 2.7% last year).

So, it could be held against you but likely not have any impact, if you have a professional employer and a good attitude.

 

[stepford]

I'm probably the exception to all these dire tales of early notice and its consequences. I let my manager know almost a year early when I was thinking about leaving and gave him an explicit departure date 5 months out. In return he was able to facilitate a desired layoff and exit package for me.

Not saying this works for everyone, but I had a good relationship with my management that was maintained through my exit.

 

[ponyboy]

2 to 4 weeks notice...thats it. Like others said...they could easily escort you out the door and strip you of any bonuses that may be coming.