Where is the fine line between being lean and being stingy? This question is quite difficult to answer, because both of these sides smoothly flow into each other. Of course, if you run a small business, then most likely you are trying to save a lot, and staff is one of the areas to save on. However, the fewer employees in your company, the more indispensable they become.
Just for such situations, there is a generally accepted practice of 2-week notices, when an employee is expected to warn the employer in advance about their upcoming departure. In a perfect world, this would give the business owner time to find a replacement for the quitting employee. In the real world, however, here and now, this practice is regularly violated.
The best example is this recent post by user u/happyingenerall on the Reddit Antiwork community, which has amassed around 64.1K upvotes and over 5K different comments to date - a post that gradually grew into an actual viral thread about the advantages and disadvantages of various forms of hiring employees.
More info: Reddit
The author of the post had been working for a small company but once decided to quit on the spot
Image credits: u/happyingenerall
Several weeks later the former employee received a $150 invoice with a so-called 'emergency staffing fee'
So, the author of the original post worked, as they themselves admit in the comments, for a doggy daycare, and at some point decided to quit literally on the spot. The company's response to the dismissal without a full two-week notice was this $150 invoice the Original Poster received a few weeks later. The basis for charging the former employee, according to the employer, was the so-called 'emergency staffing fee'.
Image credits: u/happyingenerall
The 2-week notice is, in fact, not mandatory, but should be considered as a courtesy
Of course, the Original Poster did not pay for this invoice, especially since the 2-week notice is, in fact, not mandatory. “It’s not a policy, but it’s common practice,” says Tiffany Glenn, vice president of HR for major accounts services at ADP in her interview for Business News Daily. “I would say quitting on the spot is more common with small businesses versus larger-scale businesses because of the nature of their size and the challenges they are up against.”
Moreover, according to a recent study held by staffing agency Robert Half, over 64% of employees do believe that job-hopping is a completely appropriate and beneficial practice. Moreover, the more millennial workers are questioned, the more this rate is (34.5% compared to 19.4% for other age tiers). And of course, such a typically American phenomenon, as a 2-week notice doesn't suit them at all.
Everything depends on the relations the employer builds up with the staff, the expert believes
“In any case, an employer today should be prepared for the fact that literally anyone, even the most loyal employee, can leave,” says Alexei Shkurat, director of the Peach art studio, who was asked by Bored Panda to comment on this story. "Yes, from the employee's point of view, leaving literally out of the blue does not look very nice, but on the other hand, the boss' attempt to take revenge looks really petty."
"Personally, I also had to deal with the departure of employees on the spot, but such is the business. On the other hand, we try to build the most friendly relations with all the staff in order to simply avoid such situations. If it is embarrassing for an employee to frame the company, they will simply take care of their 2 weeks' notice themselves," believes Alexei Shkurat.
Most of the commenters just laughed at this invoice and even suggested the author send their former boss 150 Monopoly dollars
It must be said that most people in the comments also believe that the employee should not have paid anything to their employer. Moreover, according to some commenters, they should have sent them an invoice for their time reviewing that BS invoice. "$250 per invoice review, to be paid before any invoice review work can be started," one person just wrote.
Also, some commenters assume that depending on the Original Poster's statute of limitations, they could sue the employer for fraud in the inducement in small claims. And, well, perhaps the most witty comment simply states: "send them 150 Monopoly dollars." Perhaps this is the best thing to do in this very situation.
If you're interested in the topic of 2-week notices and work relationships, you might also want to read this post of ours about an employee who threatened to quit immediately for late approval of his family leave. And, as always, we're looking forward to your comments on this particular tale, so please feel free to leave them below this post.