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In Iceland there's a mutual 3 month termination notice for most positions. I just switched jobs and had to do a whole lot to be let go 6 weeks after I gave notice. My employer absolutely had the right to retain my services for the full 3 months thou.

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I'm curious how this works in practice. A conscientious employee will honor the 3 month term, of course. But if there is animosity, or a lack of trust, or a feeling of betrayal etc. etc. how does the company keep the employee working for those 3 months? As opposed to having a desk vacation?

We have 2 month notices here. Most people do knowledge transfers in their notice period. It's harder to slack off if your task is pair coding or explaining stuff to your peers. We waived this period for a few people, because they were negatively impacting morale, but they still got their salary. It's just the cost of firing someone.

Nobody wants to leave on bad terms if it isn't strictly necessary. In the best case a hire will be made and some overlapping time will occur so a hand-off can be executed.

Germany also has 3 months notice starting from the next month you give it or something similar? I work remotely in a german company and i was shocked to hear this. We have new hires from Germany who we were expecting them since xmas-January..

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