I have been with my former employer (small company with 3 employees) for more than 10 years. It figured it was time to move on, because I now have family.
I applied for a position much closer to my home. I went through 2 interviews, got an offer which I accepted. This included an enormous pay bump.
Since this is not happening in the US (I'm not a native English speaker, so forgive my mistakes in wording and grammar 😉 ) , the most common notification period is 3 months, but not for me. My contract said, I need to give 4 weeks of notification. This is unusual, but fully legal.
So I called my boss 8 weeks before starting at the new job, out of respect for the long time we've been working together. As you can figure, he was not that happy (losing one third of you workforce), but still congratulated to me.
2 weeks later, he asked me if I could postpone the new job by one month. He was afraid that the hand over to my colleague may not be complete. (Tried to get mr by my emotions) I said, I can ask my new employer, but I doubt they will agree. Besides of this, I said, I needed to be compensated at my new pay of rate + benefits. This would be 5000€ on top of my former monthly compensation.
I could see a brief flickering of panic in his eyes, but stepped down, because he wasn't able to compete.
We separated on good terms at the original date of my resignation. We had a very good farewell lunch, everything was as professional as it should be.
The moral of my story? Don't let emotions or sentimentalitys get in your way of progress.
Now I'm currently living the dream of several subs on Reddit. I have decent pay (ok still not able to purchase a home, but we have a really good and cheap apartment), I can commute by bike (10-15 Minutes), We can do all our stuff by foot/public transportation, we don't have the need to maintain a car…
And I do deeply and honestly wish, everyone else could be experience the same I have right now. My friends in the USA, step up for your rights! And be assured, reading your stories in this sub, I'm crying with you and it keeps me humble for my “luck”. Keep fighting, those bastards of employers need you more than you need them!