When to give notice on leaving?

Long story short, I was just offered and accepted a position yesterday (Hooray!) and will be starting my new role on December 15th. My question comes to when should I put in my notice with my current employer? Right now I am working as a contractor and my contract is scheduled to end at the end of the year and there has been no mention of an extension at this time, which is one of many reasons why I was looking elsewhere. Right now I'm going through all the background checks and whatnot before I can start my new role, and since it is less than 2 weeks away now, I'm fearful that once I put in my notice, and being a contractor that they will let me go immediately. Money is a big factor right now with the holidays and knowing that my first paycheck at my new job won't be until Jan 10th. So basically, I don't want to be left out in the dark without some pay coming in (I do have an emergency fund set up that will help make ends meet from my last planned day until my first paycheck).

Would you wait until you clear the background check? Or wait until I plan to have my last day to go and put in my notice. I know that I may end up burning a bridge by doing that, but in all honesty I'm a bit burned by the situation of this contract as I was lied to by both the company and contract company about the position I'm in now. I was told that it would be a 6 month contract to hire. Come to find out after I started that it was a 3 month contract that was renewed once so far, but basically would only be renewed every 3 months and maybe after a few years it may go permanent. Also, I found out that any upward movement in IT would require a relocation, which I wouldn't do.

So, what advice would yall give out in this situation?

(Bonus, I got a nice 25% boost in pay, plus vacation, sick time, benefits, etc) Also in my contract role I got no holiday, sick, pto, anything.

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Comments

CIO

I would wait until the background check clears and have received a start date then I would give my notice.

kohr-ah

I wouldn't tell them until the background check and everything was finalized.

Not because your background may come back bad but at my current role my start date was extended by a week due to the background check took longer than expected to come back.

An extra week without pay sucks.

kohr-ah

Also congrats

MeanDrunkR2D2

Thanks. That's been my idea to wait until I know everything has cleared and to make sure I still have money coming in. I hate not giving 2 weeks notice, but due to the nature of my current position I cannot afford to lose more money in the meantime. (I was sick 2 days last week, plus 2 holidays that I didn't get paid for, so I only was paid for 1 day)

iBrokeIT

I would reread your contract. Does it say anything about a minimum notice period you have to give?

Failing to contractually give proper notice could also negatively impact your finances.

MeanDrunkR2D2

Nope. Nothing stated in it and it's "at will" employment which means that either can end the contract at any time. And honestly, they didn't send me a copy of the contract either, so I don't have it either.

Heero

So you and your employer have a signed contract, but you don't possess a copy of it? In the future, you really, really should have a copy of any contract you sign.

MeanDrunkR2D2

Heero wrote: »

So you and your employer have a signed contract, but you don't possess a copy of it? In the future, you really, really should have a copy of any contract you sign.

I was able to search and dig, and did find the contract. It can be terminated at any time by any party with no repercussions or fees that I would have to pay.

As far as the extension goes, I never signed anything for that and it was only for the original contract, which has since passed by. Of course, in the contract that I did have it never said the length of time that the contract was for, only that it could end at anytime regardless of the length it may be. I've never had a contract prior that had any sort of penalty for opting out or ending my employment, nor one that would have the contract company pay me any severance as well. Since it was mentioned in here, I thought it would be best to double check.

Also, just finished my drug screen, so that's the last of the first steps that I need to do and now I just wait for all the results to come in.

apr911

http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/104853-timeline-putting-notice-new-job-background-check.html

jumezurike

MeanDrunkR2D2 wrote: »

Long story short, I was just offered and accepted a position yesterday (Hooray!) and will be starting my new role on December 15th. My question comes to when should I put in my notice with my current employer? Right now I am working as a contractor and my contract is scheduled to end at the end of the year and there has been no mention of an extension at this time, which is one of many reasons why I was looking elsewhere. Right now I'm going through all the background checks and whatnot before I can start my new role, and since it is less than 2 weeks away now, I'm fearful that once I put in my notice, and being a contractor that they will let me go immediately. Money is a big factor right now with the holidays and knowing that my first paycheck at my new job won't be until Jan 10th. So basically, I don't want to be left out in the dark without some pay coming in (I do have an emergency fund set up that will help make ends meet from my last planned day until my first paycheck).

Would you wait until you clear the background check? Or wait until I plan to have my last day to go and put in my notice. I know that I may end up burning a bridge by doing that, but in all honesty I'm a bit burned by the situation of this contract as I was lied to by both the company and contract company about the position I'm in now. I was told that it would be a 6 month contract to hire. Come to find out after I started that it was a 3 month contract that was renewed once so far, but basically would only be renewed every 3 months and maybe after a few years it may go permanent. Also, I found out that any upward movement in IT would require a relocation, which I wouldn't do.

So, what advice would yall give out in this situation?

(Bonus, I got a nice 25% boost in pay, plus vacation, sick time, benefits, etc) Also in my contract role I got no holiday, sick, pto, anything.

Please don't even worry about anyone just do what is right for you. You are a contractor after all. One more thing wait till background check is clear and then send email to all the necessary parties that you was just cleared background on a permanent position. They can't beat that: It works all the time.

I hope all goes well.

MeanDrunkR2D2

Thanks.. That is my plan and I'm so ready to put it in as honestly I'm not challenged one bit in my current position and have been looking for a better opportunity/job for the past few months once everything about the contract came back as not exactly what was told to me by the recruiter.

MeanDrunkR2D2

Got cleared this morning and put in my notice. I'm excited to finally be able to do that and am even more excited about the new job and career growth that I'll be able to have now.

*happy Dance*

Chitownjedi

Congrats.. good fortune !

coreyb80

Congrats!

MeanDrunkR2D2

Thanks all! I'm ready to start the new gig! It's wonderful having this feeling again.

MeanDrunkR2D2

One thing that I know that I'm going to like is that they seem to have a great IT culture at my new position. Even though I don't start until next Monday, they have extended out an invitation to me and my wife to go to the company Christmas party this coming weekend. It will be the first time that I meet anyone outside of those I've interviewed with and cannot wait to start.