Working a notice period

I have a 3 month notice period, if I hand my notice in today with an end date of 3 months time could the company make it sooner? i.e. “we only want you for a month’s handover” and thus only pay me for a month?

Provided it suits both you and the company I don’t see why not. I doubt that they could force it on you though if it wasn’t what you wanted.

AFAIK They can ask you to finish earlier but would have to pay you to the end of your notice period. This is sometimes referred to as Gardening Leave.

They would be likely to insist that you don’t work for anyone else during this period though.

Yes they company can do that. Any terms can be negotiated if they’re accepted by both parties

No they can say you can go sooner but they have to pay you for the 3 months. However they can choose to make you work it or put you on gardening leave, where your not allowed to get another job

If SilentSparky wants to start work sooner at a new job then this could be negotiated – the company would not have to pay the 3 months notice – assuming, as I stated above, that both parties agree to this

I had the same problem and wanted to leave early so I requested that we discuss it. My old employer ignored the issue till I pointed out that I didn’t need a reference for my new role and would be leaving on receipt of my next payment. We then got together and agreed (I told) what date I would actually finish. If they’d been open to communicating from the start I would probbaly have stayed longer as I would have been able to handle the situation with my new employer better.

The gist of it is that they can only come after you for the financial damage you cause by not working to your contract. The cost of doing this compared to the actual damage they would be able to prove means that they are extremely unlikely to.

In my opinion you’re better off not burning your bridges and leaving on the best possible terms. You never know when your paths will cross again with your former colleagues if you work in the same in the same industry or area.

Cool, thanks for clarifying I thought/hoped it’d be a case of having to honor 3mths pay whether they choose for me to work or not, unless I had something lined up where we could negotiate an ending date to suit both parties.