What happens if I don’t work contracted notice?

[Inforthelonghaul]

Posting here for traffic. Not for me but on behalf of someone else. She wants to change jobs but signed a contract for her present employment which states that she needs to give two months notice. She’s been there just a couple of months but for various reasons is not happy. She would be happy to give 2 weeks notice. What could her employer do under these circumstances?

Bump. Any advice would be much appreciated as she’s actually told them she wants to leave, it’s a live in position and they will make it pretty unpleasant I think.

"What if I don’t want to work my notice?
Good question. It goes without saying that you should honour your employment contract, but if you absolutely can’t or won’t then there isn’t much your employer can do. He/she can’t come round your house, drag you out of bed and force you into the workplace. But they could bring a claim against you for the additional costs you incurred by not serving your notice period. They could argue, for example, that you should meet the cost for having to find a replacement at such short notice, though this is highly unlikely unless you’re in a very senior role."

www.jobsite.co.uk/worklife/notice-periods-long-work-20739/

Last resort would be getting signed off. Other than that then battling them will still involve her being at work and having to deal with them.

If she has only been there a couple of months then she is still presumably in her probationary period and usually only a week of notice would be required. There is really nothing the employer will be able to do apart from mentioning it on her reference. Would she even want to use this this employer for a reference? When this happened to me a number of years ago, I simply registered with an agency and used that to cover the gap on my CV. I was able to leave my ex employer off it completely.??

I don’t think there is a probation period unfortunately. She’s supposed to be training but there seems to be a high turnover of regular staff. Her worry is being sued for breach of contract rather than a poor reference.

I think she’s realised that the position just isn’t right or good for her and 2 months seems a very long time to work somewhere in a bad atmosphere. I have seen ACAS mentioned on here before. Would they be able to advise?

9amtrain has already posted the answer. Technically it's breach of contract and they could pursue her for costs but it's not financially worth it for the employer unless she has a very senior role or is in possession of commercially sensitive information about the company.

Ok thank you I will pass this on.

I presume it's the care industry? Bet you a quid they're in breach of something, so if she blows the whistle to CQC and walks out because it isn't safe or legal, they won't come after her.