Hi there,

I did a search so if i missed it then oops.

A quick question. A friend of mine was fired earlier this year. He was taken into the office on the evening of the last day of the month and told thats it. He had a two month notice period.

Am i right in the following:

a) They fired him on the last day of the month because if they had fired him the next day, the company would have had to pay him three months salary instead of two months.

b) If you are in the type of job that upon resigning or being fired you are not expected to actually be present for your notice period, eg gardening leave, then it is advantageous to resign on the first of the next month because you can walk and receive that extra month of salary.

c) If you need to start another job as soon as possible, you should resign or fire yourself at the end of that month rather than waiting to the beginning of the next one therefore your notice period will be over more quickly.

thanks
krlock3

Guy on my team has just resigned. He had to resign on the last day of the month...meaning that yes if you resigned on the 1st you would have to work 3 months, and be paid for 3 months.

If you are sure you would get gardening leave then by all means stitch the company for 3 months paid. However when I have been offered gardening leave in the past (in UK) it was under the proviso that my notice period would be shorter.

You could of course resign, and then just be ill alot, or come in late and leave early, you are unlikely to be fired...sort of create your own gardening leave.

Incorrect. If you are ill during a paid notice period, the employer may have the right to EXTEND your notice period by the duration of the illness. Am I right Richard?

I read it in Blick once, but then I only read Blick in "certain circumstances" .

Gardening leave is never in the employment contract because in Switzerland employer and employee are required to have the same notice period, which is negotiable but the law sets a minimum depending on the years of employment.

It is 100% up to the employer if the employee walks or works after the notice.

If you, against the wish of the employer, walk, your job reference might suffer. Or if the employer really has an axe to grind, he might drag you to court over it. I don't know about automatic extensions though.

in my job gardening leave is common.

Very common in high-tech industries and essential when the person is going to join a competitor (or when he says he is.....)

a) Yes you are right.

b) Probably, but its hardly the best way to part on good terms

c) If you've already got the job, you are probably best off resigning sooner than later as it will maximise your chances of getting out early.

@Planthead. That's the sort of cheap behaviour that would earn you a pretty lousy reference I suspect.

@Magyr. Employers cant give legally effective notice to someone who is sick, so it automatically extends the effective notice period. I once had a guy who played that game for 4 months, with weekly sick notes each month end, the forgetting to say he was no longer sick and therefore back on garden leave etc. What a mess. I suspect it works the other way too, but you'd have to be pretty crazy employer to enforce it...

Hi Dannyt,

I was referring to the options available on both sides, but focusing on the employer, especially given the strength of the economy. What I observe now is requests to extend notice periods as it takes longer to find staff. In 2007 out of 100k jobs created in the Swiss economy 50k had to be filled by non-Swiss.

What's important is that illness extends the notice period and the OP wanted to avoid this or even shorten it, and this tactic was proffered as a quasi-option.

Agreed.

That's an interesting stat and reflects what we experience. Basically cant find people for some jobs. Finance, IT especially tough. Mind you it's a bit like London buses... you wait forever then 5 turn up at once. J2EE, Linux. IBM Websphere all like gold dust.

Daniel