2 weeks is the standard amount of notice to give to employers and I think part of that reason is that companies may let you go if you give them too much notice. Sure there are situations where more may be warranted, but 2 months notice is long enough that it doesn't make sense to staff you on new projects or give you new responsibilities.

You don't owe the company you work for anything. You worked, in exchange for money. End of transaction. Two weeks is being courteous, sixty days is being ridiculous. See the comment below, where Microsoft guards escort you out two days after giving them two weeks notice. This is not unique to MS. Do companies normally give you 14-60 days to find a new job before firing you? Nope.

A two weeks notice is the accepted norm in the US. If you are moving to a new company, they also expect to you start within two to four weeks.

If it takes more than two to four weeks to transfer knowledge, both you and your management are doing it wrong.

You as employee should be cross training and knowledge sharing on an ongoing basis. If you are the only one that understands a process, that means you will be stuck on it forever. The person who puts themself in a position to never get fired also can’t be promoted. From a short term view, you also can never take a vacation without worrying about being called and interrupted because you are the only person that knows how the process works.

On an employer side, you should insist on knowledge sharing and cross training in case an employee “gets hit by the lottery bus”.

I was giving my employer a couple months notice. They decided to get mad that I was resigning. So I made it two weeks notice instead

What would happen if you get hit by a bus? Any employee can be replaced. The concept of a corporation is that it should be able to survive as a separate entity outside of an individual.

Would the company be concerned about you or your financial obligations if they decided to lay you off?

Yes out of courtesy I’ve helped former coworkers by answering questions. But I’ve slso made myself available on a contract basis to a former company.

It’s been years since I worked at a company that had separate sick and vacation time - it’s usually just one paid time off bucket. But if I remember correctly, companies don’t usually pay out for unused sick time, just unused vacation.

But most of the time, I’ve used most of my vacation time between actual vacations, interview prep and interviewing by the time I leave.

It's ridiculous for a company that can fire an employee with no notice at all to expect an employee to give them 2-3 months of notice, no matter how high-level the employee is. If your company needs such a long notice period, they should negotiate a contract with the employee that gives the employee similar protections, e.g., a 2-3 month notice before they can be fired (or at least a guarantee to pay salary and benefits for the entire notice period, even if the company hires a replacement after a couple of weeks).

I’ve seen the affects of that from some of my coworkers in India. It makes job mobility much harder and it benefits the employer much more than the employee.