How best to proceed?

[Felon]

So I’m currently in a job I hate, totally loathe it - been there 8 months and I’ve spent the last 2-3 really trying hard to find a new role, I’ve spend the last 8 months just wasting away, confused, annoyed and basically just hating the **** out of it.

I managed to land a really nice contractor role yesterday, working on bleeding edge stuff in finance. Good rate - totally want it, (working with people I know from previous) offer has come through - they want me to start in one month. (I haven’t signed anything yet)

Current place have me on a 3 month notice…

My current contract has a clause which says I must devote 100% off my time to them etc, so it rules out having a second job (which is normal)

Do I - try to negotiate with my current employer, to have them reduce my notice to 1 month?

Or

Aside from getting myself fired on purpose, are there any other options?

If I say to my employer that I don’t like it there and want to leave, I can’t imagine they’d force me to work 3 months notice, especially when I’m not involved in any major projects or anything at all really.. I’m just wasting away..

Any ideas?… or suggestions…

 

[Felon]

If you've only been there 8 months it seems a tad harsh to expect a 3 month notice period. You've probably only just fallen outside of your probation period where you could have given 1 minute notice of leaving.

Yeah that’s a good point actually, considering I’m not in the middle of delivering anything, and I’ve been there less than a year, thinking about it rationally - it wouldn’t make much sense for them to enforce the full 3 months…

 

[Felon]

Assuming you aren't doing something that will be hard to cover whilst they find a replacement, you could ask rhetorical questions like what additional value they believe you would add in months 2 and 3 compared to the next month?

Yeah this is the way I’m going to play it I think, I should get the contract for the new role over this week so I’m waiting until then, but there’s absolutely nothing going on so it would be very awkward of them to enforce the 3 months.

To be honest, even if they did - I could just start the new role anyway and work on that without telling them - however that’s a last resort,

 

[Felon]

I presume both are remote then?

If you really don't like it at the current place then go for it, I'd be tempted to give a firm yes to the contract with 1 month's notice regardless.

Yeah both roles are fully remote,

To be honest I don’t really have any moral problem keeping it from them if they enforce a 3 month notice, so long as I’m logged into slack and teams lol…

The only thing that bothers me is if they find out, will they sue me or something…. If I was in the middle of delivering some project for a customer or whatever I’d understand and wouldn’t leave them in the **** like that, but I’m doing absolutely nothing so…. I imagine they wouldn’t bother, but it’s a last resort..

 

[Felon]

What is your current role by the way?

I'm a "Principal architect" apparently

It's unlikely they would find out, especially if you're barely doing anything for them anyway at the mo... I guess that perhaps also increases the chances they can afford for you to work a shorter notice period.

Yeah I think it's me worrying more than anything, even if they did find out - I think i'd realistically not give a ****.. Either way - there's no way I'm missing out on this opportunity because of a notice period which will be spend doing nothing..