6 or 9 months notice?

[Brat]

Don't make your move counting on finding a job as an elementary school teacher. Schools right now are cash strapped, class sizes are increasing, all across the country. Be prepared for the possibility that it may take a while after you have your teaching certificate.

 

[old woman]

I will leave in the spring like the women before me. Bonuses are Christmas and Profit sharing January so they will be over. I am really busy Jan and Feb so about mid Feb I will tell my boss to look for my replacement. He will probably find my replacement around April 1 and I will spend 2 weeks training. Then I will start doing doctor and dentist appointments and taking vacation days. I will show up 3 days a week or so until the replacement is fully trained. I have about 600 hours vacation coming and plan to use it up and will have another 100 hours at least so I can be on vacation about 6 months showing up a couple of times a month if needed. I accrue more vacation and sick if I show up or get paid for any in a half month so twice a month is perfect for me. I might make Labor day my last day even if they replace me in April or May. I took the job April 24 and my prior person left labor day for a 3 month trip. They gave her a party and luggage. Now I need to decide which year to retire maybe 2014 when I turn 66 because the next two years bonuses will be fantastic.

One coworker started giving notice about 3 years ago. They gave him about 50K bonus to work one more year then he gave a 1 year notice to leave last Christmas when he was 65. Now he needs to work until his wife is 65 so his insurance will cover chemo so 2 more years. We all know he wants to be retired.

 

[oldtrig]

I think 24 hours is enough
I also like Charles Bronson movies

 

[SJ1_]

I am working out my end of game strategy. Part of me would like to pick a date next year to let my boss know that I intend to retire in 6 or 9 months. I am not really concerned about being left out or being "put on the shelf" during that period...in fact that might be a good thing.

I would like to know about your experiences/views on the pro's and con's of this approach.

cons - they might find a replacement before the 6 month period.

 

[Brat]

If you are handed your walking papers early you would be entitled to unemployment compensation. Only the most economically marginal employers will do that because the remaining employees learn not to give notice.

If they do find your replacement odds are they will ask you to transition responsibilities and they will give you an assignment your manager always wanted to be done but didn't have the resources to complete.

 

[DivinDave]

I agree with those who suggest keeping notice short. In my place of employment they do have a policy for 3 months notice of retirement. I've never seen them put that to any good use. My boss had given them 6 months notice and they only offered me his job the day before he left. I never really got to talk to him about how he did the job or the pitfalls to watch out for.

I've also seen people who gave notice in advance lose out on off site training and conferences, and miss out on bonuses even though they'd worked for them already.

When I go it will be after the bonuses get paid out and I can take advantage of all my benefits. Then they get 2 weeks notice. The nature of work has changed. The company can't attract GenX or GenY, so I fully expect to be offered a consulting position, like many of my newly retired colleagues. The question will be do I really want to keep working for a term?

 

[Rustward]

This is kind of trivial, but it echos what others have said about notice. A little over a decade ago I was doing a short-term contract (a rescue). I arrived the Monday after Thanksgiving. The girl in the adjoining cube had been there for about six weeks. After two or three weeks she stopped by my cube to tell me that the place was kind of boring and she was not challenged at all, and had accepted another offer and had given her two week notice.

It seemed that it was standard operating procedure for managers to host a holiday lunch outing for their direct reports, and the one for this department had been scheduled, and it fell within the outgoing employee's notice. That afternoon the lunch was rescheduled for the day after her last day. Some stuff cannot be made up.

 

[Milton]

I gave around 6 months notice because ... I ... was hoping once they knew I was going to retire, I could possibly get an interest in leaving severance package. We had done a downsizing a couple of months earlier and I had asked to be one of the people they were downsizing and was denied.

I asked my boss to consider me if there was any more downsizing. She did pursue a package for me when there was some downsizing going on in another area in our department which did not impact her organization which resulted in me getting 1 year of severance pay. I would not have gotten this if I hadn't all ready announced my retirement.

If your employer knew that you would be leaving voluntarily within six months or less, I don't understand why they would elect to pay you a year's severance to leave slightly sooner.

Not calling BS, just saying their decision seems strange.