When to Give Notice

I would go look at the employee handbook and give them exactly what is stated. if it is 6 weeks then 6 weeks. If 2 weeks then 2 weeks.

Retirement letter should be 2 sentences - "Please accept this as notice of my retirement effective xxx per paragraph y in the employee handbook. If you have any questions or need additional info please contact me."

Attach any forms that need to be completed with the letter if there are any spelled out in the handbook. HR will probably have others later.

In a former company (fortune 100) I worked for someone gave 2 weeks notice as opposed to 30 days and they said he resigned as opposed to retired causing a failure to get paid for either sick leave or a bonus (I can not remember which one). The person sued and lost. There were steps spelled out in the handbook that if followed made the company happy. The company lawyers would not let people deviate from the handbook on either side. I saw in the same company a person do the retirement thing and his boss wanted him gone that day and the lawyers told the boss he could be sent home but would be on the payroll until his retirement date. They followed the handbook to the letter.
 
My Director-level boss (2 levels above me) was a longtime co-worker/boss who I had worked directly for/with for almost 20 years. We were at a dinner event about 2 years before I retired when he asked me what my retirement plans were. I had been pondering it verbally with some of my co-workers and even my direct boss at the time, but had not decided anything yet. Obviously, one of them (likely my direct boss) told him it was on my mind. I openly told him that I had not made up my mind and didn't have a specific target date in mind -- probably 2-5 years or so. I was probably 54 at the time. He told me that one of his peers had given one year notice. I laughed and told him that he should not expect that from me. He seemed kind of taken aback by that, but I didn't care.

Once I made up my mind, I settled on 6 weeks notice. This allowed me to review ACA insurance options on November 1 and then make December 14 my last day so that I didn't have to needlessly work through the Christmas holidays. My formal resignation was done via email that was only about 2 sentences long. Maybe 1.

My Director was still happy for me and gave me no grief about only giving 6 weeks notice. I only walked away with due salary and about 2 weeks of accrued vacation time. They didn't even get me a watch after 19+ years with the company. My immediate co-workers gathered up $250 and gave me a gift card, which was nice.
 
As I wrote in Aerides's linked thread, I gave a month's notice, which translated into 9 days because I was working only 2 days a week. It was just enough time to get my main project done. My resignation letter was brief. I had a blob of unused vacation time I wasn't even aware that I had, so it was nice getting another check with my final paycheck a week after I left. They gave me a stack of forms to send to our 401k admin so I could get the money out of there. My instructions were complicated but they followed them all to the letter, and my ER began well.
 
Being the cautious type, I would make sure I took all my PTO before giving notice.

.
 
pb4uski said:
You didn't want to ask the boss or HR... when I retire does any unused PTO get included in my final payheck? :D
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:)

I am slightly envious of people who go through the formal retirement process. It is one of the experiences I will never have.
The longest time I stayed with an employer was 5.5 years.
I last worked as true W-2 employee in 2013.
 
What is this "loyalty" idea? Your employment is a business relationship. The company treats it as a business relationship and so should you. You do a job for them and they pay you money. The minute they decide that they don't need whatever you are doing, they will tell you your services are no longer required.

I've been through a number of situation where somebody got on the PA system and said, "Everybody in the XYZ group, please come to the Large Conference Room immediately." Although one time it was "Everybody except the XYZ group, come to the cafeteria immediately."

And except perhaps for your immediate boss, nobody in the upper levels of the company even knows who you are, so where would any "loyalty" come from?

Two weeks is standard notice. No reason to give any more. As others have said, prepared to be walked out the door as soon as you give notice.

Oh, and they have to pay you for any accumulated vacation time.
 
It depends. Look around and see how people are treated when they give notice.
At some companies, the day they give their notice, they are walked out the door.
Are they considering layoffs and knowing you are going to leave save someone's job - or conversely, mean that you will miss out on a separation package?
If you give notice too far in advance saying you would stay until they can get someone else in, you may find that they will not even advertise the job until shortly before you were going to leave.
Are there other people at the company who do same/similar work and can step in quickly to continue the job? Or should you start identifying potential people at the company to take your job and start training them with some of the unique things you do so they will be more competitive for your position.
 
If anyone needs a reminder about how little employees are valued, go to CNBC.com and read the AT&T CEO’s letter to the Time Warner employees. It is a bunch of management speak about improving the customer experience and how valued the staff is. Yeah right- I’m canning a bunch of you so the big shareholders will get off my back and my huge compensation package won’t get reduced by the board. So a few thousand of you are being dropped, it is ok, you’ll look back on us fondly one day. What a horse’s @ss!

All of us should leave when we want, on our terms. There is no loyalty from most companies anymore. Don’t fool yourselves.
 
A couple weeks ago I read in linked in article how a young lady said they can’t lay me off-“what about my hopes and aspirations..” I thought to myself your kidding right? She wasn’t, many don’t get it.

There were rumors, there often are before a layoff. I was maybe 30, many of my friends and colleagues were 50ish. A group of them happened to be standing together, gossiping - I teased them the company likes when you stand together - it’s saves ammunition. A dumb harmless comment right? a couple days later. They were forced out. It was awful.

Bob was young for a guy with 30 plus years with the firm. That resulted in a 22% reduction in pension. At his retirement lunch his wife told me he missed 2 days work in all those because he was on an accident. He tried to get on the bus to work but could not lift his banged up leg high enough.

I was maybe 40 when they walked my buddy Ken out -nearly 40 years with the firm, like his dad before him ...Ken cried.

I saw the same thing so many times over the years Loyalty? no, I think in terms of killer employable skill set. Everyone should.
 
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I gave my company a long notice. They did nothing to prepare.

My leaving was delayed (my decision) due to COVID. They still did nothing to prepare.

The only thing HR cared about was my employee number. They sent me a check for my accrued vacation time.

Give them 1 week, 2 at most. That would have worked better for me.
 
OP, do you live in a state where the employer is required to honor/pay the balance of unused vacation? I do not, so I would not consider giving notice unless I had negligible vacation hours accrued (my megacorps measures vacation in tenths of hours).

I agree with others that loyalty is cheap and not an overly useful concept in the modern business world. However, there is also a thing to be said about cultural practices. It seems to me the practice of giving 2 weeks notice before quitting is a good one, just as MegaCorps offering severance after termination is also a good practice.
 
Loyalty is a concept that only applies to smaller companies, say under 100 people. I've given it and I've received it.

Big Companies don't care if you live or die.
 
In todays world I would never be shocked for a 2 week well intended notice (or longer, fir that matter) to be met with a "clear out your office immediately." Always be ready for that
 
I was a “named” executive, on assignment for them in Japan with no apparent successor, especially one who spoke English, so I felt it important to give long enough notice for a replacement to be found, mentored, and educated. So I gave three years’ notice. My boss was the global CEO, and he begged me to stay for four years instead of three, and in exchange for that, I’d receive a nice shiny pair of golden handcuffs that would be removed and given to me when I finished my four years. (I was good at what I did, and had the best performing country units under my leadership during the Great Recession, seeing profits go up instead of down, and, I spoke Japanese). But, I knew that I was going to want to go home around the time my kids were graduating college. So anyway, I found a couple of replacement candidates and mentored them, plus got them familiar with people and processes in the global organization, and left after my four years. But, as you’ve been well advised, how much time you give depends very much on what you do, how easy you will be to replace, whether you are a named exec or key person, or if you think it will be easy to raise up a successor. Further, it will also depend on if your company is one that, once you mention retiring or leaving, will send security to immediately escort you out.
 
For Consideration....

With respect to your question regarding “what the ethical” obligations are with respect to giving notice, I believe intuitively you know the answer or you probably wouldn’t be asking the question. My view is, and I plan on approaching this next year the same way, is that how much notice the company may or may not give you if the circumstances were reversed in no way should influence how you evaluate what your obligations are.....the “golden rule” DOESN’T say to do unto others as they do to you” but instead says as you would have them do unto you. You’ve worked for the company 37 years. This means you (willingly) provided a service for which they (willingly) paid you for....you did your part and they did theirs. You established relationships with “the company” including peers, customers, and maybe others (suppliers, o petitions, etc). The company will live on, and in part you have a stewardship responsibility to ensure you contribute to this, in a sense to give back to your employer and it’s stakeholders. So, of course you should give appropriate notice. There is a moral obligation to do so.
 
I gave them 2 months notice and my reason was selfish on my part. New projects were being launched and I was being tagged for increasing roles. So I figured to let them know early enough so I didn't have to pretend I was working on the projects and/or they noticed I didn't give a crap anymore.

Once I gave the notice it was like a 2-month in-house vacation, meeting invites stopped arriving in my inbox, except for the lunch plans :) and it was so much fun walking around with that smile I couldn't wipe off my face as I saw everyone else still being chained to the mega-corp desk.
 
arch57 said:
I gave them 2 months notice and my reason was selfish on my part. New projects were being launched and I was being tagged for increasing roles. So I figured to let them know early enough so I didn't have to pretend I was working on the projects and/or they noticed I didn't give a crap anymore.

Once I gave the notice it was like a 2-month in-house vacation, meeting invites stopped arriving in my inbox, except for the lunch plans :) and it was so much fun walking around with that smile I couldn't wipe off my face as I saw everyone else still being chained to the mega-corp desk.
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This is similar to what I did when I left my last full-time W2 job.

I hated the project.
It became unbearable as the weeks dragged on.
I knew it was approaching crunchtime where I was going to be expected to work lots of unpaid overtime including weekends to meet a ridiculous schedule that I had no input on.
I couldn't wait to give my 2-weeks notice, but I had to make sure I had my one year in with the company so that 20% of the 401(k) company match was vested.
I walked away without any regrets.
 
Regardless of how much notice you give, even if they don't walk you out the door immediately, if you have a computer, expect to have your password & login ability disabled immediately.

A higher up explained it to us..... "That is to protect both us and you. If *anything* goes wrong on the computer or files, etc. then you can't get blamed for it if you didn't have access."
 
My first job in the corporate world my boss did me a great service. I took him at his word about personal time off if I'd finished my work, and he thought I was taking advantage (which I wasn't because I made up the time). But he said that the company doesn't owe me anything... we're "even" when each paycheck is cut. I played along with the "loyalty" script for my entire career, but never believed it. That being said, when I left, I kept my mouth shut until the day I was ready to be escorted to the elevator.
 
I gave them 2 months notice and my reason was selfish on my part. New projects were being launched and I was being tagged for increasing roles. So I figured to let them know early enough so I didn't have to pretend I was working on the projects and/or they noticed I didn't give a crap anymore.
Click to expand...

This year at my annual review I gave 6 month-ish notice that I was actively planning my retirement. No worry about being walked out the door where I work. I was being asked to help plan and design huge projects with implementation dates 3-5 years in the future. Promised that I would give a solid FIRE date in the first quarter of 2021. Only spoke up because my boss wanted me to get more engaged in the long term work next year. The current compromise is I still attend project meetings but only speak up if things are going off the rails. We'll see how long that lasts I expect at some point they will just move on without including me at all which is fine at this point.
 
Companies are strange and different from one to another. I was working for a company that our division was on an upward growth path. Long term planning was being done. As a result, were were expanding and I was to be part of it. We hired a HR person to handle the growth. Within 2 weeks of her arrival, her job was immediately changed as were the expansion plans. The expansion was stopped mid construction and instead of hiring, this person was put to work handing out layoff packages. She was more surprised than I was. I tried consoling her during my interview. I hope it helped. This was the same company that fired a VP with no notice at all. He probably had a nice golden parachute though.

Another time I was consulting for a small sales organization. I liked the owner and we had many late nights at the bar in far away places. I gave him about 1 year's notice of my retirement.

As for how much notice you owe? I can't say. I would suggest that you treat it as another business related decision. If you don't already know, find out how that company has acted in the past in similar circumstances. Think how it would hurt you, and/or your company. After considering all aspects, then act with the appropriate balance.
 
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I knew a guy who was planning to retire. He said he was going to retire by the end of 2010. He scheduled all of his medical and dental procedures while on the company health plan before he left the company.
 
I cannot give more than 90 calendar days notice because the automated system does not allow me to do so officially but I have more days vacation than that. I am still debating if I will do the common thing and go on vacation, notifying them at some point during vacation I will not return. The advantage for me is staying on the cheaper employee insurance longer rather than the more expensive retiree option and no big check with lots of tax. Most long term employees do this option so it would not be odd. If I do not meet the minimum age to retire is is "quitting" and costs me my future benefits.
 
mvoo said:
.... You’ve worked for the company 37 years. This means you (willingly) provided a service for which they (willingly) paid you for....you did your part and they did theirs.

...

So, of course you should give appropriate notice. There is a moral obligation to do so.
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To me, the first comment doesn't lead to the second. I agree with the first. It's a business deal - you do your part, they do theirs.

So why do you have an obligation beyond that? Just move on (as they will do).

-ERD50
 
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