Oct 30 2024
Amanda DeMatteis: Hi, Josh.
Josh Goodbaum: Hi, Amanda. What are we talking about today?
DeMatteis: I thought we would talk about notice periods. So, picture this hypothetical: A potential client comes in to see you and they say, “Hey, I have an employment contract. This employment contract states that I need to give my employer X weeks or days or months of notice prior to me ending my employment with this company. But I don’t want to do that. I’m done. I don’t wanna work for them anymore. Maybe I have another job. Maybe I wanna sail off into the sunset. Whatever it may be, do I have to give them that notice period in my contract?”
Goodbaum: This is a good news, bad news situation.
The good news is this affects very few people. This is only going to be an issue if you have an employment contract that requires you to give a certain amount of notice. The vast majority of employees in Connecticut and around the country are at-will employees. On the downside, at-will employees can be terminated at any time for any legal reason. But on the upside, at-will employees can leave their employment anytime they want without notice. And indeed, employees can actually be terminated early if they try to give notice. We’ve done another video about that. So, we’re talking about a relatively small pool of people.
But let’s say you are one of those employees who has a contract, you have to give notice, and you don’t want to work through your notice period. The good news is that the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits employers from forcing you to work. They cannot make you come to work and do your job. The bad news is that there can be consequences if you refuse or fail to give the notice that you are required to give per your contract.
Those negative consequences fall into two buckets. One is that, if you don’t work the notice period, you could, in theory, be sued for breach of contract. The damages would be the additional marginal cost to your employer of finding somebody to do your job during the notice period. Imagine that you’re a physician and your employer, rather than having you work for that six-month notice period, has to go out and hire a locums who’s gonna cost more. Well, the difference between that locums’ compensation rate and your salary is the employer’s damage in that breach of contract case. Theoretically, you could be sued for it.
Negative consequence number two is that, a lot of times, there are post-employment benefits in your contract that are tied to providing notice of resignation. Let’s use the physician again. Your employment contract might say, “Hey, we’re going to pick up the tail coverage for your malpractice insurance. But we’re only gonna do it if you give us enough notice.” If you don’t give enough notice, they’re not gonna pay for your tail, and then you have to pay for it yourself. That’s a reasonable deal you made at the beginning of your employment, and now it’s gonna be enforceable at the end. The cost might be worth it to you, but that’s a potential consequence of not providing notice.
I’ll finish with some good news, though. There’s often the potential to negotiate here. So, if you’re thinking, “I want to leave my job. I don’t want to give the required notice period,” that’s a pretty good time to get in touch with an employment lawyer. Maybe they can help you figure out how to negotiate an exit that is going to minimize the negatives and maximize the positives.
DeMatteis: Super helpful, and I love the positive spin. Thank you so much for watching. See you next time.
Posted by Garrison, Levin-Epstein, Fitzgerald & Pirrotti, P.C. in Commentary
Tagged Amanda DeMatteis, Joshua Goodbaum
