Notice Period

I started out commenting on Youthcurry but then I couldn't post it and hence saved it for latter. Now it wouldn't be fair to post a blog as a comment there, so here is my take about the so-called notice-period.

7 years into the industry and my 5th job. Of all I have read, I see a very important point missing in this debate here (which is the blog & the comments).

Hand-over of work. Hand-over of work is why we need notice periods. Once work is handed over in a manner satisfying both parties involved,I think you are ready to go. It might take a week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks depending on the role you are handling, the skill you are handling ,the phase of a project and the skill/resource availability. The time-frame of 1 week or 4 weeks or 3 months doesn't matter but you need to hand-over your work. Just so that replacement and hand-over doesn't take
forever and at the mercy of either, notice period is a good concept. So it was meant to be a win-win scenario which is turning nasty. If handled professionally, responsibly & with maturity, negotiation should be possible, or so I believe from experience.

In my organization, I know freshers who have been under training for 6 months for various skills, technical & personal, with an upcoming project or phase of project in the pipeline, but at the end of six months, these people are already planning to take their first leap. So in terms of the company, the company has spent so much on
training this individual, grooming him but before he adds value to the company, he is already planning out. Isnt that so unethical. That is where bond comes in to protect the corporate interest.

With that said, whoever it is, the company or the employee, who behaves unreasonably, immaturely and with negative notions of hurting the other, will bear the brunt of it in the future. Companies loose out their brand value. Hiring good people, infact getting good people to come for an interview would be a real pain, if
you have earned a bad reputation. Anyone who is looking for an employment with a X company, will surely have a check up within his network and the word-of-mouth will
prove very ghastly for the company in question if it has sour relationships with its ex-employees. It will be very difficult to re-assure. Even if a person joins such
an organization out of desperation, be assured he is looking out already.

It all boils down to relationship management and you are as good as the opinion others have about you. So you are in a constant process of improving and there-by passing that positivity about yourself around, benefiting you in return ultimately

Finally, I am totally with Rashmi when she says,

In the longer run, it's not just about WHAT you know but WHO you know and what they think of you. Do people trust you? Do they like you? If a background check were to be conducted, would your former employers and co workers refer to you positively?

And I think it applies equally to people on both side of the fence. Ethics is a personal attribute of every individual with their very own definition. To quote Ayn Rand

“Ethics is a code of values which guide our choices and actions and determine the purpose and course of our lives.”