So I'm working my notice ...

follow your gut.

 

I'm not doubting that there's plenty of assholes in the world. Just saying how it's gone down here.

The separations, when they've happened, have been amicable. They don't want people around for two weeks when they're going to be headed to work for a competitor, so they buy off the last two weeks and send them on their way.

 

I don't know of anyone who was told to leave immediately and got 2 weeks pay (they would have received any vacation pay, etc., they had coming). Maybe they did and didn't want to brag.

 

Something like that. I acknowledge that perhaps I'm being a little paranoid, but the only way I have any control is if I keep it to myself.

 

Tell 'em what they'd tell you if the shoe were on the other foot:

You value their years of employment but find that in these difficult economic times, you have to go in another direction. Remind them that they'll have to do more with less now.

Otherwise, if you don't want to tell them, don't tell them. You owe them nothing but professional work until the last minute of the last day of your notice period.

 

The only thing you owe your current employer, or any employer, is an honest day's work and two weeks' notice. Period.

 

When I left my last shop, I gave two weeks notice and explained I was moving back to the Northwest to start up a new paper with a former boss. I probably didn't need to include anything beyond two weeks notice, but I didn't want them wondering if I was going to a competing shop or anything like that. My boss probably had already figured I was leaving when I told him (and our publisher) there was a strong feeling in the newsroom he wasn't pulling his weight, contributing to a pathetic morale. ;D

 

Unless the information and the people who would know it would somehow hurt you, I'd tell them. It's the gracious thing to do.

Having said that, these aren't gracious times in our business, and if you have reasons for not telling them, then that's up to you.

 

i'm a journo turned lawyer and i can tell you there is no legal obligation to tell them where you are going. that said, i can't think of any rational reason to play it so 'close to the vest' that you have to avoid telling them. not that you should care, but that probably makes you look like a d-bag in their eyes.

 

No, you don't have to tell them, if you so choose. But most do, so I could see why they might wonder.

 

I went to work for the competitor, which the SE had no problem with. But the EE/ME demanded that anyone who would go to work for the competitor was dead to them, so the poor SE had to (sheepishly) walk me out of the building and take my ID card.

I did not get two weeks pay, even though I had given two weeks notice. I was not under contract, so they were not obligated.

 

nice.