I am a senior software engineer at a mid-sized company. My team became part of this company through an acquisition three years ago. Within the first year of the acquisition, our product managers (“Joey” and “Chandler”) were let go as a “business decision.” Joey and Chandler were subject matter experts who shared the PM role along with their other duties. Of course the company is within its rights to reduce costs by letting personnel go, but they were locked out of their computers and told that they had been let go with absolutely no notice. We lost access to irreplaceable knowledge and expertise in the middle of a development cycle, and we permanently lost access to important documentation, as we had not even been fully integrated at that point.
After nearly a year without a product manager, we were allocated 50% of “Rachel’s” time. Rachel had also come in via acquisition (of a directly competitive project). It took several months to get her up to speed. Then, in the middle of specing out a brand-new large, shiny feature set, she was (yes, you guessed it) let go without notice. I had literally just gotten out of an hour-long meeting with her, working through the complicated new functionality we would need to implement.
These losses were upsetting and demoralizing for the entire team. For my part, as the lead developer, I did my best to keep the team calm and on track. I have a lot of political capital at this job and relatively little worry about being let go. I have made my concerns known to my managers. I have been fully invested in making this transition work, in part to help take care of my team and in part because I am invested (emotionally, not financially) in the success of the product.
Our division manager (“Monica”) announces personnel changes by putting a meeting on our calendar with anywhere from 0 to 15 minutes of warning. Two days ago, one of Monica’s meetings popped up on my calendar, and we were informed that one of our senior software engineers (“Ross”) was being let go (business reasons) and that he would be replaced with multiple off-shore workers (which means that our team is actually growing and being supported, according to Monica, even though our new “resources” share exactly zero hours of business day overlap). Again, this happened with no notice. Ross was locked out of his systems and informed that it was his last day.
I know this is the end of the road for me. It is time for me to leave, and the sooner the better. My question is twofold, I guess:
First, would it be wildly unprofessional of me to announce my resignation without notice? I doubt I will look for a job in the same sector, so I’m not necessarily concerned about references. I don’t want to be overly petty, but I feel that they have been abundantly clear that they consider their employees to be fully fungible “resources,” so why should they need notice? (I know I’m being petty, here, but is it overly petty?)
Second, my leaving will likely cause additional resignations. How much notice should I give my team? I don’t want to alarm anyone before my plans have firmed up a bit, and I don’t want to put them in the spot of needing to keep secrets from other team members or managers.
Does your company give severance to employees who are let go with no notice? I’m guessing they do — and if that’s the case, you resigning without notice isn’t really comparable.
It’s pretty typical for companies not to provide advance notice when they lay people off, instead substituting severance pay in place of notice. There are a lot of reasons for that, including that having laid-off employees still at work can make things harder for remaining employees and delay the process of figuring out how to move forward, and sometimes people who are being laid off are too angry or upset to effectively do their jobs (and you could argue that it’s unkind to expect them to). But severance pay means they continue getting paid for a while.
Now, if your company doesn’t offer severance and they cut off people’s income with zero notice the day they’re laid off, then sure, you absolutely have the ethical standing to leave without notice yourself. That said, it still might not be advisable since it’s the kind of thing that often comes up in reference checks and can give a new company pause. (And even if you move to a new industry, they’re likely to check references from recent past jobs.) You might decide you’re okay with that outcome! Most of the time, though, it makes more sense to give two weeks notice so it doesn’t come back to bite you later. (Exceptions: if you’re being treated egregiously or you have the kind of F-you money or professional options that negate any real consequences to you or there are extenuating circumstances, like a health crisis you need to deal with.)
And really, I think your point would be missed! Your employer isn’t going to think, “Oh, this is what happens when we lay people off with no notice. Lesson learned.” They’re just going to think, “Wow, Phoebe is unprofessional” and then move on. Again, that doesn’t mean you can’t do it. But it’s probably not going to send the message you want.
As for whether you should give notice to your team, even if you don’t give notice to your employer … you don’t need to. People leave jobs; people should always assume their coworkers could be thinking about leaving. Plus, if you share it, you risk it getting around to people you didn’t intend to know, and you risk putting your colleagues in awkward positions, like if they’re in a meeting about plans that are dependent on you a few months down the road and they know you won’t be there.
I also wouldn’t assume people will definitely leave just because you leave. Maybe they will! But people often overestimate that sort of thing. Either way, hearing about it a couple of weeks ahead of time isn’t likely to appreciably help them. If you do want to help them, leave behind documentation to aid them in taking over for you even without the transition time a notice period normally provides.
#reasonable #leave #notice #company #lets #employees #notice #Manager
