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REMsleep TL:DR - extremely competitive labor market. mitigated scarce resource constraint through higher employee wages and rich benefits to retain skill. notice period dwarfed by 4-6 month cycle to recruit replacements. notice period runs risk of friction with other employees, unproductive infighting, or worse, animosity among employees. better to sever immediately.
before i sold my business in spring 2022 - i had employed skilled trades who were very very very difficult to replace. so, i paid all my employees higher than the market rate to engage and retain them for as long as i could. i spent a lot of time every month researching the market to ensure my wages were more competitive than the my competitors - this was a strategic imperative. those wages impact my profits directly, but the cost was small compared to running the risk of constantly replacing trades. tenure in my shop was very long. i'm still in contact with most of them and they are still happily employed there. the employees knew that their salaries are always negotiable: if an employee has a competing offer i would do my best to match or better. it was much cheaper to negotiate with an employee than to invest time and money recruiting, selecting and on boarding a new skilled trade replacement. luckily, before i sold the business, i hadn't had to replace a skilled trade in 2.5 years. the year i sold the business i did add 4 new employees due to growth - it took me almost a year to recruit and onboard them all due scarce trades and competitive market. the employment agreement i had with them stated: no notice period. a skilled trade who decided to leave was welcome to do so. 2 weeks notice wouldn't have help me find a replacement for them. average 4-6 months to find a replacement b/c students aren't entering the trades like they once did decades ago. i can't blame students, it's a physically taxing career choice. sadly, in my industry, a departing trade runs the risk of unintentionally creating negative friction within the shop with the trades who are staying to do their jobs. it's difficult to describe, but the relationships among the employees is very tight and an employee who leaves is not considered favorably by the rest. sometimes there's even animosity or worse among the employees with someone who resigned. i mitigate by severing them immediately. if an employee doesn't want to work for me, we remain on good terms, and i let them go same day - no questions asked and no hard feelings. they are welcome to apply again if i have an opening.