Negotiating notice period

[namechangejune21]

NC for this!

I am in the final stages of interview for a job I really want- I don't want to count my chickens but it feels like it's within grasp.

My current job has a contracted 3 month notice period. New job knows this, but have suggested they would (obviously) prefer me sooner. I have never negotiated a shorter notice period before having always worked jobs with a 1 month notice period.

Does anyone have any advice? I am responsible for recruitment in my current role so am confident that with the procedures we have in place and the sort of job I do we'd be able to recruit fairly quickly. In an ideal world my work would let me go after 6 weeks, which I appreciate they're under no obligation to do.

Also- the last interview is tomorrow afternoon and I am on leave all next week, so it's very likely if I'm offered it then it'll be while I'm away. As I want to get the ball rolling on the above, would it be considered bad form to call my boss from my leave? I'm not going abroad but I will be away in the UK, but I don't want to waste a week if I don't have to.

Are there any tips for how I should approach all this??? Thanks in advance!

If you are offered the job and are intent on not losing time, you could formally notify your current manager by email that you have accepted a new role elsewhere and that you've accepted the job. This will constitute your resignation which will need to be in writing anyway for it to be accepted by your current employer, so it isn't doing anything that isn't common practice in the workplace. You could mention in the same correspondence that you would like to discuss your notice period, but that you would prefer to do this in a meeting with your manager when you return from annual leave.

In your situation however, I would want to wait until you are back from leave and do everything face to face with your manager including negotiating an earlier release, rather than resigning on leave and then negotiating release separately.

I would set your new employer's expectations clearly at the time you are offered the job, that you will try to be released early from your contractual notice period, however you may need to serve the full 3 months. No good employer is going to pressure you to breaching your contract by leaving sooner without the agreement of your current employer.

Thank you, that's very helpful.

In terms of references- I am going to give my current employer, so will obviously need to let them know before I allow new job to contact them. But I also know that you're not meant to hand in your notice until you have an unconditional offer, which I wouldn't get until they'd got my references!

That bit seems quite chicken and egg- what would I do about that?

Sorry have been in this job for 9 years so last time I changed jobs I was much more junior and there was less process and much less at stake!

I am in this position. My new employer negotiated from three months to six weeks on my behalf.

Oh wow @StillSmallVoice I never even knew that was a thing! How did they do that? Was it money related?

They really wanted me and didn't want to wait. The two organisations work together quite a lot and I will be seconded back to my current employer part time till they recruit a successor. So it is a win all round.

Hope you get the job. If they offer you the job it means that they want you and will know they have to wait while you work your notice.

My new employer negotiated it down for me as well but my move was to a major client of the previous employer. If the two companies are not connected then that probably isn't an option.