Feeling Stuck: Can I Quit My Job Without Serving a 2-Month Notice During Probation?

For some very personal reasons, I want to leave my job. It has been 18 days precisely since I joined this firm. Today, when I submitted my resignation, they are asking me to serve a 2-month notice period during my probation period. I questioned the company as they hadn't mentioned this in the offer letter. However, a 2-month notice period during the course of employment and probation is mentioned in the policy manual, which was informed during induction (when probation had already started).

Extract from the offer letter:

"The Company or employee may, at any time during the course of the employment, terminate the employment by giving 60 days' notice or salary payment in lieu of that notice, by stating their intention to do so in writing. For the purpose of this Clause, salary shall mean the most current base pay.

Upon joining, the employee will be deemed to be on a probationary period of 6 months from the Date of Joining, in line with the company's standard Talent Management policy."

Can I leave without serving the notice period? If I do, what can be the consequences?

They are asking me to pay for 2 months if I want to leave today. What should I do?

Hi Vidhi-Mehta1,

You may please read the extract of the offer letter issued to you.

"The Company or employee may, at any time during the course of the employment, terminate the employment by giving 60 days' notice or salary payment in lieu of that notice, by stating their intention to do so in writing. For the purpose of this Clause, salary shall mean the most current base pay."

Please read the portion underlined in the above extract.

If you do not want to pay any heed to this, please be ready to face any consequential action by the management of your company (which shall include legal action also).

It is written that "any time during the course of employment"; your probation period falls under this explanation, hence you are bound to give a 60-day (2 months) notice period or buy out the NP - the choice is yours.

If the matter was brought to your attention only when you joined the company, and you did not accept the terms, then you should have left immediately or informed your employer that you do not accept the terms.

Once you have seen and signed it (or continued working, even if you did not sign), it means you have accepted the terms. However, in general, few employers will try to keep someone like you for 2 months of the notice period unless you are performing a critical function that needs to be done and there is no one to take over immediately.