Notice runs in two directions, and they are not symmetrical. What your employer
owes you grows with every year you stay. What you owe them usually does not.
What your employer must give you
These are the statutory minimums, and they apply whatever your contract
says:
| How long you have worked there | Minimum notice |
|---|---|
| Less than 1 month | None |
| 1 month to 2 years | 1 week |
| 2 to 12 years | 1 week for each full year |
| 12 years or more | 12 weeks — the cap |
So five years of service is five weeks. Eleven years is eleven weeks. Twenty
years is still twelve, because the statutory entitlement stops climbing there.
Your contract can give you more than this. It cannot give you less.
GOV.UK is explicit: an employer “may give you more than the statutory minimum,
but they cannot give you less”. If your contract says two weeks and you have
worked there six years, you get six.
Our notice period calculator works out
the statutory figure for your service, so you have something to hold the contract
up against.
What you must give them
The statutory minimum from an employee is one week, once you
have been there a month, and it stays at one week however long you stay. It does
not grow the way the employer’s obligation does.
In practice your contract almost always asks for more — a month is
typical, three months is common in senior roles — and that contractual
figure is the one that binds you. Read the clause before you resign, not
after.
What “during probation” really means
A probation period is a contractual arrangement, not a legal status. It does
not switch off your statutory notice.
Once you have been employed for one month, you are entitled to at least one
week’s notice — probation or not. Many contracts set a shorter notice
period during probation, often a week either way, and that is fine precisely
because one week is the statutory minimum at that length of service. A
probation clause promising “no notice after two months” would not be
enforceable.
Notice you are paid for but do not work
Two things often get confused here.
Garden leave means you remain employed, stay on the payroll,
keep accruing holiday, and are simply told not to come in. Your contract usually
has to allow it.
Pay in lieu of notice (PILON) ends the employment
immediately and pays out the notice period instead. Again, this normally needs a
contractual right — without one, ending your employment early is
technically a breach, even if you are paid for it.
The distinction matters for redundancy, because your notice period can push
your service past another full year, which is worth a further week of statutory
redundancy pay. If you are close to an anniversary, it is worth checking.
Redundancy notice is the same notice
Redundancy does not have its own notice rules. The table above is what applies,
and your redundancy payment is separate from and on top of your notice pay. Our
redundancy pay calculator works out the
payment; the notice calculator works out the time.
When there is no notice at all
Notice can be dispensed with in cases of gross misconduct — summary
dismissal. That is a high bar, it has to be genuine, and a fair process is still
required. Being dismissed without notice for ordinary poor performance is not the
same thing, and is not lawful.
Before you hand anything in
Three things to check, in this order: what your contract’s notice clause
actually says; what the statutory minimum for your service is, in case the
contract is below it; and what happens to your untaken holiday, which must be
paid out when you leave.
If a notice clause looks wrong to you, Acas gives free, impartial advice on exactly this.