Notice Period Error

[Cbgds87]

I incorrectly assumed my notice period was 4 weeks and had planned to give notice in on Monday to work 4 weeks before leaving current employer.

However i have gone to double check on contract and its actually states 1 month, so does that mean if i give notice on 17th April, my last day of work would be 17th May?

If it makes any difference my manager has been on leave all last week so i haven't been able to hand it in any earlier. Also i have quite a bit of outstanding leave allowance. I know it varies entirely on employer, but is it possible i will get away with only 4 weeks or can they insist on 1 full calendar month (contract doesn't mention specifically a calendar month but simply one month).

Yes they can insist on full notice otherwise you'd be in breach of contract. If you have a lot of annual leave left can you just tag it onto the latter part of your notice period?

I'm really hoping that will be a possibility

Yes the employer can insist on a full month, and unfortunately it doesn't matter that your boss is out of office (as you could have given to HR or boss's boss).

However I find most companies amenable to finishing the Friday before, or using holiday etc. It's hard to stay motivated when everyone knows you are leaving so often companies don't want to pay to keep you for longer than they need to.

Also if the reason you are worried is because of when you told your new employer you can start - few companies would really kick off about a 2-3 day delay in start date. Just explain what happened and give the new start date as soon as possible and they should be able to accommodate you without any issues.

In terms of writing notice is it best i stick to full month date, then negotiate using a few days leave to end earlier?

You could write the notice saying you’re giving a month notice, then add that in view of your remaining allowance, you propose to take these days at the end of your notice, if acceptable to them, and your last day would then be xx May.
If you include the request in your notice, then the message doesn’t get « lost ».

There are ways of wording it in a polite way so it doesn’t sound too cheeky. The difference between 4 weeks and a month is only 3 days, hopefully they will be accommodating.