How Long Is a Notice Period?

Notice periods are set by two things that frequently disagree: the statutory minimum in law and whatever the contract says. The rule is simple once you know it, and the consequences of misreading it are more practical than legal.

The statutory minimums

From employee to employer, the statutory minimum is one week, once you have been employed for at least one month. It does not increase with service. Someone with twenty years of service owes the same statutory week as someone with two, unless the contract says otherwise.

From employer to employee, the minimum scales with service:

• Less than one month: none required
• One month to two years: one week
• Two years or more: one week for each complete year of service
• Capped at twelve weeks

So an employee with seven years of service is entitled to seven weeks of notice from the employer, and owes one week in return, unless the contract changes that. The asymmetry is deliberate.

The contract usually says more

Most contracts set longer notice periods, and whichever is longer between the contract and the statute applies.

Typical ranges:

• Junior and administrative roles: one week to one month
• Professional roles: one to three months
• Senior and executive roles: three to six months, occasionally twelve

Contracts often specify mutual notice, meaning both sides owe the same period. That is common and it is also why a senior employee can find themselves owing three months when the statutory minimum would have been one week.

When notice starts

This detail moves leaving dates by weeks and is routinely overlooked.

Some contracts say notice runs from the day after it is given. Others say it runs from the end of the current week or the current month. A one-month notice period given on the 3rd could end on the 3rd of the following month, or at the end of the following month, depending on wording.

Give notice in writing, dated, and state the leaving date you believe applies. If the employer disagrees, that gets resolved immediately rather than a month later.

Working it, or not

Working the notice is the default. You continue as normal and are paid as normal.

Garden leave means the employer requires you to stay away but keeps you employed and paid. You remain bound by your contract, including confidentiality and any exclusivity, which is usually the point: it keeps you out of a competitor’s hands while the clock runs.

Payment in lieu of notice, often shortened to PILON, means the employer ends the employment immediately and pays what you would have earned. This requires a contractual right to do it, or your agreement. PILON is taxed as ordinary income in full.

Agreeing a shorter notice. Entirely possible and very common. If both sides agree in writing, you can leave sooner. Employers frequently agree where a handover is complete or the role is ending anyway.

Leaving without working notice

Walking out is a breach of contract. In theory the employer can claim damages for losses caused, such as the cost of emergency cover. In practice this is rare, difficult to quantify and seldom worth their time.

The realistic consequences are different: a reference that notes you left without notice, a soured relationship in a small industry, and potential disputes over final pay. Employers cannot withhold wages you have earned as a penalty, but they can and do deduct where the contract explicitly permits it.

The better route is almost always to ask. A short, unemotional conversation proposing an earlier date and offering a clean handover succeeds more often than people expect.

Holiday during notice

Accrued but untaken holiday must be paid on termination, and you continue to accrue holiday throughout the notice period.

Employers can require you to take holiday during notice, provided they give notice of that equal to twice the length of leave. Many do, precisely to reduce the final payment. Check your accrued balance before resigning, because it is part of what you are owed.

Notice during probation

Contracts commonly set a shorter notice period during a probationary period, often one week either way. That is lawful, provided it meets the statutory minimum for the length of service, which for under two years is one week.

Note that probation does not remove statutory rights. It changes the notice period and often the sick pay entitlement, and that is generally all it does.

Before you resign

Three things to confirm from the contract: the length of notice, when it starts, and whether there is a payment in lieu clause. Then check your accrued holiday balance and any repayment clauses for training costs or relocation, which sometimes bite on resignation within a defined period.

Five minutes reading the contract before handing in notice saves a great deal of negotiating afterwards.

Gardening leave and restrictive covenants

Two clauses worth reading before you sign anything, because they bite at exactly the moment you want to move.

A garden leave clause lets the employer keep you employed and paid while requiring you to stay away from work. During that period you remain bound by your contract, which usually means you cannot start elsewhere.

Restrictive covenants go further, limiting what you can do after employment ends: approaching former clients, poaching colleagues, or working for a named competitor for a defined period. They are enforceable only so far as they protect a legitimate business interest and go no wider than necessary, but the cost of testing that is high enough that most people simply comply.