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Location is Ontario / Canada.. I am a full time employee - not a consultant or a contractor.

Legal notice time is 2 weeks. If I know that I will be leaving in 4 weeks, is there any reason (or any potential disadvantages) for me to give my notice now or should I wait until only 2 weeks actually remain? Can a company for example force me to leave earlier, if I give my notice 4 weeks before instead of 2? Or maybe anything else I cannot think of? Can they make me work on unrelated tasks I would not normally be doing, just because I am leaving for example?

Koray Tugay
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This depends on what kind of relationship you have with your manager. If you have a good, friendly relationship with your manager, you may want to give your manager a heads up that you're going to be leaving so he doesn't put you on any big projects or whatnot for the next little while. If you do not have a great relationship (if your relationship can be described as anything other than "great"), you shouldn't say anything, because your manager might go to HR and find a way to fire you before you have time to quit, which, as @myxzptlk said, could turn out bad for you (and yes, Ontario is not "at-will" like the US is, but functionally it is; if a company wants to fire you, they'll make up some BS reason to fire you that is wishy-washy to the point of being impossible to disprove in court).

In general, there is nothing wrong with giving only the notice required. Giving more notice may be useful to your direct manager (and ONLY to your direct manager, absolutely do not bring it up with anyone else), but is not required in any way.

Ertai87
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  • Depending on your time served, in Ontario a company is obliged to give "pay in lieu of notice" if they fire you without cause, and so firing you in order to avoid paying wages is almost certain to be counterproductive for anyone with more than a year or so service. – DJClayworth Jun 03 '21 at 16:05
  • @DJClayworth https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/severance-pay#section-2 OP is not entitled to severance unless he has worked for his employer for at least 5 years. – Ertai87 Jun 03 '21 at 17:50
  • Severance pay is only one part of the compensation an employer owes for termination. Believe me, I know. – DJClayworth Jun 03 '21 at 18:04
  • OP would be entitled to pay in lieu of notice, but since the notice period is 2 weeks and the OP is giving 4 weeks notice, the company would still "profit" by 2 weeks of pay if they fired OP on the spot. – Ertai87 Jun 04 '21 at 15:00
  • Whatever your internet searches are telling you, I assure you that the compensation for letting someone go with less than five years service is more than the notice period. – DJClayworth Jun 04 '21 at 15:02
  • @DJClayworth As someone who lives in Ontario and has been terminated multiple times, I assure you it's not. Unless you can provide references, which I would be interested in seeing so I can pursue legal compensation against some of those former employers of my own. – Ertai87 Jun 04 '21 at 15:05
  • References? My lawyer. Did your lawyer tell you that you weren't entitled to compensation? Mine outlined the compensation I could expect and got. You may be confusing the statutory minimum with the common law expectation. – DJClayworth Jun 04 '21 at 15:06
  • @DJClayworth What did your lawyer tell you? I have spoken to a lawyer on one of (the most egregious of) occasions in which I was terminated and he said I was basically entitled to nothing; at best, whatever settlement I would get would cover the lawyer's fee to sue them and maybe not even that much, and I had a rock-solid case for constructive dismissal. – Ertai87 Jun 04 '21 at 15:07
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – DJClayworth Jun 04 '21 at 15:10
  • Fair enough, I look forward to hearing what else I might have been entitled to so I can follow up legally next time I am terminated. – Ertai87 Jun 04 '21 at 15:13
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Never give more than contractual notice.

Yes, they have all kinds of options, from immediately letting you go in any way your contract and the law allows to having you work on anything your contract and law allows, and generally have very little incentive to make your remaining time beneficial to you in any way.

Legal protections and severance and stuff may be there to protect you - or they may not be, companies sometimes go to great lengths to take actions in their best interest and it's hard to fight; avoid any fight by giving proper notice but not more than proper notice.

mxyzplk
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    If they let me immediately go, do not I get severance package? – Koray Tugay Jun 03 '21 at 15:08
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    Note the OP is from Canada which is generally not At-Will. – Gregory Currie Jun 03 '21 at 15:08
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    @KorayTugay, I imagine they won't fire you, but they may send you on a gardening leave with 2 weeks pay, so you'll be unemployed for 2 more weeks before you start at your new place. – Egor Jun 03 '21 at 15:28
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    "Never" is too strong. While it's often the correct answer, I have seen plenty of cases where advance notice was given and turned out to work great for all parties involved. Not all employers are vindictive idiots. – Hilmar Jun 03 '21 at 16:12
  • @KorayTugay Yes you do get a severance package, unless you have been there less than a year (or certain other unusual circumstances). It depends on your time served and some other factors. – DJClayworth Jun 03 '21 at 17:00
  • If your contract says the company has to give st least two weeks notice, then they have to pay you for two weeks, as long as you are willing to work. They can send you home or lay you off immediately, but they still have to pay. – gnasher729 Jun 03 '21 at 19:43