To think my employer is unreasonable

[BlueElephant3]

I have a low level job, and on a salary of £21k. I am jobhunting, and looking for a job in the £22k-24k salary range, ideally. But I would settle for lower as I hate my current job.

However, my current job has a notice period of 2 months, which is just too long for potential employers. I have spoken to recruiters, and they say that's way too long for someone of my level, and potential employers won't wait that long for me. I've also seen people pull faces in interviews when they ask this question, and I say 2 months,

I know it's my fault for signing the contract, and taking the job, but I was desperate and hoped to be out before the 1 month notice kicked in (after 6 months).

AIBU to think my employer is unreasonable to enforce such a long notice period on low level, low paid staff?

No, but YABU by signing the contract with a two month notice period and complaining about it after.

If you are getting interviews and not worried about finding another job then I would hand your notice in now. Contrary to what everyone says on here, it is very easy to find another job when you have little to no notice.

Unreasonable or not, if that's the contract, then that's the contract, and there's not a lot you can do about it.

Agree with this. I was on 3 month notice so I quit and started looking for jobs - by the time I'd finished pillocking around with recruiters I had a month to run anyway. Had no bother getting work and no gap in the end.

Can you afford to hand in your notice without a job to go to? If so, I would do that.

I work in HR and often people just resign with immediate effect and that's that. Yes, it's a breach of contract but I'm not going to do anything about that in practice and it's not commercially viable. Particularly of they give factual references only, like dates you worked and salary. If you're going to get that anyway, then not much to really lose.

Having that said, it is annoying that staff don't abide by their contractual terms but expect us to abide by the contractual terms if we give notice.

Do you have any annual leave owed so you can do say work 6 weeks then take 2 weeks leave - what does your contract say about taking leave in notice period?

I agree with PP - hand your notice in now, by the time you apply for a few jobs and get an interview, you’ll be down to 6/4 weeks left!

I sympathise though - my old job had a three month period which was completely ridiculous as I was low level and not doing anything that needed a 3 month handover. All that happened it by the end of the 3 months I had completely checked out and did very little work as I couldn’t really pick up any new projects so my workload dwindled; plus all the little gripes and annoyances wound me up so much more as I knew I was leaving and knew it was pointless for me to still be there!

Luckily my new job thought I was worth the wait and I only have a 4 week notice period here

My old job was 2 months notice. I gave notice in and then went on holiday when it was up. Applied for jobs while i was on holiday and when i got back it took me 3 weeks to start a new job. It is a risk but maybe your only option is to hand it notice before securing anything..alot of people usually have 1 month notice so if theyre desperate will prob take someone else just based on that. Hand in notice but be prepared to use any savings is worst comes to worst

You say the notice period goes down to 1 month once you have worked 6 months? How long have you been there?

I would just hold off job hunting until you have done 6 months. A month is probably pretty standard as a notice period.

Apologies, I think I have misread it - 2 months notice starts after 6 months and you have been there 6+ months?

If so, I can only second what everyone else says - give your notice and then apply for jobs when you only have 4/5 weeks to work.

To be honest, work can't physically make you work your notice period. Anyone can stand up and walk out of work with immediate effect. It's not the best thing to do admittedly but nor is it impossible

Most employers now stick to strictly factual references. Date you started, what your job role was, etc. What do they do for references at your current place of work? If it is just little impersonal references like the one above, breaching contract and only giving a month wouldn't make a difference. And it's not like they can do anything to you 😀

Apply for jobs then resign

Get a job, get a start date then negotiate the leaving date with your employer.

Resign now! Get in touch with temping agencies to fill any gap you might fall into between one job and the next.

I recruit people to jobs at your salary level and wouldn’t be put off by your notice period unless the role was time bound.