Advice on two week notice for on call status

[3feethighandrising]

Is it a required professional courtesy to give two weeks notice if you have been reduced to an on call status? Technically I am not an employee anymore but a contract worker. I looking to see if this is the professional standard for our field for a contract worker or more just a "courtesy"

I ask this because they laid me off only to rehire me back a month later as an oncall without benefits/vacation/holidays. They promised to hire me back full time when I had more hours. Well, I have been working full time since the hire back but they will not make any effort to change my status.

As a contract worker am I unprofessional if I bail without two weeks notice? The way I see it if I give notice and they want me there another two weeks to help transition my projects, it would be a "new contract" under new terms since I terminated the old contract when I quit. I would offer them this two week only contract as a "courtesy". Is this unprofessional for a contract worker in our field? They did not give me two weeks notice when they laid me off, more like a 1/2 hour.

3'

 

[KENAT]

Where are you located, as that may affect employment law and common practice.

What does your contact say?

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[btrueblood]

Professional courtesy should be extended only when your employer is treating you like a professional. As Kenat asks, what's the contract say? If you're not contractually obligated to give notice, I would give none.

 

[3feethighandrising]

The contract does not list it as a requirement, it is only a letter from HR with "condolences for terminating my employment" and basically telling me what they are stripping of and what to do with 401K, etc. I am most pissed that they illegally (in my opinion) took flex spending account withdraws out of my severence pay for the duration I was laid off since I had no paycheck, then of course terminated the flex spending account since it was a benefit they stripped me of. I wasn't able to spend the flex account balance in 30 days by getting the dental work I had planned on short notice. HR doesn't miss a trick. That alone is worth the "new two week contract extension $$" I would offer them as a "courtesy".

I would stay here if I was treated like a valued employee by management and HR. I do not want to burn bridges as a bitter ex employee by being unprofessional, so I want to find out what our "professional standard is for contract workers" and follow that.

 

[KENAT]

OK, then look at it from the other direction.

Do you have a new position you are leaving for? If so how long are they willing to wait for you to start? How much $ do you lose if you give notice? Or are you just leaving because you're sick of their nonsense even though you have no place to go?

If effectively at will, or if they can terminate your 'contract employee status' with no notice then it doesn't seem unreasonable for you to extend them the same courtesy.

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[MacGyverS2000]

If this is in the US, the company has likely broken several laws. Treating contract workers as full-time employees has become a seriously sticky issue lately, and removing a full-time employee to bring him back as a contractor (with no change in duties/time, but a loss of bennies) is definitely wrong.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[IRstuff]

Lack of notice at layoff is becoming much more common, since there seems to have been a growth of malicious behavior from employees given notice, things like messing with data files, voice mail, etc. This is particularly true if the laid-off employees might be in positions where they could do harm to the company or its infrastructure. We had a few people walked out upon notice, recently.

If you're willing to burn the bride and tolerate an audit, a phone call to the IRS about your situation might result in some fun and games for your company. Microsoft was dinged a while back for having "contractors" on near permanent basis. However, you've not stated how long you've been on contract, and anything shy of a couple of years is might not be sufficiently long enough to play that card. It'll depend more on what you're specifically doing and the expected duration of those tasks.

TTFN

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[patprimmer]

No one can answer your question without the following.

1) What jurisdiction applies to your place of employment.

2) Did you have any sort of contract or agreement previously. What terms did it stipulate.

3) How and why did they re-employ you as a contractor. Things like they had more people than they required so they laid me off. Later they acquired more temporary work or the person also working on the same project I was on recently resigned or whatever might be of some importance.

4) None of us are lawyers so you need qualified legal advice on this.

Regards
Pat
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[Ron]

Pat's advice is excellent. The others are good also. Since you went to a contract status, did you increase your hourly rate to compensate for what you lost? Keep in mind that you should multiply your hourly rate by somewhere between 2.5 and 4 if you are not an employee with benefits.

 

[TJOrlowski]

In an attempt to cut to the chase, a simple two-part question:

Are you committed to leaving this company, having thought it through fully?

If so, do you plan to use this company as a reference, and any contacts you've made at or through the company as a resource later?

If the answer to question 2 is "Yes," I would strongly suggest giving as much notice to your employer as possible. If you can give more than 2 weeks, do so. Even though they may have treated you unfairly, and may still be treating you unfairly, any inconvenience you cause your employer by failing to give notice isn't worth anything more than a wry smile for yourself. Sure, they may have to scramble temporarily to put the pieces back together after your sudden departure, but so what? It puts no extra money in your pocket at your next job, does nothing to improve your chances of landing your next job (it can only hurt actually), and you may lose resources accumulated at/through your employer that could help you advance in your career down the road. If management and HR feel slighted, they may circle the wagons, and attempt to isolate you from or defame you to anyone at the company that you had positive relationships with that be tapped later. At the end of the day, you gain absolutely nothing of value by "returning the favor" to your employer regarding notice of resignation/termination.

-TJ Orlowski

 

[TJOrlowski]

PS: Anyone telling that you SHOULD leave suddenly and without notice is giving you terrible career advice. If your next boss is checking your references and finds out you left this company without giving notice, she's not going to care about whether they "deserved it" or not. She's going to consider whether you're worth the risk of doing the same thing to her at some point.

.......

She's going to determine you're not.

-TJ Orlowski

 

[3feethighandrising]

Thanks for the replies.

To answer some of these great questions, this is an at will company so there is no contract even for full time employees. The intent was to get my benefits back, if not I will leave. I am being partially compensated for them, by hourly, but this was supposed to a temporary position until I was reinstated full time. Had I known that this wasn't temporary I would have asked for more compensation for my benefits.

It has been five months of me proving my workload qualifies for full time status, and management and HR have done nothing toward reinstating my status. I technically have no direct supervisor and have to pursue all my own work from multiple project managers. They continue to ask me for salaried employee duties (3-4 hours/week) that I cannot bill the client for and I will not get compensated for.

Add to this, since my hire back I have passed and received my PE License and they will be expecting me to stamp and approve upcoming work, without offering me any form of additional compensation.

I am actively seeking other employment and have some good leads. When I find something else I will bail. If it is the industry standard for contract workers to not give two weeks notice, I will still offer them two weeks notice, but only on a two week contract. The intent is not to screw them or be vengeful, but to force them to compensate me for full worth without benefits even for only two weeks. If they give me a bad reference over this I may sue them, my performance has been excellent. It is ridiculous to think I have to work two weeks for them with no benefits as a courtesy, when I can be working somewhere else with benefits. What if I get in a car wreck on the way to work during that two weeks notice, and can't work for a year, are they going to offer me "courtesy health insurance and loss of job compensation"?

 

[IRstuff]

"they will be expecting me to stamp and approve upcoming work, without offering me any form of additional compensation."

And they're not even paying for your insurance? That's a no-no...

But, if you're not seriously contemplating working for them as an employee anyway, then I would suggest that you simply get to the point of two weeks from completion of the current task and telling that you'll be declining any additional tasks or contract extensions.

TTFN

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