How To Quit Your Job In The Right Way
Quitting your job is a hard decision. It is often preceded by the month of job dissatisfaction, professional stagnation or the overall feeling of unhappiness. There are a number of signs that it’s time to leave your job; and if you’ve found yourself within that description, now is the best time to move on.
Making a decision to quit is only a halfway, though. The hardest task is to quit in the right way. Quitting your job isn’t the best time to be impulsive and reveal your emotions; on the contrary, it requires you to keep calm and positive. Here are a few steps to take to survive the resignation with dignity and make it painless for both you and your past employer:
- Don’t burn the bridges
The very first advice career experts give is to keep your emotions for yourself. Of course, if the relationships with colleagues or boss were tense and you felt dissatisfied with the company policies, it’s tempting to punch on the boss’s table and tell your coworkers everything you think about them. Stay calm. As the Forbes says, you never know when you cross paths with these people again. So, don’t burn the bridges and do your best to leave the positive last impression.
- Give a 2 weeks (or more) notice
Giving a resignation notice in advance is a necessary measure. Don’t leave your past employer with nothing by informing them in a week or so. A two weeks (or months, if you are in a top management role) period of time is a must to close all ends, complete tasks and maybe train the person who’s going to take your place.
On the other hand, giving a two months’ or more notice is not necessary. The truth is, from the moment you say “I quit” you start to be treated like an outsider – you probably won’t be invited for meetings, corporate events, etc. So, you won’t want to feel isolated for that long.
- Inform your boss first
If you want to resign, make sure your boss is the first person to find out. Your manager should hear the news from you, not from someone else, as this will spoil the last impression we’ve spoke about before. However, you might want to influence how the news will be announced to the rest of the team – in person, by email or during the text team meeting.
- Stick to one story you will tell to everyone
If you don’t want to be the subject of rumors, tell everyone the same reason for living the organization with the same detail. When the explanations you give your close colleagues and those you tell in the other department, it starts a gossip and turns you into a subject of discussion. And this isn’t something you need during your last busy days.
- Be transparent – but not overly detailed
In our open digital world, it makes no sense to be overly secretive about your next career move, as your former colleagues will find it out anyway either from Facebook or from your LinkedIn profile. Being transparent is the key to preserving the connection with your coworkers and take the advantage of it in the future, as highlighted by Hbr.org. So, feel free to reveal the position and the company name. However, being transparent doesn’t mean that you should speak your mind about the current company’s problems, your attitude towards the boss and express negative thoughts. Remember that leaving the positive memories about you is a must.
- Receive all your bonuses and commissions before you say “I quit”
Take care of the financial matters before you express your desire to leave the company. In particular, it would be wise to get all your extra payments in advance, as the boss might use your resignation as the reason to refuse to pay you extra. Also, review all your agreements with the company to make sure that your terms of resignation don’t violate any of them. And, of course, close all your current tasks to avoid being blamed for incomplete work as well as avoid creating problems for your employer.
- Continue working hard until you exit the company
Some employees think that the departure notice can be the reason to relax and work slipshod. However, it’s not time for being lazy. Your poor performance can entirely spoil an image of a top-notch professional you’ve built with the company in years. Is it something you’re looking for?
- Express gratitude to your ex-boss and coworkers
Maybe, you’re so tired of your job that you are counting days to leave the company and forget it. Nevertheless, if the things weren’t fine all the time, you can still think of people and things you are grateful to. It’s the best time to express that gratitude! You can give a small gift to your boss and/or coworkers or send thankful e-mails. Everyone will be pleased at your expressing gratitude instead of a simply announcing that you are leaving.
- Don’t get too emotional
As it was said before, when you say “I quit”, leave no place for negative emotions. Don’t express your dissatisfaction with the company, managers, and coworkers. However, there might be the situations when your colleagues start expressing negative emotions on hearing that you’re going to leave. Try to keep neutral and don’t try to make them change their minds. If you are writing a letter to your company, then you might need useful tips on how to end your letter correctly.
- Be cautious during the exit interview
When providing your feedback on the company processes during the exit interview, be reserved and don’t just speak everything that’s on your mind – even if that’s true. The reason is, since you’re not a company member any longer, your words might sound like an accusation rather than a constructive offer. So, keep to 1-2 neutral remarks and again, be thankful and mention professionalism and personal qualities of your ex coworkers.
If you take the resignation process seriously and leave on a positive note, this will help you preserve productive business relationships with your ex-boss and colleagues. And, moreover, this will save you nerves and help to get down to your new job energized and calm.
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Have you ever quit your job? How did you handle it?