Notice Period and Resignation - Two Weeks or Six Weeks?

May 1, 2026Career12 min read

A Resignation Letter Doesn't Start the Clock

You got a new offer, accepted it, handed in your resignation. Most engineers' mental script: "two weeks notice, start at the new company on Monday." This assumption, made without reading the contract, is wrong far more often than not.

In Türkiye, the notice period is started by your contract and the Labour Law, not by your resignation letter. For software engineers, that gap usually means facing 2 to 6 weeks (sometimes longer) between your decision and your actual exit. If the start date you gave the new company doesn't match your contract, either the new offer needs renegotiating or you need to arrange something with your old employer.

This article covers the procedure after you've decided to resign (counter-offers and annual raises are covered separately; we assume those decisions are made). Here, the question is simpler: in the exit process, what does the contract owe you and what do you owe the company?

Notice Period - Where the Two-Week Myth Comes From

Article 17 of Türkiye's Labour Law ties notice periods to tenure:

Under 6 months: 2 weeks
6 months - 1.5 years: 4 weeks
1.5 - 3 years: 6 weeks
Over 3 years: 8 weeks

This is the statutory minimum: if your contract says longer, the contract wins; if shorter, the law wins. Engineer contracts increasingly include 2-month or 3-month notice terms (especially at senior levels), and I've seen 6 months for CTO or engineering manager roles.

The two-week assumption probably comes from the first 6 months (the junior period), where two weeks is indeed the statutory minimum. But for a 2-year Mid engineer, the floor is 6 weeks, and the contract often specifies more.

Practical move: Open the contract BEFORE you decide to resign and read every clause mentioning "notice", "termination", or "period". The start date you give the new company should be at least the notice period plus 1-2 weeks buffer. Otherwise you're asking the new company to delay the start (bad first impression) or buying out the notice from your old employer (many won't accept it).

Notice Pay - It Cuts Both Ways

If the notice period isn't honored, the missing weeks of salary are owed to the other side - the rule is symmetric:

The company terminates you without notice → they owe you the equivalent salary.
You leave without honoring notice → you owe the company the equivalent salary.

Engineers often overlook the second case. "I'm leaving tomorrow, the new job starts" means the old company can deduct notice pay from your final payslip or sue you for it. Even if the new company verbally promises to cover it, surprises are common if you didn't negotiate this upfront.

Common fix: the new company folds it into a sign-on bonus. When you say "to start 2 weeks early I need to pay X TRY in notice to my current employer", a serious offer usually covers this. But it doesn't come unsolicited - you have to raise it. The total compensation guide covers sign-on bonuses in detail.

Severance - Not Only When You're Fired

Most engineers think severance is only for termination. The truth is broader: a resigning engineer earns severance in these cases:

Military service: Resignation for compulsory service
Marriage: Female employee resigning within 1 year of marriage date
Retirement: SGK retirement conditions are met
15 years + 3,600 days of premiums: Classic semi-retirement clause - resign and collect
Health reason: Documented inability to continue working
Just cause: Employer fails to pay salary, harassment in the environment, contract was unilaterally changed - in these cases your resignation becomes a "justified termination" and severance is owed

For a plain job change, severance is not owed. But if any of the conditions above apply (especially the 15-year/3,600-day case or just cause), running the procedure correctly can mean up to a year's salary in difference. Consulting a lawyer moves from optional to necessary.

Severance is calculated as 30 days of gross salary for each completed year, with partial years prorated. It's income-tax exempt (unlike a regular paycheck, the gross amount hits your account net). The 2025 cap is roughly 41,828 TRY/year (expect the 2026 cap to be higher), but most engineering salaries stay under it anyway.

Garden Leave - "You Don't Have to Work the Notice"

The day you enter your notice period, the company can choose one of two paths:

A. "Continue working through notice, do the handover, show up until the last day."
B. "Close the laptop today, stay home. Salary will be paid in full, just don't come to the office."

The second is called garden leave. It originated in the UK and has no formal statutory name in Türkiye yet, but it's growing in practice (especially for senior roles, fintech/defense sectors, or moves to direct competitors).

The logic is simple: the employee draws salary but gains no new access to sensitive material, can't contribute to ongoing projects, and can't talk to customers. For the company, it reduces leaks; for the engineer, it's paid leave with restrictions.

If garden leave is offered:

If you accept: Your start date at the new job is still fixed by your contract - garden leave shortens only your work obligation, not the notice period itself. Frame it as "my contract ends May 3rd, I start the new company May 4th", not "give me a month off then I'll start."
Outside-work prohibition: You can't share info with competitors or take a full-time second job during garden leave - the old contract still applies. This usually appears in the letter; ask if it doesn't.
Annual leave: What happens to accrued vacation during garden leave depends on the employer. Often it's interpreted as "annual leave is consumed" so it doesn't appear as a final payout.

Handover - What the Company Owes You and What You Owe the Company

The company expects a handover output during your notice period, and delivering it in an organized way is your professional obligation. The reverse also holds: if the company creates conditions that prevent proper handover (like "we're cutting your notice in half, leave next week"), you have the right to push back on inconsistent demands.

Practical handover checklist:

Status of active PRs - mergeable, who picks them up, any blockers
Open tickets - reassigned to whom, descriptions complete enough
Access inventory - which systems you have access to (Vault, AWS console, internal admin panels, third-party SaaS accounts)
Documentation - any procedure only you know, write it down
1:1 calendar - if you mentor a junior, transfer that relationship in the last 2 weeks
Company devices - laptop, mobile, key/card, VPN token, physical hardware
Company accounts - GitHub, Slack, Notion, Jira, Figma, AWS - logged out and access revoked

HR usually hands you a clearance form and the final salary won't be paid until it's signed, so don't leave this to the last week - start ticking items off from the middle of notice.

A warning: don't wait until the last day to clear personal data from the device. If you have personal SSH keys, credentials, or projects on the company laptop, clean them a week before handover. Once you turn in the device, you may not get it back open.

The Final Payslip - What Should Be On It?

The final salary arrives on the day notice ends, and your payslip should include:

Pro-rated salary for the days actually worked
Unused annual leave payout - daily gross × remaining vacation days
AGI (minimum living allowance) for the final month
Severance, if applicable - only if the conditions above apply
Notice pay, if applicable - if the company terminated, not you
Bonuses, if applicable - annual bonus, performance bonus written into the contract
Deductions: notice pay deduction if you didn't honor it, training/laptop/relocation clawbacks if owed

Often missed: unused annual leave payout. Engineers with 2-3 years tenure can have 30+ accrued days (a full net month). If HR says "use your leave during notice", it usually won't appear on the payslip, but you can say "I won't take leave, I'll take the payout" - it's your statutory right.

If you spot a missing item, push back in writing (email, not verbal). The limitation period is 5 years, but there's no reason to wait - the first 30 days are when fixes are easiest.

Start Date at the New Job - The Double-Salary Window

The ideal scenario is last day at the old job on Friday and starting at the new one on Monday - that's a lucky calendar.

Double-salary window describes the situation where you're on garden leave in the last week of notice (salary flowing) and your new start date also falls that week. Both companies pay for the same period. Türkiye Labour Law doesn't prohibit this outright (though your contract may), but:

If your old contract has an outside-work prohibition clause, starting another job during garden leave is technically forbidden and discovery means the old company can claw back notice and severance pay.
If the new company doesn't know (which is often the case), there's no immediate problem. But the honest answer to "when can you start?" is the date your contract ends.

Practical advice: a 1-week overlap passes without audit; 2+ weeks means the outside-work prohibition applies and should be on your mind.

When a Counter-Offer Arrives - The "Resignation Withdrawal" Procedure

After you've handed in your notice, the company comes back with a counter-offer that you accept. There's a separate counter-offer article on the decision, but here's the procedure:

Get the counter-offer in writing (email suffices) with salary, title, start date, and equity (if any) all explicit.
To withdraw your resignation, write a resignation withdrawal request - the company isn't obligated to accept, but if they do, the relationship continues uninterrupted.
Be transparent with the new company and send a professional rejection email. "I've reached an arrangement with my current employer" is enough; don't go into detail.

A warning: some engineers who accept counter-offers leave again within 12 months, because the raise addresses the salary issue but not the underlying reason you wanted to leave. Take the counter-offer only if you're sure it's right; "the salary is higher" alone isn't enough justification.

Six Clauses to Look For in the Contract

When the idea of resigning first appears, scan your old contract for these 6 clauses:

1. Notice period (covered above in detail)

2. Non-compete - clauses stating "After leaving you cannot work in the same sector for X months". Check whether they're enforceable. In Türkiye, the statutory ceiling is 2 years maximum, with compensation, in a reasonable geography. A clause like "no working at any rival software company in Türkiye for 5 years" is likely unenforceable, but litigation costs fall on you.

3. Non-solicitation - prohibits poaching existing customers or coworkers. Violation is grounds for losing severance and facing legal action.

4. Training/certification clawback - "If the company paid for an expensive certification and you leave within 1 year, you reimburse" is common. Master/MBA sponsorship may carry longer clawback periods.

5. Stock option vesting/cliff - the ESOP guide covers vesting schedules in detail. Your contract specifies which shares are vested at resignation, your exercise window, and whether the company can buyback without an exit. Below the cliff, shares zero out.

6. IP and intellectual property - specifies who owns code you wrote during employment, side projects, and open-source work. Some contracts claim "any software written, even outside hours, belongs to us" - largely unenforceable in Türkiye, but this needs checking if you have or plan side work.

The Exit Interview - What Happens If You Speak Up?

Most companies hold an exit interview on the way out, with HR and sometimes your manager asking "Why are you leaving? What could we improve?"

Two approaches exist, and the right one depends on your situation:

A. Professional soft tone - "I was looking for a larger technical problem space, and Company X offered that." The reason is nonspecific, no one is blamed, and the relationship with your old employer stays intact. The reference door stays open. Right for most cases.

B. Specific feedback - "My manager did 1:1s every 6 months without a career plan. Code review took 5 days. Raises were below inflation." Only give this if you don't plan to stay in the company's ecosystem and genuinely believe it will help. It usually changes nothing, but at least the problem is on record.

Never: Share the new company's package details. That's competitive information, a door that should stay closed.

A 30-Day Pre-Resignation Checklist

If the decision is firm, start 30 days out to land the final salary cleanly and avoid stressful days:

T-30 days:

Open the contract, scan the notice period and the 6 clauses above
Calculate the start date you'll give the new company as notice + 1-2 weeks buffer
Close out any open counter-offer/negotiation processes

T-21 days (resignation day):

Submit the resignation in writing (email + printed copy) after verbally informing your manager.
Include "My last working day will be Y" and calculate the notice period yourself.
CC HR and your manager

T-14 days:

Write the handover doc (PR/ticket/access/system list).
Calculate accrued annual leave and notify in writing that you won't use it (it pays out if unused).
Clear personal data from the company laptop

T-7 days:

Start filling out the clearance form.
Pull personal data from company accounts (Slack, Drive, Notion, etc.).
Schedule device handover

T-0 day (last day):

Hand in devices.
Get the signed clearance form copy.
Check company policy on email archiving (usually prohibited).
Ask HR for an employment certificate - the new job may need it

T+30 days:

Ask HR in writing if the final payslip hasn't arrived.
Verify the SGK exit record

For an Engineer, Resigning Takes as Much Attention as Job Hunting

After deciding to resign, the pull of "starting at the new company" distracts most engineers from this procedure, which means some pay notice out of pocket, some miss severance they earned, some misread garden leave, and some get short-changed on the final payslip.

The new job is exciting, but the old one was also your work - use the notice period correctly to collect your full entitlements through the final salary. The total compensation guide shows how to negotiate sign-on bonuses, and the counter-offer article covers evaluating a counter-offer during notice.

Open your contract, find the notice period, and calculate whether the new offer's start date is actually feasible - doing this BEFORE resigning is far easier than after.