Give notice or walk?
TL;DR: It’s January. Accepted a much better offer at another company. Start date is January 29th. Been at Uber 2 years. My boss that I was super cool with just left and was replaced, so I still have that reference. Big chunk of equity just vested, things look good. Two options: A) Give two weeks, risk getting walked out (not likely, right?), and maybe shave a few days off for transition purposes. B) Walk at the end of the pay period.
B)
Give notice. You don’t mention a single reason why not to.
There is literally no reason to leave without notice. Why is this even a question?
I’ve read exactly ONE person’s story that made me say otherwise. But yea, there’s basically no reason.
Corporations are staffed by people that you may encounter later in your career.
Give the notice. Don't be an ass
The only place I’ve ever seen advice given to not give notice in absence of extreme circumstances (of which you don’t mention any) is Blind. That’s probably because it seems like half+ of commenters here see the world only in terms of dollar signs. Give notice. There is never any reason to burn a bridge you don’t absolutely have to burn. If Uber wants to walk you that day or put you on leave that’s on them. You come out looking good and the people you transition work to instead of screwing will remain part of your network down the road instead of hating you.
This puts the entire onus on keeping the bridge up to the employee. Once an employer walks out even a single engineer out for turning in notice, that bridge is burned wether they like it or not. In this specific case, I don't know if Uber does this walk-out drama.
I mean I guess if you assume all employees are the same with exactly the same circumstances around data they handle, confidential management issues, system access, etc. Then sure. As an employee you lose nothing by not walking out and giving notice in almost every case. A run of the mill SWE at uber is not the edge case for this. It’s not the company you don’t want to burn a bridge with (mainly) - it’s your team and the people on it. If you’re leaving the company you don’t need the company anymore. There’s a decent chance you’ll see your ex-team and colleagues around in the industry though.
Give notice. Then proceeded to show up late, wfh, don't work at all, do a bit of transfer work, mainly chill, take personal or sick days. If your company offers unlimited vacation, you will not be paid for it, so might as well take the two weeks as vacation lol
Off-topic rant follows. <rant> Companies think adopting aggressive tactics against employees work in their favor. It doesn't. It comes back and bites you. I think it was MS which started this practice of walking out employees who give notice. Great - that should teach those fuckers, right??!! Guess what? Now, employees are stopping giving notices. Was that adrenaline rush you got from walking out few engineers worth the anxiety knowing that any number of your engineers might not come in next Monday? Tech employers in India started writing in 3 month notice periods into the employment contracts. Brilliant move! That should fix attrition! Right?! Now every offer accepted is a start of a negotiation. You are sure that a candidate will honor the offer only when they walk in on the first day. By playing Machavelian games with people, the employers have made hiring way harder than it should be. </rant>
Your logic doesn’t make sense. If MS walked everyone out when they gave notice, it really doesn’t matter to them if you give notice or not.
@Cdgjc my understanding is that they walked some employees who gave notice to join competitor firms.
If you give 2 weeks notice and they walk you out, I think they pay you for those two weeks. That’s what I hear Microsoft does, so everyone giving notice hopes to be walked out.
Give notice for all the above reasons and also this one: nothing is more enjoyable than the last two weeks of work. There's an extra bounce in your step, a little glide in your stride. Everyone looks up to you a bit because you were smart and brave enough to get out. You're the center of attention and get to pretend like you're going to really miss everyone. And you get paid for this self indulgent nonsense. Why would you rob yourself of this rare and precious opportunity? Oh, and the heart pounding walk into the meeting room where you finally tell your boss. Followed by their surprise and dumbfounded expression. Priceless dude.
Give notice. Do some good transition work for a week and take a few days off. Don't burn bridges. Help your new boss settle. It's a small world. He or she maybe your boss again in the future. You may find the grass to be less green on the other side. Keep the door open while leaving.
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