2w ago

Will I be not eligible for rehire by HR?

I plan on leaving my employer for a new job with a two week notice, but a coworker has a vacation planned two weeks after I leave and there is no one else to provide cover. I would think asking to delay my start date with my new employer by a week would be reasonable, but two weeks might not be agreeable.

I don't want to cause any friction with my new employer, but I also don't want to leave on bad terms with my current employer. Will I be ineligible for rehire if I were to leave before my coworker takes off for vacation?

28 comments

Do not delay the start date of your new job. You have given your notice and have a new job lined up. There is no action needed. Any place worth a damn would not hold it against you won’t delay your departure.
Your current and soon to be ex-co-workers comings and goings are not your problem.
Now as far as being rehired by your current place. That will be based on how good of an employee you were and the scarcity of your skill sets.
- My concern is that if I am marked as not eligible for rehire that would show up in background checks by other jobs in the future.
  
  No background check will go that deep.
  You have given your notice. You have given the traditional two-week notice. You move on.
  
  I wouldn’t be concerned about that. Businesses are strongly discouraged from badmouthing former employees unless you did something explicitly terrible or criminal. Worst case scenario is they would give no comment if given as a reference.
  
  "We wouldn't re-hire him because he didn't fuck up his next job right out of the gate to make things a little bit easier on us" isn't the massive own you think it is.
  
  Unless you stab your boss and set fire to the building on your way out the door, you can have zero worries about your end of employment details showing up on a background check.
  
  Nope.
It's your employer's responsibility to ensure that they have sufficient people trained (or at least their responsibilities documented) so that someone else can pick up the slack during vacations, illnesses, accidents, family responsibilities, etc. If your employer hasn't been doing that, that's their problem, not yours.
During your final two weeks, your employer should be asking you to help train your replacement, or at least document your job to help your replacement. Plus there's an additional two weeks for your coworker to help train your replacement after you leave. Four weeks of training should be more than sufficient to get your replacement comfortable enough to handle everyday tasks, and they can bring anything they need help with to your manager.
This situation isn't your problem to solve.
Do not change the start date with your new employer. If you do, you are indicating that you are putting your new employer second and your old employer first. Don't do that.
Your thoughts about extending with your old employer are working to solve a problem that isn't yours to solve. If you leave on time as planned, you won't be employed at the old employer. None of the problems of old employer should concern you.
Lastly, there is a chance you are stealing an opportunity from your coworker. If the old employer really needs coverage then they will quickly learn how valuable your coworker is....unless delay your departure and solve the problem for your old employer. Don't do that. Let your coworker demand a king's ransom for delaying their vacation, or a hefty raise when they return because they are the only ones that do the job after you're gone. Additionally, maybe this will teach your old employer they need to staff up in your department so there aren't just two people in this critical role.
You delaying your start date with new employer breaks all of that.
- Appreciate the breakdown. I'll keep this in mind for the future.
I feel like the time to worry about this would have been before you set a start date. At this point, it's unfortunate, but your new and old workplaces just have needs that are in conflict, and it's probably smarter to prioritise the new one. Maybe loop in the coworker, see if there's some kind of approach that works best for them?
The other commenters are correct that on paper you have no other obligations, but not everyone hates their workplace and coworkers, so I think there could be room to be accommodating here if you can.
Just proceed as planned. If the company is so fragile it can't survive one week without someone to cover a position, well it's in such dire straits that it's going to be out of business within a year anyway. If you company survived Covid, it can certainly survive this.
As many people here are saying, you don't owe them anything and shouldn't be ineligible for rehire for giving them the stardard 2 weeks notice, but if you care about your coworker and your manager on a personal level, e.g. because they are good people, maybe even friends, then sure, go ahead and offer to be accomodating, within reason. Being kind, while not required, is likely appreciated, but do it cause you care about them, not about your rehire eligibility (which, once again, shouldn't be an issue here).
This isn't your responsibility. Your "obligation" (if you can even call it that since its optional) is to only provide a 2 week notice unless the standard is different in your field (for example my mom's work as a notice that is typical to a month notice, which is written in her contract and she loses a chunk of pay if she fails it)
Other employees vacation isn't your responsibility, and honestly if your previous work did hold that against you, it isn't an employer you would want to go back to anyway. I think requesting your new employer waits an additional 2 weeks will look worse on you then if you left your previous employer hanging.
Depends on the employer, but you don't owe them anything.
I doubt it would matter at all, but it depends on the size of the company.
If it's a small company, the people who do the hiring might remember the situation and hold it against you, but anywhere with a separate HR dept, probably won't even have a record of the vacation situation.
- It's a large company. My coworker would definitely be forced to cancel their vacation once I leave.
  
  That’s the company’s problem, especially for a larger one. If a large company can’t handle having two people away at the same time, be it temporarily or permanently, that’s a problem with their staffing practices and not you or the other employee.
  
  Hate to be that guy, but it’s not your problem. Your manager can probably cover that if absolutely needed, or he doesn’t have the skill set to be the manager.

28 comments