Employment contract clauses are interesting because they tend to be full of loopholes or ways to game the system.

This is more likely if the people writing them or hiring don’t understand your job.

See how this worker used this to advantage to sit back and avoid opening his wallet.

Do not want me to work my notice? Ok, I will not work during my notice!

I was working in an organization that was super toxic. So much so that we were a revolving door- most employees stayed only for a few months.

To counter this, our management put a 3 months’ notice into everyone’s contract including the existing employees.

But there were a lot of hurdles to jump over.

I believe the idea behind that was to make it harder for the employees to find a job outside as potential employers didn’t usually want to wait for 3 months. However this didn’t work as most people simply quit and waited for a month or two before starting their job hunt.

I was there for almost 4 years. I needed the money, so I put up with whatever abusive stuff was thrown at me. My boss was a guy we’ll call Vince. He was not particularly good, but he sometimes respected the fact that I was the most tenured grunt in this organization.

After about 2 years, I was doing a LOT of additional work in addition to my official responsibilities, primarily because I was the only one who knew how to do those.

Enter Rajesh. He was poached from a somewhat infamous company and was literally flown in from a different continent. He was brought in to “Strategically improve” our division. This was quite strange given that our division generated most profits.

Within months, Rajesh made the environment even more toxic. He pulled Vince’s team under him and got Vince fired, and he actively encouraged us grunts to spy on each other.

Rajesh also had it out for me from day one. He started making my life much harder than the others. This culminated in him taking me aside and telling me that I was not pulling my weight.

Then he had to get more crafty.

At this point I was doing quite well in the organization and I have been doing a LOT of additional work critical to our business since only I knew certain systems and processes. So I was quite angry.

I started looking for another job. Fortunately I was able to find one that was willing to wait the 3 months.

So it was my turn to take Rajesh aside and tell him I quit. Boy Rajesh was ticked! He went from denial (“You can’t quit!!”) to negotiation (“what if I give you a raise at the year end”) before acceptance.

Thus I was serving my notice and working away like an honest bee (my usual work + the additional work). At this point I was called in by HR and told that Rajesh wanted me gone.

The insane part was that they wanted me TO PAY THE COMPANY for the 2.5 months shortfall in notice!!

I obviously refused, then went back and checked the contract. Turns out that a notice of less than 3 months could only happen through mutual consent, and the initiating party had to compensate the other party for the shortfall.

Here is where the reward slowly kicks in.

The next day, I stopped doing almost all of my work. I logged in and logged out my hours and did jack. I stopped doing any additional work I have been doing, and started taking it really really slow on my primary job responsibilities.

Since no one else understood the details of what I did, I knew it would be very hard for Rajesh or HR to prove that I was doing any of this on purpose. Then I sat back with my popcorn.

Soon there was a complete meltdown all around. Rajesh would pull me into meetings and scream and try to bully me, and I would say nothing but smirk to his face.

Next they tried to have someone else learn the additional work I used to do from me so that they could do what I did.

I claimed I didn’t really remember any of the processes, so obviously there could be no handover. Rajesh could do nothing as none of this had been my responsibility or part of my contract, since the leadership had been only too happy to see me do this for free.

Soon my workplace turned into a dumpster fire. The HR/Rajesh smartened up and offered to buy out my notice if I cooperated and helped transition my work.

I refused.

Then, to twist the knife further, I started having meetings with fellow grunt workers and encouraging them to leave as well. HR tried to get me to leave twice more, but I ended up serving the full 3 months.

This is what folks are saying.

It probably works on people who don’t know their rights or don’t like confrontation.

Haha! Exactly. Take that!

It’s silly. Lots of employers do nonsensical things.

I doubt they’ll ever learn this very basic lesson.

Glad he got out of there!

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.