Asking to work less notice - how best to ask?

[PurplePear7]

My current notice is 3 months. By way of quick backstory, I have asked my current employer if I can move office to the one in my hometown and they agreed. I have since found out that everyone in my dept there is leaving and there will only be 3 people in the other dept there. I don’t like wfh/remote working so this isn’t going to be suitable for me and I have an interview for a new job next week.

I am in the process of selling my flat here and will likely be physically moving end of August/September. If successful with the interview for the new job, I would like to tie my leaving my current job in with when I physically move, so I guess I’d be asking if I could work about half of my notice (6 weeks).

I am aware they can say no etc etc but I’d like to ask anyway. But what is the best way to ask? I thought I would put a paragraph in my notice letter with my preferred leaving date and then can negotiate from there? I’m not leaving on bad terms and don’t want to burn any bridges!

I'd wait until you have a job offer!

IME particularly if you are three months they will be happy to negotiate down, most in my field are on gardening leave or contract terminated asap.

I’m sure you can negotiate- it’s a lot harder when there’s a move to another area involved. If they cannot however could you work the rest of your notice remotely?

I think it depends on your sector. I've got a 3 month notice period and there's no way I could negotiate it down.

Yeah if they refuse it’s not the end of the world, I just want to leave asap for various reasons! But at the same time need to be careful not to burn any bridges.

I am getting a bit ahead of myself having not even had the interview yet 😂 but there are two positions available, I have v good experience and I’ve never not been offered a job so hopefully I will get it (Watch me crash and burn after saying that!! Lol).

I just kept asking. They let me go a month early in the end.

One of the key reasons for a 3 month notice is to make sure there is a complete handover to the person in-filling your role. But if you've only been there a short while, there probably isn't so much to do. So you could make an outline of what handover tasks need to be done and create a timeline that lasts 6 weeks or so, then suggest that you could leave at that point. Get them to agree and sign it off, then do exactly what you've outlined.

This always makes me laugh a bit - just telling them when you are going.

If they were ever going to come after you - and seriously unless you are CEO of BlackRock that is not going to happen - they need to show loss. That is, they need to show that you leaving cost them something which they couldn’t mitigate. Which it won’t have.

Businesses cannot make you walk through their doors.

I always resign verbally to my manager and propose a date then before formally sending in the letter. If I want to leave early I mention it so they can start thinking about it and I can reiterate my commitment to handing over any work etc. We can then agree exact timescale over the next 24 hours or so (much like job offers).

The best way to reassure them is to explain how you'll utilise the time, a good hand over document for example, a plan of what work you'll finish up. I offered to go back to hand over to my replacement, I've even gone back and been on the interview panel for the replacement.

Businesses cannot make you walk through their doors.

Quite, but depending on the profession some circles can be small, it's rarely a good idea to burn bridges!

I’m in accountancy so it is mostly task focused and 6 weeks is more than enough time for handovers etc.

Did 3 months when I left my last job and basically everything I needed to do was crammed into the last 2 weeks - 3 months is so long you almost forget you’re leaving 😂

3 months is awful, and I think most places know you have mentally checked out by that point. Assuming it's something that can be covered and you agree a good hand over (even if not to a replacement, I'm public sector so hand overs with replacements are unheard of due to our recruitment being SO slow!) I don't think many places would be so stubborn as to enforce it as it has little benefit.