S/O Two weeks notice

Not much, I'd say.

That is exactly the verbiage that WAS on the books with my employer--that they would withhold a reference or some such thing if a month's notice was not given. It seems they've changed the wording in the past year (when I last looked it up for a colleague who was leaving). It now says: "Exempt Staff may resign by submitting written notice to their immediate supervisor with a copy to Human Resources at least one calendar month in advance of the effective date." (Edited to add the wording from the organization's official policies, not the exempt staff handbook)

One company I worked for had "rules " about what you could and could not do during your period of notice. For example, you could not turn in two weeks notice and then take two weeks' vacation, and if you did not work your full notice period (unless you and your direct manager agreed), then you did not get paid your unpaid leave. But it was always really at the discretion of the manager. What it meant was that as a manager, I could basically ask you to leave (without the full rights afforded to you as a employee leaving in food standing), if during your leave period you decided to become an a**hole who was trying to undermine the work being done and/or the morale of the department.

It is usually in the handbook. There is a policy in my handbook (consulting firm) and I made sure to put them in my management handbooks when I wrote them (hospitality).

The company can mark the employee as a no for rehire in the future for not following policy. When I was doing reference checks, I always asked if an employee was eligible for rehire. If we were on the fence about a candidate and a past employer said they were not eligible for rehire, that sometimes knocked the candidate out of running for whatever position.

By not giving required notice and/or working it through, the employee may forfeit any vacation pay they might have available to them (if the state doesn't require it to be paid out at separation). Or maybe bonuses.

Our policy states that if you don't give notice you don't get your PTO paid out and you are listed as non rehire. It pisses a lot of people off but we are a high turnover industry and it helps some to have that requirement.

Some states allow for unused PTO to be forfeited. Those and others might allow for bonus/commissions to be forfeited. But much of that is based on a contract or written agreement/policy that the employee knows about ahead of time or the employer is following the same policy they have always had. They can't withhold actual pay but they could actualy have a policy that if you don't give x notice then your last pay period is paid at minimum wage. As long as they tell you in advance and can prove they told you --say by the signature page of the employee handbook.

So there are things they can do in some states. But just because an employer can doesn't mean they will or should. "At will" protects both sides and doesn't force the employee to stay for notice, nor does it require the employer to pay for notice.

We operate in 5 states and none require us to pay the PTO. We require 2 weeks notice (and they have to work the notice period) for floor staff and 4 weeks for professional staff.

I am in an at-will work state. I can technically fire you for any reason, just because. But we don't fire people "just because". We usually build a case so when they inevitably take it to unemployment we can show why they were terminated and thus don't deserve payment. There technically is nothing holding me back though.

It goes both way - there's nothing from stopping anyone from walking out on a shift. It's a very small world, even in the restaurant industry. My company's recruiter has a ridiculous amount of contacts and can get the low down on just about anyone. Even though you may be technically marked ineligible for rehire and they legally can't (and don't) bad mouth you, word can still get around about your work ethic/reputation.

You just don't want the reputation of just flat out bailing.

A law firm I worked at had in their policy book that you needed to give two weeks notice AND once notice was given, you could not take any vacation time you had already accrued/earned. Yeah, right, you want me to give you notice and then you want to rob me of vacation I earned? Yep, even though I did do the "right" thing and give what I consider proper notice, I did manage to use up all that vacation time and only left .3 of hour on the table. They should have seen my departure coming as I took every Monday off for about a month when I rarely took vacation. But if I hadn't been able to use up my vacation before my notice, then I would have taken my vacation and given a short notice.