3 months notice

[AJPTaylor]

Hoping an employment expert can help me?
I have a contract which requires me to give 3 months notice. It is not the job for me, been there 10 months.
I intend to resign.Other jobs I have looked at have told me that the 3 months notice is a barrier to me being shortlisted. I trust that current employer will advertise for my replacement as soon as I resign but will not release me until they have a new person ready to start. The peice that I can't work out is what happens if they find someone soon who is available immediately? Would they be obliged to honour the balance of my 3 months notice?

They can agree a shorter notice period or they can hold you to your contracted notice. The latter is the default if you don’t talk to them about it.

If your employer refuses to agree a shorter notice period, the availability of a replacement is irrelevant. They can still require you to serve out your notice.

If you leave without serving out your full notice and without your employer's agreement they could, in theory, take action against you to recover any losses they incur as a result. However, that is unlikely to succeed unless you are in a senior role. Most employers won't bother. But leaving early without agreement makes it unlikely you would be able to use your current employer as a reference in future.

Thanks for your help. I really need to understand that if I give my notice, is there any way they could require me to leave and not pay me for that time?

They could offer you an earlier leaving date or you could ask for one and they could agree. In neither case would they owe you the full amount of your notice. It would be an agreed variation of your contract.

If they decide to ask you to leave early they must still pay your full notice period. They can only avoid paying your full notice period with your agreement (i.e. you agree a shorter notice period with them).

Thank you! I think I have made my decision in that case. Simply not the job for me but they will struggle to replace me. I am confident that I can find something else in Sept or October and will be fine if I don't as long as I have that little extra time/pay