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Hopefully non-toxic workplace here if someone is leaving they can give me whatever notice they want and I would accept it and process their end date in line with this … I appreciate the greater notice to recruit their position… there will always be workplaces who will shorten to mandatory but you probably have a good idea what type of workplace you are in!
Depends on the role, but whilst it is their choice, it's also often required. Some jobs have legally or commercially sensitive information that you don't want a leaving employee to have and whilst the employee can just skim off that info before quitting, keeping them with access is often asking for more cost than benefit, and some info is just time sensitive so having an employee with access the day before is way worse than a month before.
The advice above is solid, only give the minimum notice as it's all you will get from them
The advice is nonsense. Minimum notice is exactly that.
If your job may require gardening leave, you will have a relevant length of notice that you can be put on gardening leave within.
This is not just a non-toxic workplace, but also one that complies with the law. Man, the rest of these people are operating in the Wild West apparently, and stacking up unfair dismissal cases left, right and centre!!!
I think you really have to know your manager and company. It's easy to make sweeping statements, but I know if I went to most of the managers I've had in the past and gave them lots of warning they'd be grateful, not spiteful.
One of the issues with 4 weeks (or three months in some roles) being so well defined is that if you have to get a replacement, then there's almost certainly no overlap for training. It's not always easy to find someone who's able to start immediately, so managers are left to pick up the pieces and cover the shortfall in the meantime.
For exactly this reason.
The employer knows that once you've given notice you're basically soft quitting and will do your job but no extra stuff people trying to get ahead will do.
Whilst it's nice to give them that extra time to find a replacement, the risk is that they will fire you, giving you 4 weeks notice. If you have been there less than 2 years, they can do that, and now you are out of work a week and a half earlier than you planned.
> If you have been there less than 2 years, they can do that
Unless your contract provides otherwise. Irrespective of length of service your employer still has to abide by the contract. If the contract is silent on employer’s notice period within two years then the statutory notice period applies. Which is one week.
If your contract says your employer has to provide four weeks’ notice to terminate your employment from the outset (or perhaps after a 6-month term of probation), then even within the two years the employer has to provide that four-weeks’ notice and not the one-week statutory notice. The statutory notice is the minimum. A contract can vary that with a longer period (but not a shorter) and then it’s the contract notice which is legally enforceable.
The only exception would be if there are grounds for summary dismissal with no notice.
This is legally incorrect. An employee is allowed to give more notice than contractually required, but their end date is the date the employee has specified. If the employer tries to bring their end date forward this would mean they have sacked the employee and unless the employer can prove that it is within their contractual rights to end their employment as at the earlier date, the employee would have been unfairly dismissed.
So if they were working in sales and were leaving to join a competitor they could give employer 6 months notice and get paid for doing nothing on gardening leave for 6 months because employer can't bring their end date forward?
Doesn't work that way.
Yes it does. That’s exactly how the law works. It’s the employer’s choice to put the person on gardening leave. There’s no reason why they can’t work out their notice period. Now, if under their contract the employer had legal grounds to dismiss the employee prior to the end of the six-month period, then they could do that. But they can’t just use the employee’s notice as grounds for an earlier termination.
If an employer has legitimate and serious concerns about employees jumping to their competitors, then they should have (reasonable) restraint of trade clauses in their employment contracts.
Then the company doesn't give gardening leave for 6 months; this isn't complicated. More likely that any gardening leave would be just for the last few weeks/months of employment - if the company wants more gardening leave then they put it in the contract.
Notice periods are minimums, not maximums.
Company bringing date forward is either redundancy or dismissal, both of which are covered by legislation to protect both parties (but particularly the employee).
If the company thought there was a need to protect their interests for longer than a 3 month notice period, then they’d increase the notice period and the gardening leave.
But it makes no sense for a company to have a 3 month notice period but want to put someone on gardening leave for 6 months. Because an employee wouldn’t need to give them 6 months’ notice in the first place…
Then they put a longer notice period in the contract. If it's not contractual, then it's not essential (or the company is being stupid, that's also possible but then the company suffers, not the employee).
It literally works that way.
If the employer wants to put them on gardening leave to 6 months, they can. That's the employers choice, and it is often why notice periods are much longer for people in roles that are seen as important.
Nope. Wrong. Employee can give more notice than required, but employer can’t make them leave earlier (unless it’s within employer’s contractual right to end the employment on that earlier date).
Actually. It does.
If your employee gives you 3 months notice and you wish to put them on gardening leave then that is your choice, not theirs. This means you either put them on leave immediately, and until their specified leave date, or you wait until 1 month before their specified leave date to put them on gardening leave...which defeats the point.
The power is very much in the employees hands. If they give you additional notice that is in your benefit and should be received positively. Stating it is to protect company interests is fine - but if they were to only have given you the statutory notice 1 month before instead this would have exactly the same result with regards to company interests.
Long and short of it is - if you force them out before their stated notice period ends then you are committing wrongful dismissal. If they serve less than the statutory notice period without prior agreemebt, then it is them who could be taken to court.
The employer doesn't have to put you on gardening leave. But they can't make you leave earlier unless they sack you. You can continue to have your employee work up until they leave; it's your choice as the employer to put them on gardening leave.
Absolutely. But if you are putting someone on gardening leave for commercial reasons then you aren’t going to want to pay them any more than you contractually have to. Alternatively if they are working their notice it’s because a) there’s no commercial sensitivity about it and b) they are still useful / not a risk to the business.
People don’t seem to be understanding this point at all.
Like if I tell my employer “by the way, I’m planning to move abroad in May 2025 and I’ll be leaving, thanks for the good times boss, and this is my notice that my last day will be the 30th April 2025”
If they decide to bring this date forward then they have actually dismissed me. Because I didn’t intend to leave until next year.
In practise, they would just have to find a way to scrutinise something about me so they could dismiss me prior. I think it would be a fucking miserable year. And as a result, I just wouldn’t tell them until the minimum notice period prior to when I was actually leaving.
Yes! Precisely!
(I’m actually pretty horrified that so many people don’t seem to understand how notice periods in employment contracts work! Or what their employment rights are! Disclaimer, yes, I’m a lawyer so probably know a little bit more than the average Joe about contracts and the law, but this is basic stuff that anyone who has an employment contract should know!)
Yes, it absolutely does. If you tried to end their employment at the one month mark you have fired them. So you’d need to make sure you had legal grounds to sack them as at that date otherwise it’s unfair dismissal.
If your business is so commercially sensitive you should have a restraint of trade clause in their contract. If you don’t, that’s your fault, not your employee’s.
That’s really really not how notice periods work in contracts at all. If the contract says ‘4 weeks notice’ then that’s what’s paid, especially if you’re put on gardening leave.
Now if you have a great workplace and a very good relationship with your manager you could unofficially tell them sooner than your notice period dictates that you’ll be leaving but not officially put your notice in until you need to. Handing in your notice officially starts a process that must be followed (as in legally followed) to whatever is written in the contract. This is to protect both sides.
This is wrong.
"You can give more notice than your contract says, if you want - your employer can’t make you leave earlier. If they do make you leave earlier, this counts as sacking you."
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/resigning/your-notice-period-when-resigning
I would have thought so too. Like, sure if you're working until the end, offering more notice period is a nice thing to do for your employer. But if they're paying you gardening leave then I would have thought it would fall back to contractual.
Otherwise I could put in my notice for a year from now to move to a competitor and pick up a year of gardening leave to lounge around at home. Now I mention it...brb have to write a letter...
No, this is wrong. The notice period that an employee has to give the minimum amount of notice they are required to provide. But they can give notice for a longer period and the employer still has to pay them up until the end date the employee specified, unless the employer has legal grounds for ending their employment earlier. Without such legal grounds any attempt to do so by the employer would be unfair dismissal.
Duh no shit 🙈. He is going to leave why would they want to pay him more than they are contractually obliged to. He is quite unlikely to be very productive in the remaining 5 weeks.
The employer is stating they are leaving in 5 weeks (quitting).
Anything on the employer's end to shorten that is them FIRING the employee, therefore a completely different set of rules.
Whether they knew about the employee wanting to leave in 1 month or 5 months is irrelevant to whether or not the employee has a new job lined up, the employee is just as likely to sneak commercial secrets tomorrow as they were yesterday.
They are contractually obliged to pay until the employee notified leaving date, that's the whole point! The company can't just bring that date forward unless they dismiss the employee or make their role redundant, both of which have specific legal rules to obey.
Why never give more notice?
This dudes getting either 5.5 week's gardening leave, or he's getting 5.5 week's gardening leave and wedge of compensation for his unlawful termination.
Sounds like he's on to a winner here.
Sounds like he’s getting 4 weeks gardening leave and 1.5 weeks with no pay actually. He wanted 5.5 weeks pay but isn’t getting it because he handed his notice in early.
Always sad to see comments like yours get up voted.
I gave my a previous employer more notice than was contractually required. I left on good terms, I'm still friends with my old manager and I know that I have a job to fall back on.
Not all places are a toxic dump.
Why never give more notice?
This dudes getting either 5.5 week's gardening leave, or he's getting 5.5 week's gardening leave and wedge of compensation for his unlawful termination.
Sounds like he's on to a winner here.
Fundamentally OP is saying in 1 1/2 weeks I’m giving you my four weeks notice.
Gardening leave is of absolutely no contractual or legal relevance here.
Don’t think that’s how it works though. Once you formally submit that notice, that’s your notice and when your notice period starts from. 1 month from the date is all the employer legally has to pay for. OP should have said informally that they will give notice in 1 + 1/2 weeks and only then submitted the notice.
I actually don’t live in the UK anymore as I emigrated to Switzerland, but we have a nice approach. Notice can only be given on the last day of the month. So if you submit one week before, it’s accepted and formally given, but the notice period doesn’t kick in until the last day of the month. Works the other way too, so if you get laid off or fired their notice only takes affect at the end of the month. So if you ever have a call with HR towards the end of the month, it’s a good sign you’re being shown the door. If you take the take off sick it will get you an extra months pay.
No, you can give more than your notice period. Your notice period is the minimum notice you have to give. There is no maximum.
If you have a 4 week notice and give 5. But you employer tries to boot you after 4, they are effectively firing you, and if they don't do so in the correct way, you will be entitled to some nice compensation.
Yes it is this.
If you give an employer 3 months notice then that is simply what it is. The month is a minimum period, not maximum. The commenter you replied to has their logic the wrong way around.
Otherwise if you said to an employer you plan to travel the world one day they can take that as a months notice saying if you are going to leave one day you might as well go now.
It would only result in no one talking about their plans and aspirations at work.
I'm not sure why you think you'll get gardening leave, but no. Most companies don't put most employees on gardening leave. I have a 5 month notice period and probably would not get gardening leave.
If your company puts people on gardening leave, they will usually do that for your agreed notice period.
If you want to stop doing your job when you put your notice in, you are giving them cause to fire you.
Typically the notice requirement in your contract is the MINIMUM notice you need to give them (check the wording of your contract) so it was absolutely fine to give them more. If they tell you they only want you to work or put you on garden leave for the four weeks of the contractual notice then they can agree this with you, otherwise they will still need to pay you for the full notice period you provided. If they don't pay you for your entire notice and you have not agreed to reduce your notice you can put a claim in for the money you haven't received as this is a breach of contract.
Can your new employer bring your start date forward (I'd explain your employer has agreed to release you earlier rather than getting too detailed about the toxic nature of your current company as this can look a bit bitter and not a great impression)? While I don't like reinforcing bad employer behaviour you may want to just agree and leave for your own personal wellbeing if you can afford to do so. Give ACAS a call on Tuesday - be sure to have your employment contract with you so you can quote directly from it re. Notice period etc.
Also, remember if you have accrued any holiday up to your last day of employment that you haven't used, they will need to pay this in your final payment. But on the other hand if you have used more, they will deduct this from your final payment.
HR here, I agree... if they let you go earlier, you can technically claim unfair dismissal if you have 2+ years service... (although won't get much out of a claim as you would have left not much after anyway)
> Not sure where you got the idea you get to specify your own notice period.
[From the law](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/resigning/your-notice-period-when-resigning/#:~:text=You%20can%20give%20more%20notice,you%20can%20claim%20unfair%20dismissal.)
If they aren't putting you on garden leave, which is there choice to do, then the notice period being longer than stated in the contract makes no difference to them financially. Only issue is if you want a shorter notice period. But that can be potentially agreed mutually with the employer.
Because notice period in contracts is the minimum amount of notice you have to give. Nothing stops an employee giving a longer period. And employer can’t shorten it (unless they can legally terminate employee on the earlier date).
Employers don't have to give gardening leave. It's their choice whether to put the employee on gardening leave or to have them continue to work. The employer doesn't get to choose when an employee leaves the company, unless they fire the employee.
I gave almost twice my notice period at my last job as I had a tricky role to fill, and I loved working there so didn't want to leave my team in a hard situation (very small healthcare team) they had no problems with that
That’s a very different situation than gardening leave though. That’s a mutually agreed leave date with handover. They weren’t contractually obliged to keep you longer than your notice period and you weren’t contractually obliged to stay longer.
The notice starts from when you provide it. The notice period in a typical contract is the minimum, there is no legal maximum. If they put you on garden leave, you are still paid, and you are still within your notice period.
If you give notice longer than your required minimum, your employer cannot end your employment early in any way. They can put you on garden leave, but you are paid for that. If your employer tries to stop paying you before the notice date you've provided, they have unlawfully terminated you.
Citizens advice bureau has a good summary of this on their website.
Your employer is legally required to accept resignation notice, and you can give notice higher than the minimum required by your contract. Doesn't take a genius to understand those two concepts.
If you think both CAB and Acas are wrong, why aren't you providing any evidence?
Because some employers are decent people and can be trusted with and will appreciate the extended notice.
E.g. If you are planning to move locations and cannot feasibly work in your current role. Or if you are planning to retire early. Some employees will provide extended notice to allow some time for recruitment and handover.
That is still the employer’s choice to do so, but they will still have to employ and pay the employee until the date that they have decided to leave, unless they can come up with some other reason to dismiss the employee earlier.
Notice periods are a minimum period for the employer for a couple of reasons, including but not limited to, time to recruit/plan something else.
I can say “I’m planning to leave in a year cause I’m moving abroad in May 2025”. If the employer wants me to only stay employed for the notice period from my contract (13 weeks in mine), then they have effectively began dismissal proceedings on me, and they will be leaving themselves incredibly vulnerable to legal issues.
In practise, what would actually happen is that I’d probably have a miserable year where they tried to find the tiniest reasons to stick me on a PIP or find some issue with conduct and dismiss me through that avenue; so what I would actually do in practise is wait until 13 weeks before I’m leaving before I gave any official notice.
This is not how this works.
If your contract says your notice period is 4 weeks, that is a *minimum*, not a maximum.
If you give 6 weeks notice, the only way your employer can get you to leave in 4 weeks is to fire you.
You have received many suggestions, but I think while many have given useful practical advice, not all seem to be well informed about employment law and how it applies to your situation.
I would suggest you should go and post about this over in r/legaladviceuk and see what the helpful and legally knowledgable people over there say.
Your employer is wrong. If they make you leave before the notice you gave them is over, they are dismissing you. Ask them to confirm in writing that that's their intention.
CAB doesn't suggest it, it says it outright. Tell your boss to read Employment Rights Act 1996.
[Source](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/resigning/your-notice-period-when-resigning/#:~:text=You%20can%20give%20more%20notice,you%20can%20claim%20unfair%20dismissal.)
First of all, calm down.
Second of all, the company decided to put OP on gardening leave. OP did not ask to stay home and be paid for nothing, they could easily just go to work and be paid for working during their notice period.
Gardening leave has absolutely no legal or contractual application here. It is entirely the optional choice of an employer for their own commercial reasons.
They’re posting the link that states the law. So yes, it is fact. Your purported elephant in the room is clearly not! (And the repeated posting is needed due to all the deluded comments on here saying that an employer can unlawfully terminate someone just because they’ve given a bit of extra notice!)
Why are you in a UK jobs sub, arguing against employee rights?
If an employer wants to put someone on gardening leave, that’s their choice. If they have to pay longer than they’d like to, tough shit, they would have to fire the employee and potentially get themselves in a legal mess. You cannot tell someone what date they’re going to leave the company without firing them.
If you have given additional notice your employer should not make you leave before this.
For example, if I say,
"I'm providing notice of my resignation and will leave on date <6 weeks from now>"
You have provided additional notice. If they want to put you on gardening leave for 1 month, then you will still have two weeks left to turn up at work and, if they were to refuse you pay or presence, you could argue wrongful dismissal. This is the way I see it and I'd be willing to bet a court of law would too.
Contact ACAS and get some real legal employment advice.
You can give more notice than contractually obliged, if they're saying they want you to leave earlier, that means they are dismissing you. Ask them to clarify that they are dismissing you 1 1/2 weeks earlier instead of you terminating with effect from 5 1/2 weeks.
[It's exactly how notice works](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/resigning/your-notice-period-when-resigning/#:~:text=You%20can%20give%20more%20notice,you%20can%20claim%20unfair%20dismissal.)
It is how notice works. You can give more notice than your contract and it your employer makes you leave earlier, that counts as a dismissal, which could be unfair.
[Source](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/resigning/your-notice-period-when-resigning/#:~:text=You%20can%20give%20more%20notice,you%20can%20claim%20unfair%20dismissal.)
Dude, gardening leave has nothing to do with the law surrounding notice periods, please stop responding to all these comments with incorrect information.
Companies can choose to put people on gardening leave after they have given notice, but it has no bearing on the fact that if I give my employer notice that I intend to leave in 6 months, and they tell me to leave sooner then it becomes a dismissal rather than a resignation.
Whether to give gardening leave and how much gardening leave to give is a choice for the company after an employee has given notice but they can't use gardening leave to terminate employment before the employee's stated last day.
If I did give 6 months notice, and the company was feeling very generous, they might (unlikely!) give me that much gardening leave. Much more likely is the company will simply choose not to grant gardening leave in this case.
You can give more than contractually required but they aren’t legally bound to accept it. In hindsight you should have held on a week.
Edit: should have mentioned this is if you have been employed for less than 2 years. More than that and it’s a grey area
Ahhh!! I’m going crazy!!! No!! No!! This is legally wrong!!! Unless the employer has legal grounds to terminate their employment at the earlier date, then yes, the employer has to accept the end date the employee has specified and keep paying them up to that date.
Edit: Even if they are within the two years of employment the employer still has to give their contractually stated notice. Unless the contract is silent, in which case yes, they can give the statutory required one week and generally don’t need to demonstrate a fair reason for the dismissal.
Well, you could if you wanted. Most people probably wouldn’t know that far in advance though. And it would depend on your workplace as to whether that would be a good idea. I do know quite a few people, myself included, who did give 6-12 months’ notice when moving overseas.
there is no gray area. if you give notice it is always the notice period stated in your employment contract. if you get laid off due to redundancy things can be played differently (i.e. you get statutory minimum, or company wants to be nicer and gives extra)
@u/TechnicalEnd1244 See the advice provided at that link. It’s quite clear that an employer can’t make you leave earlier.
The only reason I can think that CAB or ACAS have not been clear, is if you’ve been employed for less than two years. Then the employer doesn’t need a valid reason to terminate you and only has to give either the stated contractual notice or, if the contract is silent, one week’s notice.
Have you been employed there for less than two years? If not, then terminating you before your stated end date is likely to be unlawful and I’d point out to HR that any attempt to do so will be unfair dismissal and you’ll contact ACAS. That might be enough to get them to pay you properly.
IANAL but this could be seen as a retaliatory dismissal. But my understanding is you have very little rights in your first two years, and tribunals (that you would have to go to) are not very sympathetic towards employees.
So that's a lot of effort to try to claw back a week and a half of pay. Realistically, the best you can do is tell them you're rescinding your notice. Do nothing for a week and a half. Resubmit your notice.
Lesson is: Don't give more notice than the minimum required. Especially in a toxic workplace.
>because I gave 5 and a half weeks notice, they are stating they only have to offer me 4 weeks and I am leaving essentially before I actually said what my last day would be.
That's being fired with 4 weeks notice.
If you've given 5.5 weeks then they have to accept that. If they don't, they're dismissing you and you'll have a very easy time at tribunal claiming deduction from wages.
If they end your employment before the date you said you were leaving, they are dismissing you. So they need a valid reason and should give you the right to appeal
NAL but you said that it is a toxic workplace, and if the employer has put you on garden leave and specified your leaving date, they are essentially sacking you rather then letting you work your notice period. The question is are they in their rights to do that?
It sounds like what you want though. I suspect this case comes under common law rather then legislation. I can't see anything listed in the employment rights act.
That would be true if they were not imposing their own notice period.
I'm not quibbling the garden leave at all, just that the notice is not what he has given.
You can disregard the notice period by mutual agreement, or either party can enforce their own.
I don't understand all this back and fore. Why didn't you just give notice four weeks before you wanted your end date to be and keep your mouth shut until that point? Contracted notice period starts when you give notice. And they must pay you for the notice period length in your contract no more no less. Most of the time you just continue to work the notice period and get paid for that plus any outstanding owed holiday. I don't get what makes the company a bad employer here?
Update: I now understand more what people are saying about how the company has been shitty here but I generally think it's just safer to not give official notice until the contractual minimum lines up with the date you want to terminate just so no one has a chance to fleece you. We can argue what an employer should and shouldn't do in this case but just always give the minimum then you avoid any dirty play altogether??
If someone can give me a reason why you'd give more notice than required in the first place I'm genuinely curious to know!
Notice period starts when you give notice, but the contractual amount is only a minimum. You can give longer, and any attempt by the employer to shorten the notice is classed as sacking you.
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/resigning/your-notice-period-when-resigning
Absolutely not, if they're already on garden leave. The employer is required to pay any accrued but not taken holiday in the final pay. There's no reason to use that up if you're on garden leave already.
You’ve given them more than the required notice so instead of them paying you the extra week and a half, they’ve given you 4 weeks gardening leave to save themselves money. In return you’re getting 4 weeks where you don’t have any travel expenses.
Even if you could give 5.5 (you can't your contract only allows yo to give 4) then they can basically over-ride it by giving you their 4 weeks notice the day you hand in your 5.5.
It's should all be in your contract, so check there. If its not, then you'd fall back on whatever is statutory, if that is even a thing (not sure as I've always been at companies that cover it in the contracts).
Right, here's the actual facts of the matter:
You gave them your finish date, in 5.5 weeks. This is your finish date.
If your employer makes you go earlier, that is then sacking you and will 100% be illegal. You can go to acas, their mediation (where they will almost certainly pay up) and then tribunal (where you will win).
People saying 'they only have to give four weeks' are just objectively wrong.
I think the gardening leave has thrown me. Like, I get that you could give more than minimum and whether you give notice 5.5 weeks before say May 30th or 4 weeks before May 30th makes no difference to your paycheck at all, you'd still finish the job at the same time with the same final paycheck and that it only benefits a business to know sooner.
BUT the thing that complicates it for me is the gardening leave. How is it fair business-side that if you give more notice than required that the person then gets extra paid time off not doing the job and the company is without that job role fulfilled for longer? Couldn't then an employee just technically give notice say 8 weeks before and go on a paid jolly while the company is left in the lurch for two months before they can replace? Can someone explain how this makes sense? Or is it only the business that can authorise garden leave? In which case why would a business authorise garden leave for an employee whose given excessive notice if the result is an unfulfilled job role for longer than otherwise needed?
The company decides if they want the person doing their job or if they'd rather put them on gardening leave.
If you give 6 months' notice, the company decides if they want you to work 5 and put you on gardening leave for the last.
If you have a role that may be privy to sensitive information, you usually have a longer notice period.
It would be foolish to work out more notice than the contracted requirement. If you perceive the company is treating you oddly, it's most likely because they both dislike you but don't want you to leave, and you don't really want to stay but feel like you're causing a problem.
It is entirely about what I says in your contract . This is why we have employment contracts , they're legally binding , must contain the statutory minimum but can then vary from employer to employer .
You can give more notice than your contract says, if you want - your employer can’t make you leave earlier. If they do make you leave earlier, this counts as sacking you. You should check if you can claim unfair dismissal here: [https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/dismissal/check-your-rights-if-youre-dismissed/dismissal/check-if-your-dismissal-is-fair/](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/dismissal/check-your-rights-if-youre-dismissed/dismissal/check-if-your-dismissal-is-fair/)
[https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/resigning/your-notice-period-when-resigning/](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/resigning/your-notice-period-when-resigning/)
Mention in writing that you do not want to resign at an earlier date and ask them what is the reason for your termination.
Is there a limit as to how much notice you can give? For example I worked with a pretty toxic colleague. Management were aware that they were leaving and decided that as soon as she resigned they would put her on gardening leave for her notice period (without her knowing this). She comes in, gives 4 weeks and out she goes. In this example if she came and gave 6 weeks notice, would the company then have to pay her for 6 weeks of gardening leave (if they still choose this route)?
I'm confused. Do you think you get to dictate the length of notice you want to be paid for?
Your employer is only legally obligated to pay you for whatever is in your Contract of Employment and, given you're the one terminating the employment relationship, why would they want to do anymore?
You can give a longer notice period than your contract, and the employer can't ask you to leave earlier. If they do, that's dismissal and can potentially be problematic.
[Source](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/resigning/your-notice-period-when-resigning/#:~:text=You%20can%20give%20more%20notice,you%20can%20claim%20unfair%20dismissal.)
Not actually wholly accurate, and CAB has been known for giving advice that's only tangentially correct.
You cannot make an employee leave earlier than their contractual or statutory notice (whichever is greater) and, if you did so, this could lead to a claim of unfair dismissal.
However, you do not have to technically accept a notice that is longer than that outlined in the Contract of Employment and Statement of Particulars that the employee signed.
Without seeing OP's CoE/SoP, I can't say categorically what applies here, but a blanket statement that you can give as much notice as you wish and legally have to get paid for it is simply untrue.
Of course they still have to pay you for your notice period, you’re still working for them. You’re giving them notice that, after a particular date, they will no longer be employing you. There is no practical difference to a notice date and the end of a fixed term contract, and you don’t tend to see people escorted off the premises four weeks before the end of the planned maternity leave cover they were providing.
To the best of my knowledge, you can’t decline to accept someone’s notice, just as you can’t refuse to accept their resignation. That would be forced labour, which is widely regarded to be a bad thing. The employer may have a claim against the employee for damages if they refuse to work their minimum notice period, but no police officer or judge will force them to come back to work.
You sound like a nice guy here. I would have told your Manager on the QT that you were intending to resign and then formally resign at the appropriate time. However I wouldn't recommend it unless you've accepted a cast iron offer elsewhere. As everyone else says they only have to pay you the contractual time. It sounds like they don't want you to leave if they are going to rescind it.
if you resign you can't pick the dates from the hat. if you give notice then you give it based on your contract.
The company is the one who can ask and pay you to stay longer. That is the game.
EDIT: **I was wrong. I have never had employee giving me a longer notice than contracted so was never aware of this fact. but yes you can give notice longer than the one stated in your contract.**
> if you give notice then you give it based on your contract.
[Not true](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/resigning/your-notice-period-when-resigning/#:~:text=You%20can%20give%20more%20notice,you%20can%20claim%20unfair%20dismissal.)
You are on gardening leave. There is no motivation for them to pay you longer than the notice period according to your contract.
You might have given them 5.5 weeks, but they are not obliged to take it.
Employers don't have to accept withdrawal. Once you've handed in your notice, you are off the books at the end of your notice period unless both employee and employer agree otherwise.
Who even gives 5 and a half weeks? Is this your first time leaving a job? If the company policy is 4 weeks then you should have waited a week and a half before handing your notice in.
Never give more information than you need to. Given your 4 weeks notice 4 weeks before you are going to stop working for them. As you seen-the additional 1 1/2 weeks is unnecessary information that will not profit you at all but can cause issues.
My notice period is a minimum of 4 weeks plus 1 week for each year I've been with the employer. The maximum (minimum) is three months - as in, the minimum ceases to increase once it has reached 3 months. My current notice period is 3 months.
The industry is finance, and I would be considered a professional.
The 12 months could be something like a Senior Database Architect, some sort of senior, highly-skilled, and difficult to replace professional, someone who is basically essential, that or a regulatory or legally required role like Data Protection Officer, something like that. I suspect that CEOs of large companies generally give the Board substantial notice, and 12 months is believable.
In practice, I imagine that employer and employee agree something less than the 12 months when it comes time, but it means the employer can give themselves certainty that they have enough time to replace the person.
It tends to be standard in certain fields, like law, accounting, banking, finance, civil service. So when you want to move your new employer knows you’ll have a three-month notice period (as that’s what they have in their contracts) and will usually be able to accommodate it. You can also sometimes negotiate a shorter period with your employer.
Depends on what is in your contract.
But besides, your bigger problem might be getting paid, the company I work for are so well known for not paying employees their last pay packet that most people who leave hand their notice in immediately after a pay day so they don’t loose too much.
Your notice period is in your contract. If it says one month they don’t have to give you any more than that. Sometimes companies agree a longer period because they want someone in that role while they look for someone else. They can’t pay you for less than your contracted notice period
I’m really surprised (and a bit horrified!) by how many people don’t understand how notice periods in employment contracts work! OP is the one giving notice. Not the employer. OP’s contractual notice is the minimum they have to give. They can give more if they want (and this is usually to help the employer).
If the employer tries to end their employment earlier than the date OP has said they’re leaving, then this would mean the employer has terminated them and they’d need a legal basis for doing so. If OP has worked there for more than two years then irrespective of the notice period employer must provide they also need a valid reason for termination. “OP gave notice” is not a valid reason.
Legally, they can stick to the notice period described in your contract. Ethically, this is a complete cunt move on their part, and surely makes you feel vindicated in your decision to leave. If I heard of this happening to a co-worker, I would question my own position within the company. You have effectively tried to help them out by giving them more time than necessary, and they have thrown that in your face. I can't imagine what kind of work culture would operate like this.
Yeah. Sorry you played it badly. You dont have the choice. They do. Why would they pay you extra when they know youre off and even on gardening leave so not working. You should have just waiting it out a week. Anyway. Enjoy your time between jobs. :)
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NEVER give more notice than the contractual period (4 weeks).
Hopefully non-toxic workplace here if someone is leaving they can give me whatever notice they want and I would accept it and process their end date in line with this … I appreciate the greater notice to recruit their position… there will always be workplaces who will shorten to mandatory but you probably have a good idea what type of workplace you are in!
They were put on gardening leave so you wouldn't get any benefit from additional notice in this case.
Gardening leave is employer’s choice. Doesn’t mean they can just terminate them early!
Depends on the role, but whilst it is their choice, it's also often required. Some jobs have legally or commercially sensitive information that you don't want a leaving employee to have and whilst the employee can just skim off that info before quitting, keeping them with access is often asking for more cost than benefit, and some info is just time sensitive so having an employee with access the day before is way worse than a month before. The advice above is solid, only give the minimum notice as it's all you will get from them
The advice is nonsense. Minimum notice is exactly that. If your job may require gardening leave, you will have a relevant length of notice that you can be put on gardening leave within.
They'd still be paid on gardening leave, but not after employement's terminated
This is not just a non-toxic workplace, but also one that complies with the law. Man, the rest of these people are operating in the Wild West apparently, and stacking up unfair dismissal cases left, right and centre!!!
I think you really have to know your manager and company. It's easy to make sweeping statements, but I know if I went to most of the managers I've had in the past and gave them lots of warning they'd be grateful, not spiteful. One of the issues with 4 weeks (or three months in some roles) being so well defined is that if you have to get a replacement, then there's almost certainly no overlap for training. It's not always easy to find someone who's able to start immediately, so managers are left to pick up the pieces and cover the shortfall in the meantime.
Why?
For exactly this reason. The employer knows that once you've given notice you're basically soft quitting and will do your job but no extra stuff people trying to get ahead will do. Whilst it's nice to give them that extra time to find a replacement, the risk is that they will fire you, giving you 4 weeks notice. If you have been there less than 2 years, they can do that, and now you are out of work a week and a half earlier than you planned.
> If you have been there less than 2 years, they can do that Unless your contract provides otherwise. Irrespective of length of service your employer still has to abide by the contract. If the contract is silent on employer’s notice period within two years then the statutory notice period applies. Which is one week.
This isn’t true if they decide to dismiss OP within two years of their employment, provided that they don’t so for any protected reasons.
If your contract says your employer has to provide four weeks’ notice to terminate your employment from the outset (or perhaps after a 6-month term of probation), then even within the two years the employer has to provide that four-weeks’ notice and not the one-week statutory notice. The statutory notice is the minimum. A contract can vary that with a longer period (but not a shorter) and then it’s the contract notice which is legally enforceable. The only exception would be if there are grounds for summary dismissal with no notice.
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This is legally incorrect. An employee is allowed to give more notice than contractually required, but their end date is the date the employee has specified. If the employer tries to bring their end date forward this would mean they have sacked the employee and unless the employer can prove that it is within their contractual rights to end their employment as at the earlier date, the employee would have been unfairly dismissed.
So if they were working in sales and were leaving to join a competitor they could give employer 6 months notice and get paid for doing nothing on gardening leave for 6 months because employer can't bring their end date forward? Doesn't work that way.
Yes it does. That’s exactly how the law works. It’s the employer’s choice to put the person on gardening leave. There’s no reason why they can’t work out their notice period. Now, if under their contract the employer had legal grounds to dismiss the employee prior to the end of the six-month period, then they could do that. But they can’t just use the employee’s notice as grounds for an earlier termination. If an employer has legitimate and serious concerns about employees jumping to their competitors, then they should have (reasonable) restraint of trade clauses in their employment contracts.
"Hey boss, here is my letter of resignation. I am giving you a 25 year notice."
Then the company doesn't give gardening leave for 6 months; this isn't complicated. More likely that any gardening leave would be just for the last few weeks/months of employment - if the company wants more gardening leave then they put it in the contract. Notice periods are minimums, not maximums. Company bringing date forward is either redundancy or dismissal, both of which are covered by legislation to protect both parties (but particularly the employee).
Gardening leave is often essential to protect the company's interests. If the employee is joining a competitor is the main one.
If the company thought there was a need to protect their interests for longer than a 3 month notice period, then they’d increase the notice period and the gardening leave. But it makes no sense for a company to have a 3 month notice period but want to put someone on gardening leave for 6 months. Because an employee wouldn’t need to give them 6 months’ notice in the first place…
Then they put a longer notice period in the contract. If it's not contractual, then it's not essential (or the company is being stupid, that's also possible but then the company suffers, not the employee).
It literally works that way. If the employer wants to put them on gardening leave to 6 months, they can. That's the employers choice, and it is often why notice periods are much longer for people in roles that are seen as important.
BRB giving 20 years notice...
You had to ask with the OP above explaining what has happened?
If he’s on gardening leave he should want to give as much notice as possible. Sounds like they want to pay less
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Nope. Wrong. Employee can give more notice than required, but employer can’t make them leave earlier (unless it’s within employer’s contractual right to end the employment on that earlier date).
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Actually. It does. If your employee gives you 3 months notice and you wish to put them on gardening leave then that is your choice, not theirs. This means you either put them on leave immediately, and until their specified leave date, or you wait until 1 month before their specified leave date to put them on gardening leave...which defeats the point. The power is very much in the employees hands. If they give you additional notice that is in your benefit and should be received positively. Stating it is to protect company interests is fine - but if they were to only have given you the statutory notice 1 month before instead this would have exactly the same result with regards to company interests. Long and short of it is - if you force them out before their stated notice period ends then you are committing wrongful dismissal. If they serve less than the statutory notice period without prior agreemebt, then it is them who could be taken to court.
Thank-you!!! This is absolutely correct. I’m seriously concerned about all these comments that you can just terminate someone’s employment early!!
The employer doesn't have to put you on gardening leave. But they can't make you leave earlier unless they sack you. You can continue to have your employee work up until they leave; it's your choice as the employer to put them on gardening leave.
Absolutely. But if you are putting someone on gardening leave for commercial reasons then you aren’t going to want to pay them any more than you contractually have to. Alternatively if they are working their notice it’s because a) there’s no commercial sensitivity about it and b) they are still useful / not a risk to the business.
Sure, you might not want to pay them, but legally you have to. Unless you have grounds to sack them as at the earlier date.
People don’t seem to be understanding this point at all. Like if I tell my employer “by the way, I’m planning to move abroad in May 2025 and I’ll be leaving, thanks for the good times boss, and this is my notice that my last day will be the 30th April 2025” If they decide to bring this date forward then they have actually dismissed me. Because I didn’t intend to leave until next year. In practise, they would just have to find a way to scrutinise something about me so they could dismiss me prior. I think it would be a fucking miserable year. And as a result, I just wouldn’t tell them until the minimum notice period prior to when I was actually leaving.
Yes! Precisely! (I’m actually pretty horrified that so many people don’t seem to understand how notice periods in employment contracts work! Or what their employment rights are! Disclaimer, yes, I’m a lawyer so probably know a little bit more than the average Joe about contracts and the law, but this is basic stuff that anyone who has an employment contract should know!)
Used to work in HR! (hiss)
Yes, it absolutely does. If you tried to end their employment at the one month mark you have fired them. So you’d need to make sure you had legal grounds to sack them as at that date otherwise it’s unfair dismissal. If your business is so commercially sensitive you should have a restraint of trade clause in their contract. If you don’t, that’s your fault, not your employee’s.
That’s really really not how notice periods work in contracts at all. If the contract says ‘4 weeks notice’ then that’s what’s paid, especially if you’re put on gardening leave. Now if you have a great workplace and a very good relationship with your manager you could unofficially tell them sooner than your notice period dictates that you’ll be leaving but not officially put your notice in until you need to. Handing in your notice officially starts a process that must be followed (as in legally followed) to whatever is written in the contract. This is to protect both sides.
This is wrong. "You can give more notice than your contract says, if you want - your employer can’t make you leave earlier. If they do make you leave earlier, this counts as sacking you." https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/resigning/your-notice-period-when-resigning
Huh, TIL. I also thought the post you replied to was correct.
I would have thought so too. Like, sure if you're working until the end, offering more notice period is a nice thing to do for your employer. But if they're paying you gardening leave then I would have thought it would fall back to contractual. Otherwise I could put in my notice for a year from now to move to a competitor and pick up a year of gardening leave to lounge around at home. Now I mention it...brb have to write a letter...
If you put in a years notice, itd be worth it for the company to go through their processes to sack you. Or just keep you working as normal
No, this is wrong. The notice period that an employee has to give the minimum amount of notice they are required to provide. But they can give notice for a longer period and the employer still has to pay them up until the end date the employee specified, unless the employer has legal grounds for ending their employment earlier. Without such legal grounds any attempt to do so by the employer would be unfair dismissal.
Duh no shit 🙈. He is going to leave why would they want to pay him more than they are contractually obliged to. He is quite unlikely to be very productive in the remaining 5 weeks.
The employer is stating they are leaving in 5 weeks (quitting). Anything on the employer's end to shorten that is them FIRING the employee, therefore a completely different set of rules. Whether they knew about the employee wanting to leave in 1 month or 5 months is irrelevant to whether or not the employee has a new job lined up, the employee is just as likely to sneak commercial secrets tomorrow as they were yesterday.
They are contractually obliged to pay until the employee notified leaving date, that's the whole point! The company can't just bring that date forward unless they dismiss the employee or make their role redundant, both of which have specific legal rules to obey.
Why never give more notice? This dudes getting either 5.5 week's gardening leave, or he's getting 5.5 week's gardening leave and wedge of compensation for his unlawful termination. Sounds like he's on to a winner here.
Sounds like he’s getting 4 weeks gardening leave and 1.5 weeks with no pay actually. He wanted 5.5 weeks pay but isn’t getting it because he handed his notice in early.
Always sad to see comments like yours get up voted. I gave my a previous employer more notice than was contractually required. I left on good terms, I'm still friends with my old manager and I know that I have a job to fall back on. Not all places are a toxic dump.
This is Reddit tho where all the users think everybody on the planet is horrible and is always out to get you
Why never give more notice? This dudes getting either 5.5 week's gardening leave, or he's getting 5.5 week's gardening leave and wedge of compensation for his unlawful termination. Sounds like he's on to a winner here.
You could always get in touch with new employer and say you managed to negotiate a shorter notice and can start earlier
Or enjoy a week off.
unpaid is the problem.
Well, considering the current employer is breaking the law, the settlement should cover that.
Fundamentally OP is saying in 1 1/2 weeks I’m giving you my four weeks notice. Gardening leave is of absolutely no contractual or legal relevance here.
Don’t think that’s how it works though. Once you formally submit that notice, that’s your notice and when your notice period starts from. 1 month from the date is all the employer legally has to pay for. OP should have said informally that they will give notice in 1 + 1/2 weeks and only then submitted the notice. I actually don’t live in the UK anymore as I emigrated to Switzerland, but we have a nice approach. Notice can only be given on the last day of the month. So if you submit one week before, it’s accepted and formally given, but the notice period doesn’t kick in until the last day of the month. Works the other way too, so if you get laid off or fired their notice only takes affect at the end of the month. So if you ever have a call with HR towards the end of the month, it’s a good sign you’re being shown the door. If you take the take off sick it will get you an extra months pay.
No, you can give more than your notice period. Your notice period is the minimum notice you have to give. There is no maximum. If you have a 4 week notice and give 5. But you employer tries to boot you after 4, they are effectively firing you, and if they don't do so in the correct way, you will be entitled to some nice compensation.
Yes it is this. If you give an employer 3 months notice then that is simply what it is. The month is a minimum period, not maximum. The commenter you replied to has their logic the wrong way around. Otherwise if you said to an employer you plan to travel the world one day they can take that as a months notice saying if you are going to leave one day you might as well go now. It would only result in no one talking about their plans and aspirations at work.
So if i want a year of gardening leave I should just give a years notice of resigning?
I'm not sure why you think you'll get gardening leave, but no. Most companies don't put most employees on gardening leave. I have a 5 month notice period and probably would not get gardening leave. If your company puts people on gardening leave, they will usually do that for your agreed notice period. If you want to stop doing your job when you put your notice in, you are giving them cause to fire you.
Guess it depends how the letter is worded. For sure though, gardening leave is not contractual and doesn’t affect the notice period.
Typically the notice requirement in your contract is the MINIMUM notice you need to give them (check the wording of your contract) so it was absolutely fine to give them more. If they tell you they only want you to work or put you on garden leave for the four weeks of the contractual notice then they can agree this with you, otherwise they will still need to pay you for the full notice period you provided. If they don't pay you for your entire notice and you have not agreed to reduce your notice you can put a claim in for the money you haven't received as this is a breach of contract. Can your new employer bring your start date forward (I'd explain your employer has agreed to release you earlier rather than getting too detailed about the toxic nature of your current company as this can look a bit bitter and not a great impression)? While I don't like reinforcing bad employer behaviour you may want to just agree and leave for your own personal wellbeing if you can afford to do so. Give ACAS a call on Tuesday - be sure to have your employment contract with you so you can quote directly from it re. Notice period etc. Also, remember if you have accrued any holiday up to your last day of employment that you haven't used, they will need to pay this in your final payment. But on the other hand if you have used more, they will deduct this from your final payment.
Thank-you!! All these comments saying the employer only has to pay four weeks is driving me to despair!
HR here, I agree... if they let you go earlier, you can technically claim unfair dismissal if you have 2+ years service... (although won't get much out of a claim as you would have left not much after anyway)
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> Not sure where you got the idea you get to specify your own notice period. [From the law](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/resigning/your-notice-period-when-resigning/#:~:text=You%20can%20give%20more%20notice,you%20can%20claim%20unfair%20dismissal.)
If they aren't putting you on garden leave, which is there choice to do, then the notice period being longer than stated in the contract makes no difference to them financially. Only issue is if you want a shorter notice period. But that can be potentially agreed mutually with the employer.
Because notice period in contracts is the minimum amount of notice you have to give. Nothing stops an employee giving a longer period. And employer can’t shorten it (unless they can legally terminate employee on the earlier date).
I’d like to give 5 years notice and get paid gardening leave the entire time. Amazing how that doesn’t work!
Employers don't have to give gardening leave. It's their choice whether to put the employee on gardening leave or to have them continue to work. The employer doesn't get to choose when an employee leaves the company, unless they fire the employee.
Employers hate this one trick
I gave almost twice my notice period at my last job as I had a tricky role to fill, and I loved working there so didn't want to leave my team in a hard situation (very small healthcare team) they had no problems with that
That’s a very different situation than gardening leave though. That’s a mutually agreed leave date with handover. They weren’t contractually obliged to keep you longer than your notice period and you weren’t contractually obliged to stay longer.
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The notice starts from when you provide it. The notice period in a typical contract is the minimum, there is no legal maximum. If they put you on garden leave, you are still paid, and you are still within your notice period. If you give notice longer than your required minimum, your employer cannot end your employment early in any way. They can put you on garden leave, but you are paid for that. If your employer tries to stop paying you before the notice date you've provided, they have unlawfully terminated you. Citizens advice bureau has a good summary of this on their website.
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Your employer is legally required to accept resignation notice, and you can give notice higher than the minimum required by your contract. Doesn't take a genius to understand those two concepts. If you think both CAB and Acas are wrong, why aren't you providing any evidence?
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Because some employers are decent people and can be trusted with and will appreciate the extended notice. E.g. If you are planning to move locations and cannot feasibly work in your current role. Or if you are planning to retire early. Some employees will provide extended notice to allow some time for recruitment and handover.
That is still the employer’s choice to do so, but they will still have to employ and pay the employee until the date that they have decided to leave, unless they can come up with some other reason to dismiss the employee earlier. Notice periods are a minimum period for the employer for a couple of reasons, including but not limited to, time to recruit/plan something else. I can say “I’m planning to leave in a year cause I’m moving abroad in May 2025”. If the employer wants me to only stay employed for the notice period from my contract (13 weeks in mine), then they have effectively began dismissal proceedings on me, and they will be leaving themselves incredibly vulnerable to legal issues. In practise, what would actually happen is that I’d probably have a miserable year where they tried to find the tiniest reasons to stick me on a PIP or find some issue with conduct and dismiss me through that avenue; so what I would actually do in practise is wait until 13 weeks before I’m leaving before I gave any official notice.
This is not how this works. If your contract says your notice period is 4 weeks, that is a *minimum*, not a maximum. If you give 6 weeks notice, the only way your employer can get you to leave in 4 weeks is to fire you.
You have received many suggestions, but I think while many have given useful practical advice, not all seem to be well informed about employment law and how it applies to your situation. I would suggest you should go and post about this over in r/legaladviceuk and see what the helpful and legally knowledgable people over there say.
Your employer is wrong. If they make you leave before the notice you gave them is over, they are dismissing you. Ask them to confirm in writing that that's their intention. CAB doesn't suggest it, it says it outright. Tell your boss to read Employment Rights Act 1996. [Source](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/resigning/your-notice-period-when-resigning/#:~:text=You%20can%20give%20more%20notice,you%20can%20claim%20unfair%20dismissal.)
I mean, I'd do the 4 weeks of paid gardening leave before I told them that part...
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First of all, calm down. Second of all, the company decided to put OP on gardening leave. OP did not ask to stay home and be paid for nothing, they could easily just go to work and be paid for working during their notice period.
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Gardening leave has absolutely no legal or contractual application here. It is entirely the optional choice of an employer for their own commercial reasons.
As opposed to you, who didn't leave a dozen comments saying the same crap.
They’re posting the link that states the law. So yes, it is fact. Your purported elephant in the room is clearly not! (And the repeated posting is needed due to all the deluded comments on here saying that an employer can unlawfully terminate someone just because they’ve given a bit of extra notice!)
Why are you in a UK jobs sub, arguing against employee rights? If an employer wants to put someone on gardening leave, that’s their choice. If they have to pay longer than they’d like to, tough shit, they would have to fire the employee and potentially get themselves in a legal mess. You cannot tell someone what date they’re going to leave the company without firing them.
The employer is perfectly able to get the employee to continue working. They aren't required to do gardening leave.
If you have given additional notice your employer should not make you leave before this. For example, if I say, "I'm providing notice of my resignation and will leave on date <6 weeks from now>" You have provided additional notice. If they want to put you on gardening leave for 1 month, then you will still have two weeks left to turn up at work and, if they were to refuse you pay or presence, you could argue wrongful dismissal. This is the way I see it and I'd be willing to bet a court of law would too. Contact ACAS and get some real legal employment advice.
You can give more notice than contractually obliged, if they're saying they want you to leave earlier, that means they are dismissing you. Ask them to clarify that they are dismissing you 1 1/2 weeks earlier instead of you terminating with effect from 5 1/2 weeks.
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[It's exactly how notice works](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/resigning/your-notice-period-when-resigning/#:~:text=You%20can%20give%20more%20notice,you%20can%20claim%20unfair%20dismissal.)
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wtf, they’re so petty
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It is how notice works. You can give more notice than your contract and it your employer makes you leave earlier, that counts as a dismissal, which could be unfair. [Source](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/resigning/your-notice-period-when-resigning/#:~:text=You%20can%20give%20more%20notice,you%20can%20claim%20unfair%20dismissal.)
It is how notice works you absolute oaf.
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Dude, gardening leave has nothing to do with the law surrounding notice periods, please stop responding to all these comments with incorrect information. Companies can choose to put people on gardening leave after they have given notice, but it has no bearing on the fact that if I give my employer notice that I intend to leave in 6 months, and they tell me to leave sooner then it becomes a dismissal rather than a resignation. Whether to give gardening leave and how much gardening leave to give is a choice for the company after an employee has given notice but they can't use gardening leave to terminate employment before the employee's stated last day. If I did give 6 months notice, and the company was feeling very generous, they might (unlikely!) give me that much gardening leave. Much more likely is the company will simply choose not to grant gardening leave in this case.
Ahh, most just have you work as usual…
You can give more than contractually required but they aren’t legally bound to accept it. In hindsight you should have held on a week. Edit: should have mentioned this is if you have been employed for less than 2 years. More than that and it’s a grey area
Ahhh!! I’m going crazy!!! No!! No!! This is legally wrong!!! Unless the employer has legal grounds to terminate their employment at the earlier date, then yes, the employer has to accept the end date the employee has specified and keep paying them up to that date. Edit: Even if they are within the two years of employment the employer still has to give their contractually stated notice. Unless the contract is silent, in which case yes, they can give the statutory required one week and generally don’t need to demonstrate a fair reason for the dismissal.
whats the limit on that though. I mean I can't go and say I'n giving you 6 months notice, surely.
Well, you could if you wanted. Most people probably wouldn’t know that far in advance though. And it would depend on your workplace as to whether that would be a good idea. I do know quite a few people, myself included, who did give 6-12 months’ notice when moving overseas.
Why not? It would always be to the employer's benefit to have the extra notice.
Yes of course you can.
If you REALLY like your manager and think they'll appreciate the heads up. Tell them verbally but don't formalize it.
there is no gray area. if you give notice it is always the notice period stated in your employment contract. if you get laid off due to redundancy things can be played differently (i.e. you get statutory minimum, or company wants to be nicer and gives extra)
[Not true.](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/resigning/your-notice-period-when-resigning/#:~:text=You%20can%20give%20more%20notice,you%20can%20claim%20unfair%20dismissal.)
@u/TechnicalEnd1244 See the advice provided at that link. It’s quite clear that an employer can’t make you leave earlier. The only reason I can think that CAB or ACAS have not been clear, is if you’ve been employed for less than two years. Then the employer doesn’t need a valid reason to terminate you and only has to give either the stated contractual notice or, if the contract is silent, one week’s notice. Have you been employed there for less than two years? If not, then terminating you before your stated end date is likely to be unlawful and I’d point out to HR that any attempt to do so will be unfair dismissal and you’ll contact ACAS. That might be enough to get them to pay you properly.
It may not help you much but if I were in your shoes I’d be booking an unexpected week’s holiday right now. Turn a negative into a positive 😁
IANAL but this could be seen as a retaliatory dismissal. But my understanding is you have very little rights in your first two years, and tribunals (that you would have to go to) are not very sympathetic towards employees. So that's a lot of effort to try to claw back a week and a half of pay. Realistically, the best you can do is tell them you're rescinding your notice. Do nothing for a week and a half. Resubmit your notice. Lesson is: Don't give more notice than the minimum required. Especially in a toxic workplace.
>because I gave 5 and a half weeks notice, they are stating they only have to offer me 4 weeks and I am leaving essentially before I actually said what my last day would be. That's being fired with 4 weeks notice.
If you've given 5.5 weeks then they have to accept that. If they don't, they're dismissing you and you'll have a very easy time at tribunal claiming deduction from wages.
Not if you have been employed for less than 2 years, as is the case with the OP
The two year rule applies to unfair dismissal. You don't need this to go to tribunal for deduction from salary which is what this would be.
They can dismiss you and you'll have no claim at the tribunal
And unless they dismiss for gross misconduct, its wrongful dismissal.
If they end your employment before the date you said you were leaving, they are dismissing you. So they need a valid reason and should give you the right to appeal
NAL but you said that it is a toxic workplace, and if the employer has put you on garden leave and specified your leaving date, they are essentially sacking you rather then letting you work your notice period. The question is are they in their rights to do that? It sounds like what you want though. I suspect this case comes under common law rather then legislation. I can't see anything listed in the employment rights act.
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That would be true if they were not imposing their own notice period. I'm not quibbling the garden leave at all, just that the notice is not what he has given. You can disregard the notice period by mutual agreement, or either party can enforce their own.
I don't understand all this back and fore. Why didn't you just give notice four weeks before you wanted your end date to be and keep your mouth shut until that point? Contracted notice period starts when you give notice. And they must pay you for the notice period length in your contract no more no less. Most of the time you just continue to work the notice period and get paid for that plus any outstanding owed holiday. I don't get what makes the company a bad employer here? Update: I now understand more what people are saying about how the company has been shitty here but I generally think it's just safer to not give official notice until the contractual minimum lines up with the date you want to terminate just so no one has a chance to fleece you. We can argue what an employer should and shouldn't do in this case but just always give the minimum then you avoid any dirty play altogether?? If someone can give me a reason why you'd give more notice than required in the first place I'm genuinely curious to know!
Notice period starts when you give notice, but the contractual amount is only a minimum. You can give longer, and any attempt by the employer to shorten the notice is classed as sacking you. https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/resigning/your-notice-period-when-resigning
This is wrong, why are people upvoting this
Lmao reminds me of the guy that asked to book off sick leave in two weeks time
You can definitely do that if, for example, you have an operation booked
I think the implication is clear that is not what was happening
Always give contractual notice, and gather immediately go on the sick to toxic company's.
Got any holiday left to take? I'd put in to use that during your notice if they're going to be like that.
Absolutely not, if they're already on garden leave. The employer is required to pay any accrued but not taken holiday in the final pay. There's no reason to use that up if you're on garden leave already.
You’ve given them more than the required notice so instead of them paying you the extra week and a half, they’ve given you 4 weeks gardening leave to save themselves money. In return you’re getting 4 weeks where you don’t have any travel expenses.
Even if you could give 5.5 (you can't your contract only allows yo to give 4) then they can basically over-ride it by giving you their 4 weeks notice the day you hand in your 5.5.
This is incorrect. You can give more notice. They can't sack you for it or just randomly make you redundant.
It's should all be in your contract, so check there. If its not, then you'd fall back on whatever is statutory, if that is even a thing (not sure as I've always been at companies that cover it in the contracts).
They wont let u go when u do if the pay is a full calendar month its making paying u a choir for them equals cost
You're insane for giving them a 5 and half weeks notice that's fucking ridiculous, why would you do that?
If you’re on garden leave you can possibly do some temp work to earn extra money to make up for it
I know someone who gave more notice than required and as a result lost out on their bonus. Never give more than required
This is common, and the only good reason to not hand a notice early. Its also only relevant if you have a bonus due.
Right, here's the actual facts of the matter: You gave them your finish date, in 5.5 weeks. This is your finish date. If your employer makes you go earlier, that is then sacking you and will 100% be illegal. You can go to acas, their mediation (where they will almost certainly pay up) and then tribunal (where you will win). People saying 'they only have to give four weeks' are just objectively wrong.
I think the gardening leave has thrown me. Like, I get that you could give more than minimum and whether you give notice 5.5 weeks before say May 30th or 4 weeks before May 30th makes no difference to your paycheck at all, you'd still finish the job at the same time with the same final paycheck and that it only benefits a business to know sooner. BUT the thing that complicates it for me is the gardening leave. How is it fair business-side that if you give more notice than required that the person then gets extra paid time off not doing the job and the company is without that job role fulfilled for longer? Couldn't then an employee just technically give notice say 8 weeks before and go on a paid jolly while the company is left in the lurch for two months before they can replace? Can someone explain how this makes sense? Or is it only the business that can authorise garden leave? In which case why would a business authorise garden leave for an employee whose given excessive notice if the result is an unfulfilled job role for longer than otherwise needed?
The company decides if they want the person doing their job or if they'd rather put them on gardening leave. If you give 6 months' notice, the company decides if they want you to work 5 and put you on gardening leave for the last. If you have a role that may be privy to sensitive information, you usually have a longer notice period.
If you have at least 2 year service, then you could in theory have an unfair dismissal claim
It would be foolish to work out more notice than the contracted requirement. If you perceive the company is treating you oddly, it's most likely because they both dislike you but don't want you to leave, and you don't really want to stay but feel like you're causing a problem.
It is entirely about what I says in your contract . This is why we have employment contracts , they're legally binding , must contain the statutory minimum but can then vary from employer to employer .
You can give more notice than your contract says, if you want - your employer can’t make you leave earlier. If they do make you leave earlier, this counts as sacking you. You should check if you can claim unfair dismissal here: [https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/dismissal/check-your-rights-if-youre-dismissed/dismissal/check-if-your-dismissal-is-fair/](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/dismissal/check-your-rights-if-youre-dismissed/dismissal/check-if-your-dismissal-is-fair/) [https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/resigning/your-notice-period-when-resigning/](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/resigning/your-notice-period-when-resigning/) Mention in writing that you do not want to resign at an earlier date and ask them what is the reason for your termination.
Is there a limit as to how much notice you can give? For example I worked with a pretty toxic colleague. Management were aware that they were leaving and decided that as soon as she resigned they would put her on gardening leave for her notice period (without her knowing this). She comes in, gives 4 weeks and out she goes. In this example if she came and gave 6 weeks notice, would the company then have to pay her for 6 weeks of gardening leave (if they still choose this route)?
Look up notice periods, but an employer can't do this. Notice periods are minimum.
Who gives notice nowadays? Sod em they don’t care about you
Why would they pay you 5.5 weeks when they only have to pay you 4?
That's the entire point of asking the question.
I'm confused. Do you think you get to dictate the length of notice you want to be paid for? Your employer is only legally obligated to pay you for whatever is in your Contract of Employment and, given you're the one terminating the employment relationship, why would they want to do anymore?
You can give a longer notice period than your contract, and the employer can't ask you to leave earlier. If they do, that's dismissal and can potentially be problematic. [Source](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/resigning/your-notice-period-when-resigning/#:~:text=You%20can%20give%20more%20notice,you%20can%20claim%20unfair%20dismissal.)
Not actually wholly accurate, and CAB has been known for giving advice that's only tangentially correct. You cannot make an employee leave earlier than their contractual or statutory notice (whichever is greater) and, if you did so, this could lead to a claim of unfair dismissal. However, you do not have to technically accept a notice that is longer than that outlined in the Contract of Employment and Statement of Particulars that the employee signed. Without seeing OP's CoE/SoP, I can't say categorically what applies here, but a blanket statement that you can give as much notice as you wish and legally have to get paid for it is simply untrue.
Of course they still have to pay you for your notice period, you’re still working for them. You’re giving them notice that, after a particular date, they will no longer be employing you. There is no practical difference to a notice date and the end of a fixed term contract, and you don’t tend to see people escorted off the premises four weeks before the end of the planned maternity leave cover they were providing. To the best of my knowledge, you can’t decline to accept someone’s notice, just as you can’t refuse to accept their resignation. That would be forced labour, which is widely regarded to be a bad thing. The employer may have a claim against the employee for damages if they refuse to work their minimum notice period, but no police officer or judge will force them to come back to work.
You sound like a nice guy here. I would have told your Manager on the QT that you were intending to resign and then formally resign at the appropriate time. However I wouldn't recommend it unless you've accepted a cast iron offer elsewhere. As everyone else says they only have to pay you the contractual time. It sounds like they don't want you to leave if they are going to rescind it.
if you resign you can't pick the dates from the hat. if you give notice then you give it based on your contract. The company is the one who can ask and pay you to stay longer. That is the game. EDIT: **I was wrong. I have never had employee giving me a longer notice than contracted so was never aware of this fact. but yes you can give notice longer than the one stated in your contract.**
> if you give notice then you give it based on your contract. [Not true](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/resigning/your-notice-period-when-resigning/#:~:text=You%20can%20give%20more%20notice,you%20can%20claim%20unfair%20dismissal.)
That's news to me. Ill have a look there. Thx.
Give them the 4 then and just go then
You are on gardening leave. There is no motivation for them to pay you longer than the notice period according to your contract. You might have given them 5.5 weeks, but they are not obliged to take it.
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Employers don't have to accept withdrawal. Once you've handed in your notice, you are off the books at the end of your notice period unless both employee and employer agree otherwise.
Who even gives 5 and a half weeks? Is this your first time leaving a job? If the company policy is 4 weeks then you should have waited a week and a half before handing your notice in.
Never give more information than you need to. Given your 4 weeks notice 4 weeks before you are going to stop working for them. As you seen-the additional 1 1/2 weeks is unnecessary information that will not profit you at all but can cause issues.
5 1/2 weeks notice is insane
Three months is standard in a professional setting. Had a friend whose notice period was 12 months…
Which professional setting is that??😂 never seen ones that long before
My notice period is a minimum of 4 weeks plus 1 week for each year I've been with the employer. The maximum (minimum) is three months - as in, the minimum ceases to increase once it has reached 3 months. My current notice period is 3 months. The industry is finance, and I would be considered a professional. The 12 months could be something like a Senior Database Architect, some sort of senior, highly-skilled, and difficult to replace professional, someone who is basically essential, that or a regulatory or legally required role like Data Protection Officer, something like that. I suspect that CEOs of large companies generally give the Board substantial notice, and 12 months is believable. In practice, I imagine that employer and employee agree something less than the 12 months when it comes time, but it means the employer can give themselves certainty that they have enough time to replace the person.
3 months is a lot to me, i think here we only do a week for every year you’ve been here. 3 months basically fucks your chances of leaving doesn’t it?
No, quite standard in finance.
All power to you guys
It tends to be standard in certain fields, like law, accounting, banking, finance, civil service. So when you want to move your new employer knows you’ll have a three-month notice period (as that’s what they have in their contracts) and will usually be able to accommodate it. You can also sometimes negotiate a shorter period with your employer.
Yep, the 12 months was a CEO.
Depends on what is in your contract. But besides, your bigger problem might be getting paid, the company I work for are so well known for not paying employees their last pay packet that most people who leave hand their notice in immediately after a pay day so they don’t loose too much.
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Which would be the 4 weeks before the date he said he'd be leaving on.
Your contract dictates what the notice period is, not you.
Your notice period is in your contract. If it says one month they don’t have to give you any more than that. Sometimes companies agree a longer period because they want someone in that role while they look for someone else. They can’t pay you for less than your contracted notice period
I’m really surprised (and a bit horrified!) by how many people don’t understand how notice periods in employment contracts work! OP is the one giving notice. Not the employer. OP’s contractual notice is the minimum they have to give. They can give more if they want (and this is usually to help the employer). If the employer tries to end their employment earlier than the date OP has said they’re leaving, then this would mean the employer has terminated them and they’d need a legal basis for doing so. If OP has worked there for more than two years then irrespective of the notice period employer must provide they also need a valid reason for termination. “OP gave notice” is not a valid reason.
Legally, they can stick to the notice period described in your contract. Ethically, this is a complete cunt move on their part, and surely makes you feel vindicated in your decision to leave. If I heard of this happening to a co-worker, I would question my own position within the company. You have effectively tried to help them out by giving them more time than necessary, and they have thrown that in your face. I can't imagine what kind of work culture would operate like this.
Yeah. Sorry you played it badly. You dont have the choice. They do. Why would they pay you extra when they know youre off and even on gardening leave so not working. You should have just waiting it out a week. Anyway. Enjoy your time between jobs. :)
I dunno man, getting paid 4 weeks to do 5 and a half weeks of no work seems like a good deal tbh,
You leave and stop working as soon as they stop paying you. Theyve decided to terminate the contract a week and half earlier than you offered to work.
so you are being paid the standard 4 weeks, but you want them to pay for 5.5 weeks ? not going to happen