> Giving notice is purely a courtesy. It legally can not affect recommendations or references
That's too broad of a statement. An awful lot of companies refuse to give recommendations at all for fear of being sued, (BTW, IAAL) but there's nothing blocking them from saying "Employee X quit abruptly". Plus, prior coworkers move on and are no longer bound by company policies. You'd have to lose them as a reference.
> there is absolutely nothing any company can do to force you to stay at work in an at-will state.
It happened to me. I'm in an at-will state, and I attempted to give 4 weeks notice to my employer about a year back. I foolishly told someone where I was going, word spread, and it turned out that my new company considered my prior company a very important customer.
Next thing I know, my current employer decided they had a few projects for me, contacted my prospective employer and renegotiated my start date, pushing it out a few months.
Technically, I might have been able to sue for tortious interference, but that would be a sign to my employer-to-be that I was trouble. Then I could have found myself out of a job altogether.
In the end, I accepted the extension, but only with a written guarantee that they wouldn't seek to extend the date further. I made it dead clear that without that guarantee my original 4-weeks notice would become 90 seconds notice. I'm not happily employed at the new company.
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> Giving notice is purely a courtesy. It legally can not affect recommendations or references
That's too broad of a statement. An awful lot of companies refuse to give recommendations at all for fear of being sued, (BTW, IAAL) but there's nothing blocking them from saying "Employee X quit abruptly". Plus, prior coworkers move on and are no longer bound by company policies. You'd have to lose them as a reference.
> there is absolutely nothing any company can do to force you to stay at work in an at-will state.
It happened to me. I'm in an at-will state, and I attempted to give 4 weeks notice to my employer about a year back. I foolishly told someone where I was going, word spread, and it turned out that my new company considered my prior company a very important customer.
Next thing I know, my current employer decided they had a few projects for me, contacted my prospective employer and renegotiated my start date, pushing it out a few months.
Technically, I might have been able to sue for tortious interference, but that would be a sign to my employer-to-be that I was trouble. Then I could have found myself out of a job altogether.
In the end, I accepted the extension, but only with a written guarantee that they wouldn't seek to extend the date further. I made it dead clear that without that guarantee my original 4-weeks notice would become 90 seconds notice. I'm not happily employed at the new company.