I’ve been working for a company for four months as an area sales manager, the company is in turmoil after a big re-shuffle and it’s not been a good place to work. Luckily a competitor has approached me to replace a retiree and we’ve agreed a deal and they want me to start 1st May.

My contract states that after one month’s continuos service one months notice must be given. My concern is if I do this they will certainly put me on garden leave as they won’t want me to work as I’m going to competitor but if they don’t want to pay me to sit around for a month with a fully expensed car they may say ‘bugger off after a week’ this leaving me three weeks short of pay.

Can they do this????

Or shall I carry on and work most of the month and play my hand nearer the end of next month???

They have to give you a months pay whatever happens. A months notice works both ways I think.

yes a months notice works either way – they can do as they please with you whilst employed re garden leave but they will be paying you whatever they do

Enter stage left; Toilet Duck and bog brush!

He’s only been there 4 months, surely a months notice from either side isn’t required?

So to be clear, you need to check with citizens advice, but I doubt the 1 months notice is enforceable.
You then work until April 30 and say goodbye.
Maybe not the most ethical approach, but you’d be sure of getting paid.

Check your contract. It should be in there.

Unless you’re desperate to start with the new job earlier, it would be in your interests to take the month’s money and most likely a few week’s riding on dry Springtime trails…

As you’ve been working there for longer than one month, then you’ll need to give them one month’s notice. You **may** be able to negotiate a shorter period, but as you’ve already agreed a start date with your new employer of 1st May, the best you could probably do is hand your notice in on Monday (26th Mar), work 2-3 weeks’ notice, then take 1-2 weeks’ unpaid leave before starting your new job. Only you can decide if leaving sooner is worth the loss of earnings.

Best to be up-front with them, in my opinion. The worst that can happen is that you have to work out a month’s notice, it will soon pass. I had to work out 10 weeks’ notice at a previous employer where I **really** wanted to leave (3 months’ notice in my contract, with my first class negotiating skills I got it down to 2.5 months). It was worth it in the end.

Good luck mate!

Or shall I carry on and work most of the month and play my hand nearer the end of next month

And not give proper notice? What would your new employer make of that?.

If you’re on a probation period (generally 3-6 months) your notice period will be less

As Howarthp says. It depends whether you are on probation period or not. If you are on 6 months. Hand in your notice Monday and you are possibly out of the door immediately with no months pay. Otherwise it sounds like a months notice, worked or not.

A probation period unless specified otherwise is three months.
The only thing you can lose if you do not give notice is accrued holiday pay.
you have been there for four months, so you have lost appro. 7 days holiday pay.
Other than that it’s not slavery you know!

Can you speak to HR?

Hand in your notice one month before the day you wish to leave. If that is all you need to give them, why give more?

Ps don’t burn any bridges on the way out. It’s just not worth the few seconds of satisfaction and you’ll regret it if it comes back to bite you.

Good luck.

Upto 1 year service you only have to give 1 week notice. What your contract says is irrelevent, they can not enforce anything more than the statutory minimum.

On the other hand, burning bridges and all that jazz. The choice is yours.

Edit: probation periods are nonsence. At the end of a 3 month probation period you have exactly the same rights as if you had been there 11 months

Hand in your notice one month before the day you wish to leave. If that is all you need to give them, why give more?

Ps don’t burn any bridges on the way out. It’s just not worth the few seconds of satisfaction and you’ll regret it if it comes back to bite you.

Good luck.

^^^This – don’t play dirty just for the hell of it – you never know where life will lead you in 5 years time.

thanks guys, before posting I’d checked my contract and as usual the contract states after one month’s service it’s a months notice.

My point was ‘could they shorten that’ to save money. There’s no way they’ll want me to work and have access to computers etc because I’m going to a direct competitor, i’ll serve my notice at the end of March and the onus is on them to either put me on garden leave/make me work/buy me off.

By law I’m entitled to my pay and benefits (company car) and they will have to compensate me to remove car.

They’re a pretty good company to work for and don’t cut corners so I’m not expecting them to try and rip me off but just wanted to check the consensus of STW wisdom 😆

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=1073792628&r.l1=1073858787&r.l2=1073876974&r.l3=1074038949&r.s=sc&type=RESOURCES

Upto 1 year service you only have to give 1 week notice. What your contract says is irrelevent, they can not enforce anything more than the statutory minimum.

This sentence doesn’t make sense (and I doubt it’s correct). If the employer couldn’t enforce more than the statutory minimum, it would be a statutory maximum.

It seems weird that an employee and employer couldn’t contract to extend the notice period beyond the statutory minimum, especially when customer data etc is involved.

The only thing you can lose if you do not give notice is accrued holiday pay.

I don’t know if the position is different under statute in England (quite possibly) but at common law, failing to give notice was a breach of the employment contract that could sound in damages for e.g. the cost of a temp to cover the unserved time and the costs of recruitment in addition to that would have been incurred for replacement with the notice period. Now having said that, it has to be a fairly expensive employee before it’s worth litigating over.

I havent read all the Posts so apologies if someone else has covered this, if you have any annual leave left then use that as notice period, either put it in for your last two weeks prior to telling them then slap your notice in four four weeks which will be two weeks work and two weeks hols
Otherwise put a months notice in and go off sick at the first sign off stress

Yep dont burn your bridges,i.e dont go on a rant about your gaffer,even if they try to get a rise out of you.
Leading to you punching him and knocking him out. P.s he threw the first punch

Konabunny – a fair point and one with which I got confused. That was my belief as an employer of 35ish staff, not as an employee. It was the 1 week notice upto 2 years service I was thinking of, but the important milestone is 1year – you cannot make a claim to a tribunal for unfair dismissal until 12 months service.

The mention of holiday pay being withheld is completely wrong though. You have to legally provide paid holiday leave (currently min 20 days +bank hols,) and you cannot withold accrued holiday pay as it has already been earned. How do I know? Had a chef lose the plot, attacked the head chef and threatened to come back and stab us all – sacked him on the spot but after seeking legal advice was told that we had to pay him any holiday pay already accrued.