How Much Notice to Give When Leaving Your Job

How Much Notice to Give When Leaving Your Job

If you are looking to leave your current employment and are unsure of how much notice you legally need to give then this blog will simply outline how notice periods work when an employee chooses to leave their current workplace.

The main thing to note is that there are two types of notice period: statutory and contractual.

Contractual Notice Period

‘Contractual’ is quite simply the amount of notice you must give your employer as stipulated within your employment contract. So always check there first, most workplaces will require you to give one month’s notice but they have a legal right to stipulate even longer notice periods if they wish! So always check your contract before leaving since you legally have to work this notice period otherwise (worst case scenario of course) your workplace can obtain an injunction to stop you from working for your new employer during this notice period. The issue here is since you have signed and agreed to this contract by working there, you are legally bound by the notice period stipulated here, not matter how long!

You can of course discuss your notice period with your employer and come to an arrangement if you are unable to work the full notice for any reason, but just be aware that they are under no legal obligation to accept your terms.

Statutory Notice Period

However if your notice period isn’t listed within your employment contract then you only have to give the legal statutory notice period which is:

As long as you have been employed for over one month, then an employee only has to give their employer a minimum of one week’s notice. That’s it, one week! And this minimum notice period is totally unaffected by longer periods of service – meaning no matter how long you have worked there you still only have to give one week’s notice if it’s not stipulated within your contract!

So if you’re looking to leave your job quickly then be sure to check your employment contract, since if no notice period is stipulated then you only have to give one week’s notice.

And that’s it, it’s as simple as that! So just to round up, there are two types of notice period you must give – contractual or statutory. Always check your employment contract first, if it stipulates your notice period within the contract then you must legally give this amount of notice period no matter how long. If it’s not stipulated within your contract then you only legally have to give one week’s notice.