I have quite a high position in a small engineering company in the south of the UK, which is in turn owned by a bigger US company. I will be leaving in Easter next year and taking my family to live on a friends croft in the Scottish Highlands for 6 months. Renting out the house and have enough saved to pay the mortgage for 6 months anyway.

I have to leave my job. Part of the exercise will be to see if we can make a go of it up there full time so a request for a sabbatical would be dishonest. If we decide its not for us and move back, I wouldn’t want the position I am in now anyway, but would like to stay on good enough terms to be able to apply for a lower position on my return if one is available. We are expanding at the moment and looking for larger premises so not unrealistic.

I have to give 3 months notice as per contract. However, I am not leaving because I don’t like the company, they are great to work for and I enjoy the majority of the work. I would like to give more notice to help ease the transition but do not want to find myself unemployed before Easter.

We are too small to have an HR dept to ask advise so… in the spirit of the MTB community I have come here for advice.

The Croft is in Bonar Bridge btw.

I have to give 3 months notice as per contract

Are you sure it doesn’t say minimum  3 months notice?

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>Talk to your boss, explain the situation. Simples. </span>

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>If you’re any good, they’ll be sorry to see you go and happy to have you back. </span>

“Just to give you advance warning, I’m intending to hand in my notice in three months’ time.”

*sigh* If they won’t have you back, yhere’s always a job going as a forum coder…

they are great to work for

telling them now will help you confirm this, I guess

Just be honest with your boss but only if you know boss very well. i.e. his personality, temper etc …

normally says not less than or minimum notice – you can give them as much notice as you want – put a date in your notice letter.

why not write to them exactly what you put in the OP?

Thanks All. I have been here over 10 years and know the boss pretty well. He rides Honzo which I made him buy to replace a 90’s Gary Fisher so he can’t be all bad, right?

You have all pretty much said what I was thinking but its a big leap for me, never been super adventurous. Was hoping that no one had any similar but bad experiences.

You could write and give them more than three months notice, but there is always the possibility that they write back and give you exactly three months notice.

Doesn’t sound likely in this case though.

Honest conversation with your boss to confirm all of this and then ask how to formalise your notice.

Be clear that the first conversation is informal, explain to him everything as per your first post and then agree how you will formalise it.

there is always the possibility that they write back and give you exactly three months notice

On what grounds – redundancy?  In which case you can argue to get three months notice and a redundancy payment for the 10 years loyal service. As said, doesn’t seem likely anyway, but what benefit would getting rid of someone sooner bring?

As you haven’t mentioned it I assume there are zero options for remote working?

i suspect not but it’s worth asking, perhaps there is some scope for remote freelance on a ad-hoc arrangement?

The more notice the more options could develop

Sounds like you are heading for a proper adventure on the croft. Good luck and let us know how things go.

I personally would give them 3 months notice.

Don’t expect employers to be very rational when you tell them you’re leaving and remember if it suited them they would give you the bare minimum notice under your contract..

Write to them with your intentions, done.

3 months is a lot of notice, I don’t think there is really much point giving more however much you like them.

I have been going through a similar situation – work for a great place, but have the opportunity to move from the Midlands, which are shite, to Scotland, which is great. I told my director about a month before I officially handed in my notice (almost 2 months), in case they needed to find a replacement. He appreciated it.

Don’t expect employers to be very rational when you tell them you’re leaving and remember if it suited them they would give you the bare minimum notice under your contract..

And in any position you will know what the scenario is with work, handovers and speed of replacement. When I moved back to the UK my boss asked how long we had so he could get the most of me.

You will know better than us how the relationship looks.

There is no option for remote working as I am Technical Manager with many hands on projects. Plus, I do not want to be Technical Manager any more. The good / cool projects are having to make way for more management crap, which is crap. I don’t like having to be a dad to grown arsed men.

Balblair Trails (In Bonar Bridge) are fun and Golspie is up the road, yet to try there. I am looking forward to being back to hands on, out in the elements again after 10 years of being a desk jockey. Got some fun projects to do on the Croft while I am up there.

The MD is out of the office for a couple of weeks so I have some time to prepare my bombshell. Who knows he may be relieved I have decided to go.

You can always team up with me to manufacture widget … in future say in 3 years time.

By that time I shall be looking for widget engineers …

😀

I think the conventional wisdom is generally to only give the minimum notice – if there’s a problem you may want to rethink or reschedule your plans, and if you’ve already given notice you might have wanted to delay things but can’t. There’s also the risk that you’ll be seen as dead wood by management and given menial tasks to do, I can’t see that being the case with the position you’ve described, but some bonus payments are restricted to those not on notice.

Sounds an awsome adventure. I moved to the wilds of Scotland for a bit and it was great. Never got to doing my own crofting though.

I am expertly trained in the subtle art of widget design. Are you near Bonar, chewkw?

Toby, the thought of a few months of menial tasks would be ideal. I expect most of my time on the croft to be pretty menial work and I am really looking forward to it. Also looking to build some accommodation (read ‘glamping’) while I am there. Oh, and having a lot more time to ride and spend time with the family.

I am expertly trained in the subtle art of widget design. Are you near Bonar, chewkw?

Never heard of Bonar but you can ask me anything about SE Asia.  😀

I am currently in the North East the land of the Geordie empire.

I think Bonar Bridge is closer to Norway than it is to Newcastle.

I think Bonar Bridge is closer to Norway than it is to Newcastle.

Nice place but it seems rather quiet …

By flight to Stavanger is 4hr 5mins.  Nearly £600.

By flight to Newcastle upon Tyne 4hr 10mins. Nearly £300.

😀

Yup, super quiet. I was sat up on the croft one evening in July and I couldn’t hear a single car for a couple for hours. Bliss!

 if it suited them they would give you the bare minimum notice under your contract..

they can’t do that unless it’s a dismissal or a redundancy which is a whole different ball game.

Just give notice like normal at 3 months, the 3 months is already covering your firm finding a replacement.

And once you have lived in Scotland with us awesome crew you won’t want to go back south again anyway 😀

You should also check the UK and US employment handbooks. Many US companies have a different attitude on re-hiring and I doubt they would hire you on to a lower position.

how does that conversation go? How do you have it without displaying a lack of ambition which seems to be compulsory at the moment.

you don’t have to come back from a sabbatical but it leaves doors open. I would assume you would be replaced for this period otherwise you are effectively dispensable if you are not needed for an extensive time. Especially if you get to 5 months find out your new plan isn’t working and only have savings for one more months rent.