Hi, If contractually I am obligated to work a 3 month notice period, can the employer make me leave immediately......I do not mean put me on gardening leave so my employment effectively ends after the 3 month notice period. I mean can they pay me my 3 months money in one hit and terminate my contract immediately? I need to be employed for the 3 months whether or am on gardening leave, it would be a disaster if I had to leave earlier. I have very good reasons for this and would be grateful for any help.

if they pay you whats in your contract then they can ask you to leave right away, legally you would still be employed

So legally my end date of my employment if I resigned end Jan would be end April.....and the offcial document showing when my employment ended would reflect that?

you would need to speak to your HR dept

You have a contract and can stipulate that you want to honor it. They can do a counter offer (eg to get you out of headcount statistics quicker, book a higher severance to restructuring rather than regular results, etc) but you'd not have an obligation to accept.

Simple: just say you want to work your notice period.

Normally they will not pay the 3 months up front, but monthly so the end date should be correct. Notice given today would end on 31st March.

Thanks for the replies.

I am anticipating an offer to go back to the US.

If I resign today, would it be considered the beginning of February? or would I still have to go 3 months plus the rest of February? (US employers don't like to wait more than a month... 6 weeks at the most.)

What about as far as giving notice to the landlord? They'll of course want all of the notice they can get... along with insurance, cable, telephone... etc. How do people get around that when they leave CH?

3 months plus the rest of February

You can offer to buy out your notice if it's worth your while, they may well accept 25%, talk to them. Your rent may be an issue soemtimes it's only possible to give notice twice a year so you may need to find a replacement tennant.

Good Luck

So you're saying that if the three months of rent totals 3000CHF and I say, "I can only give you one month, but I'll pay a penalty of 25% (750CHF) that they might be amenable to take this?

I am saying that if you offer to pay your employer 3/4 of months salary you could leave tomorrow.
The landlord could want payment till end of June if you can only give notice at 31st March!

@ KeinFranzösisch

Unless your apartment is overpriced/lousy location etc. You should not have a problem renting it. There are the normal websites for this such as Homegate etc. (search EF). Photos are a real help to rent it.

You are only legally responsible to give ONE name of a person who who is solvent etc. to the agency to be off the hook for the notice period. Ideally, you give them several names. Be sure to keep the names and contact details of the people who apply for the apt. That way you can prove that you provided viable replacements. Do everything in writing so there is a paper trail.

If you are not yet part of the local renter's association, join now. You may need their help.

Could we get back on topic now though. The poster was originally asking about three months notice at work!

@ KeinFranzösisch

I would give notice to your employer as soon as the other offer is received (in writing, directly in their hands and ask for a signed receipt). As mentioned above it is 3 mo notice from the first of March.

Once notice is handed in, see what you can negotiate for an early departure. A lot will depend on your job and where your projects currently stand. Will they be in deep doodoo if you leave? If yes, they may force you to work out the notice period. If you can quickly clean up what you are working on, train/introduce someone else/hire a replacement they might be in agreement to let you go sooner.

All in how you present it and your personal circumstances.

Sorry about that, I picked up the story at KeinFranzösisch's post.

Yes, the company can pay you and show you the door immediately. If it is important to you to stay, discuss with them but realize that it is totally at their discretion whether you stay or not.

Depending on the reasons under which you are being let go, they may not want you around.

How does this also apply to signing bonuses that you pay a penalty on if you leave before a certain time? For example, if I have a 12,000 CHF signing bonus and have to stay a year, or pay it back at a prorated rate of 1/12 each month. (e.g. I only stay 7 months then I have to pay 5,000 CHF back). If they pay you 3 months in advance and force you out earlier, can that also be applied to your payback clause and force you to payback more?

has anyone ever heard of an HR accepting a back-dated notice period (say, there was verbal heads-up ~a month before the formal written notice)? or accepting a mutually agreed upon shorter notice period?

Yes, but the "heads up" was verbal but still binding on both sides ie it wasn't "you remember that one month ago I hinted that maybe at some point in the future I might move on"...

it was more like, "I have an offer, I'm probably going to take it... I'm just waiting to hear about something."