Going Beyond the 2 Week Notice?

rovingeyes asks: "Immediately after graduating about two and a half years ago, I joined a local website design and hosting company that was looking for software developers. But soon disaster struck. The chief developer/systems administrator left the company soon after I joined and after a month of his leaving another developer quit, which meant that I was the only developer left in the company. Now for almost 2 years I have been taking care of pretty much everything from systems administration to end-user technical support to development. And after a long time I realized that the growth potential in this company is pretty limited. So I decided to look for other jobs and immediately got multiple offers. Now my boss wants 6 weeks notice plus on call service for another 3 months at subsidized rates. Is my boss being reasonable?" "Since I am the only developer in the company, I thought giving a 4 week notice instead of 2 would be reasonable, but this happened. Another requirement he added was the need that I be on-call if any disaster strikes with the server infrastructure. Now this is my first real job ever and I don't know how to respond to it. I normally don't outsource, even though the money is good, because I don't want to compromise my current duties. My boss knows this.

Thus this question to my fellow Slashdot readers: Is my boss being reasonable? I can understand his view point of losing the only developer/systems administrator in the company. But I don't think I am bound by any law that I should provide those kinds of services (since we have no contract in place). Should I negotiate or just ignore them? Is a burnt bridge worth it?"

Comments

Your boss is trying to take advantage

[legLess]

Now my boss wants 6 weeks notice plus on call service for another 3 months at subsidized rates. Is my boss being reasonable?"

As my dad used to say, "People in hell want ice water." Your boss has been taking advantage of you for two years, and he's trying to keep doing it.

Another requirement he added was the need that I be on-call if any disaster strikes with the server infrastructure.

"Requirement??" Unless you signed a contract allowing him to place arbitrary restrictions on your freedom (and, frankly, even then) he's in no place to require anything. "Ask politely while blowing money at you with a fire hose," maybe, but certainly not "require."

Should I negotiate or just ignore them? Is a burnt bridge worth it?"

If you do negotiate, remembe that when you leave it's his ass on the line, not yours. How much is his ass worth to him?

Personally I'd stick with two weeks and let him sink. Your offer of four weeks was very generous; you're not required to give him 5 minutes. His evil attempts to muscle you into doing something that is not in your best interests, or the interests of your new employer, should be repaid with a firm and polite, "I believe two weeks is customary. Best of luck finding someone new."

Re:Are you mad?

[TheWanderingHermit]

The above post says about 90% of what you need to know. They had at least 3 people (you, the head dev, and the other guy), lost one, kept going, lost another, kept going, and suddenly you're doing the work of at least 3 people. Oh, boy I bet the boss was happy! He paid you 1x for 3x the work! He took advantage of you for a good long while.

So it's his fault. He did not plan ahead. No employee is forever, and by keeping only one developer on, he made you indespensable. If he had treated you like you were indespensable, you would have better working conditions and better pay.

He looked out for himself by working you as hard as he could and not hiring anyone to work with you. Now it's time for you to look out for yourself. He can ask for all he wants. He's just covering his ass and I don't blame him for it. That doesn't mean you have to give it to him. He should be down on his knees thanking God you are willing to give him more than 2 weeks, or that you didn't just walk out on him.

Re:Are you mad?

[Nos.]

Everytime I've changed jobs when offered the new position, they ask when I can start. My answer is usually the same. I would prefer to give my current employer at least two weeks notice. If I was in the middle of a bigger project, I might ask for a longer time before my start date if my employer deserved it. I worked for a small webhosting company for a year. I built a brand new control panel to fit their... unique environment. I helped build an automated billing system (billing had been done manually until that point). After 1 year, during my "review" they had no complaints about me. I asked for a raise. They said they didn't see me getting a raise for the forseeable future as I was the highest paid employee at the time (just over 50K/year) which was less than I had made previous to taking this job. Luckily I was on a leave of absence from my previous position. I informed them I would be returning in two weeks and game my notice to the web hosting company.

The brought in a new guy to take over the work I was doing and I trained him as much as I could in the time available. They asked if they could call me at work if they had problems. I said no. My employer was not paying me to handle your problems. They asked if they could call/email me after regular hours. I said sure, but that by contacting me they were agreeing to a $250/hour consulting rate, minimum 3 hours with no guarantee on resolution of the issue.

Never did hear from them. Did I burn a bridge? Probably. Do I regret it? No. I will not be taken advantage of. If a company refuses to recognize my contribution in any meaningful way, and then asks for my help afterwards with little or no compensation, I'm not going to bend over for them.