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Resigning on a cordial note due to pursuing higher studies, I'd like to resign in the middle of the month, and the notice period is two months. Manager says it may take a month or two for me to complete any existing work before I leave and he's agreed not to assign me any fresh work. But given the nature of the work to be completed (unpredictable bugs and a lot of debugging), I feel it may take two and a half months.

So would it be appropriate to write a resignation in the middle of the month stating that I'm resigning and would be serving the two month notice period but if I'm required to work for two and a half months, kindly consider the effective date of resignation to be at the end of this month?

Any pitfalls or precautions I should be aware of?

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    Why are you asking us if your manager already knows you're leaving? Surely once the cat's out of the bag you can just discuss this with him?
    – Lilienthal ♦
    May 10, 2017 at 8:04
  • I'm asking because I've read advice about just stating the date of resignation and not being too verbose about the reason for resigning or mentioning anything else in a resignation letter, just to be on the safer side. So will mentioning the "...if [condition]...consider effective date of resignation to be half a month from the date of this email" be appropriate or not?
    – Nav
    May 10, 2017 at 8:08
  • You seem to be overcomplicating this and making it more of a formal affair than is required. A resignation letter is not needed unless your manager/HR asks for one or if the relevant employment law in your location requires one. If the latter, the contents are legally specified. In either case, if you are leaving on good terms, you would first talk to your manager and discuss how long your notice period should be. I'm still not sure what your core question is.
    – Lilienthal ♦
    May 10, 2017 at 9:24
  • Are you perhaps trying to cover your bases by writing a formal letter of resignation?
    – Teacher KSHuang
    May 10, 2017 at 10:17
  • In the meantime, I think you should just be careful in keeping details the same as you had discussed them with your manager. This means, if you discussed a certain date, don't write a different date on the letter, etc., things like that.
    – Teacher KSHuang
    May 10, 2017 at 10:18

3 Answers 3

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This is what you need to write:

To whom it may concern:

I am resigning effective insert your date here.

Regards,

your name here

Short and sweet.

Now, what you may be missing is that just because you want your effective end date to be XX/XX/XXXX doesn't mean that your current employer wants you to hang around that long before your next gig. Some places will simply escort you out the door once you turn in your notice.

Good luck with your next gig!

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  • A two month notice period implies "not the US", and walking out an employee everywhere else (excluding some Third World countries I guess) would mean that they still gotta pay him for 2month and do not even get a hand-over for that. Why would they do that?
    – kat0r
    May 11, 2017 at 15:46
  • @kat0r This actually happened to me once. In the US. I worked for a company that was involved with sensitive information and instead of risking ( regardless how ridiculously small ) any sort of malicious intent they walked me out the door and paid me for the notice I gave ( 4 weeks ).
    – Neo
    May 11, 2017 at 15:51
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    So in my resignation email I mentioned I'm resigning and also mentioned that if they'd like me to extend my notice period of 2 months to be able to hire and train a new candidate, I'd be happy to help. It was taken well. Turned out they actually needed time to find a good candidate. This is in India, and yes I do get paid for the duration of the notice period.
    – Nav
    May 15, 2017 at 10:05
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So would it be appropriate to write a resignation in the middle of the month stating that I'm resigning and would be serving the two month notice period but if I'm required to work for two and a half months, kindly consider the effective date of resignation to be at the end of this month?

As long as you and your manager can agree on the arrangement, it's perfectly appropriate. I know folks who have done just this.

Just talk to your manager first, then agree on how to proceed.

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    +1 - I did this several times, sometimes shortening, sometimes expanding my notice period. Actually, I believe it's better if you and your manager talk and agree on date as long as you are ready to go with notice period as written if you can't agree - and even if you can't agree, it can't hurt that you tried..
    – Mołot
    May 10, 2017 at 11:46
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When you decide to resign, you can pick any leaving date you like, as long as it isn't earlier than the end of your notice period. On the other hand, if that date is past the notice period that your employer would have to give you, they can give you notice with an earlier date. In the USA, in many places they can just fire you on the spot.

So think hard before you give more notice than legally required. You might be out of a job earlier than planned.

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