[tovej]

That is unbelievable to me. You always have the right to quit, and penalties are rare. The laws depend on the country you're in of course, but I've never heard of three months, and I've lived in Europe my whole life.

Would you mind sharing the country you were working in?

[vidarh]

In Norway, 3 months notice is the norm, and you can be expected to work it. In practice, there's rarely much value in holding people to it (though it can happen) because someone who really doesn't want to be there isn't going to be a productive employee. But lots of people do stay the 3 months because people looking to hire are also used to often having to wait 3 months to get someone on full time.

[jokethrowaway]

It's pretty common to have penalties if you quit without notice. It's also a breach of contract. Employers probably won't go after you in court though, unless your immediate departure cause them some damage larger than the lawyer's bill.

One month is common for juniors or contractors. I've never seen a contract with less than 1 month notice in tech. Three months is common for senior or management positions.

[Aeolun]

I’ve only ever seen one month in both Europe and Japan. With no stipulated penalties for leaving immediately (beyond, you know, being an a*).

[pathsjs]

I am Italian and at my previous work at a bank, I had a two month notice (originally one, but increased with seniority). As far as I know, it is pretty common in Italy, and employers know that when they hire someone, the person will only join one to three months later due to this - or sometimes they offer to pay the penalty

[seritools]

In Germany the minimum time of notice for being fired scales up with your seniority (number of years employed in the company). However, many work contracts add a stipulation that the minimum time of notice from the law be applied to both parties equally, so quitting will also need an advance notice of the same length.

[soneil]

My previous contract (Ireland) was 3 months - it was reciprocal, so they had to give me 3 months notice to quit, and I had to give them 3 months notice to quit.

Due to the position "garden leave" was the most typical way to spend those 3 months, so it wasn't much of a real-world concern.

[ubersnack]

In England I had a 3 month notice period at a previous employer, luckily the employer I was going to was okay with waiting that amount of time.