Posted by robert ottinger on Wed, Feb 24, 2010 @ 07:26 AM
On Reddit today, there is a post asking "why should we give two weeks notice if its ok to lay us off without warning?"
This is a great question. Since we are an employment law firm, we talk to a lot of people who have been fired. Most of them do not get two weeks notice, instead they are usually fired without warning. People often think that there is a law requiring two weeks notice. But there is no such law. Two weeks notice is just a custom and it is rarely followed by companies. As an employee, you are also free to quit without any notice. You can just walk away anytime you feel like it and your employer must pay you for the time that you worked.
Employees usually give notice when they quit because they do not want to "burn any bridges." If you just walk off the job without notice, then you cannot expect that company to recommend you in the future. However, today most companies will not provide a reference. Most companies today will only confirm dates of employment and your position, they will not comment on your performance. Companies have clammed up out of fear - they don't want to be sued for recommending a dud or saying something bad about an employee.