Stuck in a Notice Period Dilemma: Can I Buy Out My Remaining Days to Join a New Job?

I have been working with an IT service company for 1 year and 4 months. I resigned from my company on the 19th of August 2011. My company has a notice period of 2 months. The appointment letter states that: "the company reserves the right to pay or withdraw salary in lieu of the notice period." I want to be released by the 7th of October as I have to join my new company on the 10th of October, and I am willing to pay for the remaining days. My company is not willing to accept this and states that the above statement means that buying out a notice period is at the company's discretion. What can I do?

Hello nuralamrajon, your company is right—as per the clause you mentioned. Basically, you have a difference of 9-10 days between what you need and what the company rules dictate. I can see you have two options to handle this:

1. Talk to your manager and assure them you can complete the handover by 7 Oct. Usually, if the reporting manager clears a case, HR wouldn’t object, since at the end of the day, it’s the tech manager’s neck that is on the block.

2. Discuss with both the present company and the new company. Since as per rules (assuming you won’t/can’t be relieved by 7 Oct), you have to serve until 19 Oct, bargain for a reduction to 14 Oct. Being Friday, it may not be a problem, since that would leave only three more working days at the fag-end of your tenure there. In parallel, talk to the new company to join on 17 Oct, Monday—an extension of seven days. Usually, this works better than the first option—but it depends on how sincerely you put in your efforts.

All the best.

Regards,
TS