notice period and contract

[Witch King]

Hi all

looking for some advice, i joined my current company a number of years ago and as you do signed a contract stating my notice period was 1 month, pretty standard stuff. fast forward 18 months odd and one of my colleges decided to leave for another job, the business took this pretty badly, and the rest of the team subsequently received emails stating our notice period was changed to 3 months and we should reply to the email saying we agreed (or words to that effect), which at the time i did. Now i'm looking for a new position and this 3 months notice isn't doing me any favours, i was wondering what peoples thoughts are? i never actually signed anything, i've never had a "new" contract, is sending an email this way binding? or should it have been more official?

i suppose i could just tell them i'm doing a month and walk out after 4 weeks? i guess this won't do me any favours in terms of a reference, would they have any other recourse?

advice appriecated.

[Witch King]

Gargamel said:

You appear to have agreed to the three month contract change, signing something in the UK isn't a legal requirement.

Best you could do is prepare a good handover document, explain how you can finish up current activity in four weeks and ask them if they would be ok with an earlier release date.

Be prepared for bad news.

You can walk, but if you do there is an outside possibility that if the company occurs actual real loses/damages they could in theory sue for breach... in reality this almost never happens - but it is a risk - only you can really say what there attitude might be.

thanks Chris, i was afraid that would be the case, i did try negotiating previously and got nowhere with it, nore did one of the other guys who's recently left.