Few French people use this possibility to change jobs.
This is a right that most employees are unaware of. However, it can be very useful in the world of work. While the desire to change companies is common throughout the year, it is not always easy to start looking. Taking the time to look through the different offers, redo your CV and write your cover letter(s) is not easy. And when you finally get an interview, a thorny question arises: when will I be able to go when I still have my job?
Usually, these meetings are scheduled during the lunch break or at the end of the day, to make it easier for the candidate. However, there is another little-known solution to be able to leave your workstation for a few hours at any time of the day in order to honor your interview… and even to inquire about the different announcements.
Several collective agreements allow employees to devote themselves to job searching despite their professional obligations. This is particularly the case for the main one in the private sector, the Syntec agreement, under which nearly a million workers operate. It provides that “employees have the right to be absent to search for work for six working days per month, taken each month in one or more installments, in principle in half-days.”
This means that it is possible to take Tuesday afternoon or Thursday morning off to find another job, whether to look through job offers, write your application or go to your interview. But be careful, these absences can only be authorized by the employer after you have resigned and are not paid. This therefore results in a loss of salary. On the other hand, in the case of a dismissal, these absences remain paid as traditional leave.
Other collective agreements also provide for granting hours to resigning employees to look for a job. These are the ones for advertising companies and the ones for clothing stores. People hired under this agreement can devote two hours per day worked to looking for a job, once they have given their resignation, while maintaining their pay.
A tip that many employees should consider soon, as the summer period is a good time to change jobs.e quarter 2023 (July-August-September), nearly 560,000 resignations had been recorded and 530,000, already, in 2022 over the same period.