Reply to: Perm position- negotiate down the notice period

[skysies]

I changed from Perm to Contract in October. I had 3 months notice period after working there for 10 years.
I had a realistic conversation with my boss when I handed in my notice and managed to get my notice down to 6 weeks. Obviously there were deliverables assigned to that and handover which I completed.

There is always a chance if you have a good working relationship with your old boss and company...

Ok, but 6 weeks is still a very long time. Wonder how you managed to convince them to wait.

[llcoolam]

I changed from Perm to Contract in October. I had 3 months notice period after working there for 10 years.
I had a realistic conversation with my boss when I handed in my notice and managed to get my notice down to 6 weeks. Obviously there were deliverables assigned to that and handover which I completed.

There is always a chance if you have a good working relationship with your old boss and company...

[DanielRed]

Depends on the skill set required and the wages they are offering.

The thought had crossed my mind at being gazumped. The requirements are relatively tight, and I put myself in pole position after my interview. Who knows, I'll just have to suck it up and hope. It all means nothing until I send my first invoice anyway.

As a longtime perm, the instability of the world
I'm moving to is going to be the biggest mental hurdle for me.

[SueEllen]

What's the penalty clause for leaving tomorrow ?

£1 to 1p the client will just find someone else / budget reallocated / internal replacement / outsourced or something else

Go go go

Depends on the skill set required and the wages they are offering.

[tarbera]

I'm literally going through this right now, 3 month notice period but need to leave earlier to accept my 1st contracting offer. In the end my current employer has agreed to let me leave a month early, which means I can accept the contract with the client.

The two keys for me were:

a)Being completely transparent with my current employer, and explain the situation. My role is hard to recruit for and they were not keen at all on my early departure, but I lobbied hard as this was/is a dream first contract with a fantastic client

b)I put a plan in place internally with the relevant teams to accelerate my handover and presented that back to them. Once they had the confidence of the teams that my early departure would have minimal impact, they were happy with the plan

HTH

What's the penalty clause for leaving tomorrow ?

£1 to 1p the client will just find someone else / budget reallocated / internal replacement / outsourced or something else

Go go go

[MrMarkyMark]

I'm literally going through this right now, 3 month notice period but need to leave earlier to accept my 1st contracting offer. In the end my current employer has agreed to let me leave a month early, which means I can accept the contract with the client.

The two keys for me were:

a)Being completely transparent with my current employer, and explain the situation. My role is hard to recruit for and they were not keen at all on my early departure, but I lobbied hard as this was/is a dream first contract with a fantastic client

b)I put a plan in place internally with the relevant teams to accelerate my handover and presented that back to them. Once they had the confidence of the teams that my early departure would have minimal impact, they were happy with the plan

HTH

You'll get over it, my CV is role to role with what some would call "dream" clients.

Most clients become a lot less of a dream once you actually get to know them.

A bit like some girlfriends can be really .

[MrLoveBucket]

I tried to negotiate my 3 months notice down to 6 weeks to start my first contract. Employer said no. So I just told them my final day would be after 6 weeks, did a professional job on the hand-over and skipped off into the sunset to start my contract. Technically I was in breach of my contract of employment and I was a little worried my final salary wouldn't get paid but it did. My boss at the time got walked a few months later so maybe I'll get back in there on a contract sometime!

[DanielRed]

Ah... The old dream contract hey....

the one that turns into a nightmare? I hope not!

[northernladuk]

Ah... The old dream contract hey....

[DanielRed]

I'm literally going through this right now, 3 month notice period but need to leave earlier to accept my 1st contracting offer. In the end my current employer has agreed to let me leave a month early, which means I can accept the contract with the client.

The two keys for me were:

a)Being completely transparent with my current employer, and explain the situation. My role is hard to recruit for and they were not keen at all on my early departure, but I lobbied hard as this was/is a dream first contract with a fantastic client

b)I put a plan in place internally with the relevant teams to accelerate my handover and presented that back to them. Once they had the confidence of the teams that my early departure would have minimal impact, they were happy with the plan

HTH

[billybiro]

To be put on a gardening leave you need to tell them the company you will be working for, no?

Maybe, but not always. Frequently, if you resign from an organisation in which you had a lot of potential power, for example, a sysop who has all the passwords and "keys to the kingdom" so to speak, your employer will happily put you on gardening leave and very deliberately won't want you working that notice period for fear that you'll potentially do something quite bad with their systems. And you don't even need to tell them where you'll be going afterwards or even if you have another employer/client lined up.

[skysies]

If. If. If.

Unless you're incredibly foolish and open your mouth to the wrong people, they never will find out.

How will this work? To be put on a gardening leave you need to tell them the company you will be working for, no? Then they know where you're going. If it's a small market, there's a very big chance they will know when you started there. Or am I missing something?

[billybiro]

Gardening leave means you don't work during that time - you remain employed and your salary is paid as normal. If you're on gardening leave and then go and immediately work, and [if] they find out later that you took the 3 month's pay, they'll take steps to get that back.

If. If. If.

Unless you're incredibly foolish and open your mouth to the wrong people, they never will find out.

[radish2008]

I have been offered a contract role, which I want to take. However, I'm currently in a perm position with a notice period of a whooping 3 months. The agency said that the client can wait for me max 1 month.

Is it common practice to negotiate down the period from 3 to 1 month? After all, they'll know that I want to leave and why keep me for the full notice period.

In my experience it is. I negotiated mine down from 3 months to 6 weeks. A guy I know left after 1 week and was taken to court for breach of contract and he paid about £5k. Always better to negotiate fairly. Worst case you have to do what you agreed to.

[jimjamuk]

Had this - handed in my notice at Xmas and was asked if I had something else or when I wanted to go early. But I didn't so said I would do the 3 months and if something came up would let them know if things changed. Plan was I had about 3 weeks holiday due so could start looking about 6 weeks from my real end date. Started to look for a new contract and within 2 weeks had one offer at a decent rate so basically negotiated a start date (around 10 days from the offer to do the paperwork) and went in and gave them my new end date.

Not sure if they were happy about it or not but that was the day I was leaving and that was that. Ended up doing 2 months but it was that or man flu would have struck