Life Tips Daily

Let’s go back to Your Turn for this week, because I have two work-related questions for you that have been asked by me and others over the last while. What do you think of the following:

1. How much notice should you give an employer before leaving for a new job? Is this answer affected by terms under which you decide to leave? Does your answer depend on what industry you work for?

2. You work in an office where you share some appliances (coffee maker, fridge, toaster, kettle). There are rules in place for the operation of this equipment, including cleaning up after yourself. How do you deal with a coworker who constantly breaks the rules?

1. The standard is to give at least two weeks’ notice and this is the minimum that I would give a workplace. I believe it’s a good idea to never burn your bridges so even though you might be leaving a job now, there may come a time when you’ll need to get a reference, or you may even end up working under the same person in another place. It can be tricky in industries where you aren’t really trusted to keep working there once you have given your notice, especially if you’re going to work for the competition, and your leaving might be hastened along by your soon to be former employer. The good thing is in situations like this you may be paid to not come in, so that is a nice bonus. There is also the fact that you may be asked to help train your replacement to consider, and sometimes that requires more than two weeks.

   My goal is to leave any place I work with a positive impression who I am and how I worked. I’d want to be remembered as someone who was happy at their job.

2. This is one I can relate to! At my workplace, we have one of those Brita water filters and notes are prominently posting asking staff to fill it up after serving water for themselves. Most people do but about a quarter of the staff doesn’t…and it always seems that I am the one who needs water at this time. My tactic has been to leave a note (yes, another one!) somewhere where all are sure to see it. In the past I have also made jokes about it along the lines of people being caught red handed but that requires far too much surveillance of staff. My plan right now is to go with the flow, and if it gets worse, I’ll send a general email to everyone. The reactions you might have at home or among friends are generally not appropriate with coworkers, I’ve found.

Let me know what you think!