You will be able to read the probation and notice clauses and work out what leaving would cost at any point.
Kai Wen is 27, a software developer, and he's just been offered a job at a fintech company in one-north. The recruiter wants him to sign by Friday and start in four weeks. He opened the contract, found the salary on page one, saw it matched what he'd been told, and was about to sign. Then a friend asked him a simple question: if the new job didn't work out in the first month, how quickly could he leave, and what would it cost? He had no idea.
The answer is in two clauses that most people skim: probation and notice. Together they decide how either side can end the job and how much warning, or money, that takes. This lesson shows you how to read them and work out what leaving would cost at any point.
Many contracts start with a probation period, a trial stretch during which the employer, and you, decide whether the job works. The contract should say how long it lasts, what happens at the end, and whether it can be extended. Some contracts confirm you automatically when probation ends. Others need a written confirmation, and some let the employer extend probation if it isn't satisfied.
Probation usually comes with a shorter notice period than the one that applies after confirmation. That cuts both ways. The employer can end the job more quickly, and so can you.
Kai Wen's contract said probation was three months, extendable by up to three more at the company's discretion, with one week's notice on either side during probation and one month's after confirmation. These are his contract's terms, used here as an example. Yours may be quite different.
The notice period is how much warning either side must give to end the contract. Read it carefully, because it's the clause that decides how fast you can move to your next job.
If a contract says nothing about notice, the Employment Act sets minimum notice periods that depend on how long you've worked there, and MOM's website lists them. Most contracts do set a period, often longer than the minimum.
The notice clause usually applies to both sides equally. A long notice period can feel like a trap when you want to leave. It also protects you, because it means the employer must give you the same warning, or pay you for it, if it ends your job.
There are usually two ways to give notice. You can work it out, staying in the job until the notice period ends. Or you can pay salary in lieu, compensating the other side for the notice you didn't give. The contract normally says whether salary in lieu is allowed, and the Employment Act also provides for it.
This matters most when a new employer wants you sooner than your notice allows. Suppose Kai Wen has been confirmed, earns S$6,000 a month, and his notice is one month. A new employer wants him in two weeks. If his contract allows salary in lieu, he could work two weeks and pay for the other two, about half a month's salary, or S$3,000. Some new employers will cover that for a candidate they want, but you'd need to ask.
The same works in reverse. If an employer ends your job with salary in lieu, you leave straight away and receive pay for the notice period instead of working it.
People often assume they can use their remaining annual leave to shorten their notice. Sometimes you can, but it's not automatic. Many employers agree to it. Others want you to work the notice period and pay out your unused leave instead, or have rules about how leave is treated when you resign.
Check what your contract or employee handbook says. If it's silent, ask before you sign, and get the answer in writing. When you do resign, put any leave offset request in your resignation letter so there's a record of it.
Put the pieces together and you can work out what leaving would cost at any point. Write down the probation length and whether it can be extended. Then the notice during probation and after confirmation, whether salary in lieu is allowed, and whether leave can offset notice.
Kai Wen did this before signing. During probation, leaving would take one week's notice, or a week's salary in lieu. After confirmation, it would take a month, or up to a month's salary. He noticed that if the company extended his probation, his short notice would last longer too, which he didn't mind. He did ask whether leave could offset notice, and the recruiter agreed to add a line saying it could, by mutual agreement.
None of this was a reason not to take the job. It meant he signed knowing exactly how he could leave it, which is worth knowing before you commit to any employer. Your own contract, or an offer you're considering, has the same clauses, and you'll find them next.
Write down your probation length, notice during and after probation, and whether salary in lieu and leave offsets are allowed.
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