Resigning earlier than notice

[Ilovemyshed]

Any HR experts? What happens if you are supposed to give a months notice, say, but give three instead. Is your employer obliged to keep you on until your chosen leaving date?

Not in HR but you should have a contract stipulating the notice period from you and them (for example, during a redundancy). They are not obliged to keep you on, if you want that to happen you need to get an agreement in writing.

No, they’re not obliged to let you work for longer if you give more than your contractual notice

Incorrect. You can give as much notice as you wish. Your contractual notice sets out expectations, and they could remind you of that, but the reality is that they would need to serve you notice to finish earlier (if they can do that depending on your contract and length of service). Or they can put you on garden leave or they can pay in lieu of the notice. They can’t force you to leave earlier than you wish.

Contract states a month each way.

My understanding is you can’t usually expect to stay longer than your notice period.

An exception might be eg teaching, where there is a date you must resign by to leave at the end of term, but you can resign earlier. In fact resigning earlier can be helpful to the school, as they can then interview and appoint in time for the new employee to resign by the deadline.

I looked into this last week. You can give them more notice. They might not be happy but they can’t force you to go after a month unless they dismiss you.

No. If your contract says a month on their side then that's the obligation. You can try and negotiate more, but they are under no obligation to give you more than the notice period that you signed up to.

If it is of benefit to your employer for you to work more than your notice (eg for handover / continuity) then it can be arranged between you, but the employer dies not gave to keep you on to a date you would prefer if they don’t want to.

Most of the posts on this thread are wrong. Your employer is legally obliged to keep you on until your chosen leaving date if you give more than your contractual notice. Your contract specifies the minimum required notice period. It does not (and cannot) prevent you giving more notice. If you give three months notice and your employer pushes you out after one month, that is an unfair dismissal and you can take them to tribunal to get compensation.

Apologies for incorrect advice - follow prh47’s expert opinion.

The month is the minimum notice period on either side. You can give more, and many employers will be grateful as it provides a longer lead in time.

So if I resigned in early January, to leave at the end of March, there is nothing they can do except let that extra notice period run? They cannot counter with a month only, they would have to pay me to end March?

Yes - but they can put you on gardening leave immediately. this is very common in certain industries.

This has to be rubbish, surely? Based on what you described, if I suspected that they wanted rid of me and gave them a year's notice (or twenty years!), they couldn't get rid of me before then without triggering unfair dismissal? That sounds unlikely...

They could still get rid of you by going through the proper processes, just as they would have to if you hadn’t resigned. They can’t get rid of you simply because you have resigned - that would be unfair dismissal.

No, it is not rubbish. It is the law. However, you appear to have misunderstood. It is not that they cannot dismiss you at all. Of course they can. They can make you redundant or dismiss you on performance or disciplinary grounds in the normal way. You giving notice does not change that. Giving long notice because you think they want to get rid of you wouldn't help at all.

What they cannot do is insist that notice must always be one month (or whatever it says in your contract) and ignore the fact that you've given longer notice.

You can give more than your contractual notice. If your employer wants you to leave before that they will need to pay you until your intended leave date. https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/resigning/your-notice-period-when-resigning/#:~:text=You%20can%20give%20more%20notice,will%20be%20the%20next%20Monday.

Why do you want to hand in your notice so far in advance? Why not wait until closer to the one month minimum period?

What is in your contract is the minimum required notice period.

But why do you want to give more notice than required? If it's to hand over tasks - you can train people up and share knowledge at any point, wh8ch is sensible, so there are people who can cover when you're sick or on annual leave. I suppose it depends partly on your role and the nature of your job, though.

So whilst I am performing OK in the role the standards are impossible to meet all the time and we are having to upskill in some areas - there have been one or two issues which I am working on but they have NOT put me on a PIP - and set against a backdrop of various things in personal life (including serious family illness and huge meno anxiety) my stress levels are very high. I've just gone onto Fluoxetine for this.

I am just trying to mitigate if they could exit me or what protections I might have. For various reasons I need to work into the new year so losing salary for a few months would be devastating.

Why do you want to give more notice than they require?

They would have to go through a fair process to dismiss you - they couldn't just get rid of you because you had given in your notice.

But as pp have said, they could choose to place you on gardening leave if they want you gone earlier.

No, they can’t insist on the minimum notice period if you give them more.

However, it’s an unusual decision to take. Can you explain more about why you want to do it this way?

So what is their process? Do they have to PIP or can they go straight to giving me notice?

How long have you worked there? If less than 2 years they don’t have to do PIP and can just dismiss you (though it would be bad practice).

Giving your notice will not stop them performance managing you if that’s your worry. They might decide not to pursue anything formal to give themselves and easier life as you’re leaving anyway.

I would resolve in your mind to leave at end of March (or whenever). Keep your head down and give the month’s notice you need to at the appropriate time.