Civil Service Provisional Job Offer. Start date in 5 weeks. Do I advise my current employer?

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Im a regular but have changed my name.

I have a provisional job offer with the civil service. They advised me 5 days ago. My start date is the beginning of january.

DBS checks have been completed and its basically references and security checks left to collate. All of which should come back with no issues. I was self employed for a while but can get numerous character references and have 3 employment references. I can offer more if needed. Nothing should stop this from going ahead.

My query is do I warn my current employer. I would generally not consider this however I work for a small organisation that is going through huge changes, already has staff shortages with huge amounts of work to cover. There are more shortages coming and I have been asked to work extra hours over the next 3 months to help cover this. I said I could but now this job offer has come in. Clearly this is going to impact on my current work place heavily and I feel like im deceiving awkward not saying anything. They have been very good to me.

My notice period would be partially over christmas and I have two weeks annual leave booked for this time. The date the civil service are proposing I start will mean I have, at most, 3 weeks of work left with my current employer taking into account my annual leave.

My dh says I should say nothing till its confirmed. I will not hand my notice in until I have a contract however I feel I should let them know this is highly likely to happen. I also feel I should advise them as they will be getting reference requests.

Im unsure what to do.

Blue where I work you won't get a formal offer till your references have come throigh.
I think I'm missing something. Everyone else seems to see how this can happen but me.

Could you ask them to be referees but without mentioning the offer?
That way they won't be surprised by the request but you won't be put on the spot resigning without a formal contract.

Is there any chance they would revoke your leave if they are worried about work being done before you might go?

I agree with Stealth. You expect them to do the courtesy of giving you a reference, the least you can do is inform them they will be asked. That’s not the same as giving your notice so shouldn’t close off your options.

You haven’t mentioned how long you have been with your employer but you have protection from unfair dismissal after two years and I can’t see any reason to think the additional statutory or discrimination protection would apply that removes the two year qualifying period?

They can’t dismiss you for looking for another job if you have more than 2 years service. If they’re petty and decide to let you go, for looking for another job they still have to give you your minimum notice. Besides, they are clearly short staffed so it’s not in their interest to let you go without good reason.

One thing to note, some employers will not allow employees to take annual leave during their notice period so check your contract. In reality I’ve never known an employer stop someone unless there’s a genuine business critical reason.

Congratulations with the new job! I'm starting with the civil service on Monday. I didn't inform my work until I electronically signed the contract. Once you've spoken to your Recruitment manager for the area and confirmed a start date, the contract will appear in the attachment area of the civil service job log in. I accepted the job in September and only starting now.

So the CS is the organisation for whom the term "glacial pace" was invented - I did wonder!

My employer wont sack me for looking for another job. Were all on annual contracts so looking for permanent jobs is common place. My annual leave is forced due to closure of christmas so this cant be revoked or changed but it is still taken as part of my notice period.

In light of the potential delays i'll change the way I do it. I'm not going to email but i'll consider mentioning in passing that a request for a reference might be coming in and see what they say from there. I think in light of the delays many of you have mentioned it would be better.

I work for the CS. Do not give notice until you have a formal job offer in writing, they will wait for your notice period to end.

You can't be 100% certain you'll pass the security checks and they can take literally months to complete, 6 months from verbal job offer to actually starting isn't an unlikely scenario, it usually takes 3-4 months.

cue , it only took 48 hours, a week before I started in the CS stories

The CS have already told me the date the job starts! they included it in their provisional offer email. with the exact words . "The start date for this job will be ...........". Its very confusing. How can they do this on a provisional offer, then take months for checks to come through. Surely I will miss the start date?

I didn’t get my formal offer until the day before I was meant to start OP (however it was a civil service transfer). These things can be very drawn out unfortunately

Do you not have to go through any security clearance op?
I was given a provisional offer in September and have only just received the email to log into the site to input details for security clearance. Having checked timescales it may take up to 6 weeks for these checks to be completed and only then will I receive a formal offer if everything is passed.
It is such a long process and if I start this job in March which is what was stated on the provisional offer it will have been 12 months from applying for the role to actually starting it.
I am not mentioning it to my current employers, I work for a big bank so no guilt in leaving and leaving anyone in a tight fix. Plus would hate to think how they would treat me if they knew I was going when they treat me terribly now.
Good luck OP hopefully we will both be in our new roles soon.

Basic security checks are needed. Theyve already cleared DBS and I gave them permission to do everything else after the interview. I filled in pages of forms. Ive been on a merit list since September so I dont know if they will have done some checks while i've been on the list.

It soumds like it could take alot longer than they have suggested.

Security Clearance (SC) normally takes 4-5 weeks.

I would wait until you get an unconditional offer.

The security checks process can take quite a while. Why don't you ask HR to hold off requesting a reference from your manager until the security clearance comes through. This will help you manage the situation in your current role.
The start date in the provisional offer is subject to all the checks... If the checks take longer, the start date is delayed.
Best not to create uncertainty in your current job until you have a more definite timeline.