I live in Ohio in the USA and I work as an exempt computer programmer.
Also to clarify, I work your typical Monday through Friday, 7 am to 3:30 pm job. I mostly want to remove the ambiguity of "week" vs "5 days".
Commented Nov 7, 2012 at 16:00I've never known anyone to pick the definition apart at such a fine level. Is there any reason why the ambiguity is a problem in your case?
Commented Nov 7, 2012 at 17:11I'm an engineer, I need everything spelled out for me :P I'd like to be able to give a new employer a concrete date for the first day of work before delivering my resignation (like during my acceptance call). I felt it would look good to be on top of things and could save a phone call later confirming the start date after my resignation.
Commented Nov 7, 2012 at 17:17@GreenMatt Your previous boss was a moron. You could've easily said, "Whelp, since it is such a problem getting my vacation worked in, let's just say today is my last day. In fact, I'm leaving now." Good for you getting out of a bad shop.
Commented Sep 22, 2015 at 20:26Many companies in the US do not allow the use of leave during a notice period, even previously planned and approved leave. It is something to be aware of when you give notice. Your HR manual will tell you what the official policy is. Some will give you some slack for things planned well ahead of time that involve non-refundable tickets but may want the notice period to start after the vacation. Since the US has shorter notice periods than many countries, they want to make sure they get that turnover time.
Commented Sep 22, 2015 at 20:38Unless you have a contractual obligation in the US you can define when your notice period is.
Typically if you were to give notice today (Wednesday Nov 7 2012) you could set your Final day of work as (Tuesday Nov 20 2012) or later and most companies would consider this sufficient notice. If you provided notice on a Monday then the Friday of the next week would be acceptable as final day of work(assuming a Monday-Friday job).
If you have a contract you will need to look at the contract to see your obligations. I have had a contract that said that I needed to provide a notice period of at least 14 days and that my final week should end on the last normal work day of that week. In that case your final day from above would probably be Wed Nov 21 2012 since it is a holiday on Thursday and Friday. If the location does not consider those days holidays then the final day would be Nov 23 2012.
There are no laws I am aware of in the US that oblige you to provide a full two weeks notice. I have known people who have given notice of less than 2 weeks. Many companies will mark an employee as not eligible for rehire if you do not provide sufficient notice.