How do I hand in my notice?

[InTheZenGarden]

Have finally made the decision to quit my job. Unfortunately, my boss is currently on holiday and the week she gets back, I am on leave. The next time I will see her is Tues 25th, which seems ages off.

I have to give 3 months notice, so I'm quite keen to hand it in as soon as possible.

Is it OK to date my resignation letter today, but not actually give it to her til the 25th? Or do I actually need to tell someone now? I could go straight to my manager's manager, but he's not the most sensitive/tactful of people, and I'm worried he might let it slip before she gets back. I have a good relationship with my boss and I don't want other colleagues of mine to find out before she does, it would seem a bit of a slap in the face

So, basic question, sorry for the rambling: is it legally OK to date my letter today but not tell my boss for over 2 weeks?

TIA

Well it is basically up to your employer whether they accept that. Giving 3 months' notice means actually telling someone you are leaving in 3 months' time, not giving someone a letter later on dated 3 months back from when you want to leave.

So if you do that, your employer could choose to take your notice from the date you actually give them your letter and make you work 3 months from then.

But if you have a good relationship with your boss and given that you have quite a long notice period anyway, she may well be happy to accept that. It's a risk though. If it's really important that you must leave 3 months today, to ensure that you need to give notice to your manager's manager. Personally I'd probably take the fairly small risk of leaving it a couple of weeks and hoping your boss is ok with 3 months minus 2 weeks' notice.

alternatively you could email your boss and then follow up with a letter in which you refer to "my email of [date]" and count your three months from the date of the email.

if you word the email along the lines of "sorry not to tell you in person but wanted you to tell you first and our holidays overlap" then i think this would be seen as perfectly reasonable - i've always accepted it.

Thanks
Flowerybeanbag - yes, see what you mean, I could backdate a letter to 3 months ago and leave now, couldn't I, if that were the case! So yes, it makes sense for it to be from the day I tell someone

MrsWobble - I could email her but a) she's rubbish at emails and will have so many when she comes back from holiday that she may well not see it and b) there's not much difference between emailing her and leaving my letter on her desk, is there? And I don't think that is the best way to tell her, especially not on her first day back from hols...

There's no desperate rush, I'm not moving off to a new job or anything. I have decided to be a SAHM, and suppose that now I have made the (really quite monumental) decision, I'm itching to get going....

2 weeks isn't all that long, I guess. And for every extra week I work, that's an extra week with money coming in!

Thanks

Wait until she comes back, speak to her and ask whether she's happy to accept just under 3 months notice. It's worth a go, and you never know, she might be happy to let you go even sooner.

Flowery is right. I would just add that employers tend to be more understanding about cutting short notice periods if you are leaving for 'personal' rather than 'career' reasons - eg. leaving to be a SAHM, leaving because of relocation, etc...

Will do

I work in the NHS, my team is predominantly female and there are a fair few mums who work PT. My boss is very family-friendly and flexible and I know she will be understanding about my decision. As you say, maybe she will let me finish early

Why can't you address your letter to the head of HR in your manager's absence? I was held to every day of my notice period when I left my last job and I'd have been pretty miffed to have had to serve a longer notice just because my manager was on holiday.

Should add that I was leaving for 'personal' reasons too.

MollioO - I did think about that, but am concerned that HR would somehow (inadvertently) communicate my resignation to my boss (email, letter etc) and that she would see this before I got a chance to see her..... hmmmm, tricky.