ALT-1 How to Resign from your Job
The day has arrived! Months or years of frustrations have driven you to seek employment elsewhere. Your position hunt has been successful. The new job awaits. It's time to quit the old one!
The circumstances of your employment should not, let me repeat, should not affect your method of resignation.
With your future position secured, you have been given an obligation to rise above the unsatisfactory circumstances of the position you are leaving, and to move on with dignity.
Not only is leaving professionally the right thing to do, it will have long term ramifications for you should you depart in, let us say, a less dignified fashion.
Do you know where your former colleagues, supervisors, managers or employer will go when they decide to move positions? It will amaze you to find that, in many cases, a former colleague or employer surfaces, like a photograph from your personal photo album, to once again become a factor in your life.
For your dignity, and your long term benefit, take these steps to resign properly.
Identify the correct person to whom you should submit your resignation and notify them first. Ask them if it's acceptable for you to "break the news" or would they prefer that the information be kept confidential for a time, and ask what that time frame is. Honor that commitment.
It's preferable that you provide that person with a written resignation. When writing it, avoid blame and criticism. It will speak very well of you if your resignation letter relates a positive step forward for you, not a negative one for the company you are leaving.
Understand your company's policy for giving notice, and be sure to offer those terms. If they ask for two weeks notice, be prepared to give it. You should have told your new employer that you are obligated and that you desire to provide your former employer with sufficient notice. The new employer will normally be appreciative of that, as it suggests to them that you will also provide them with sufficient notice should you leave their employ.
Avoid using your last weeks or days to become a nuisance at your former employer, and refrain from bad-mouthing supervisors and management to your former colleagues.
Take the time on your last day to visit with colleagues, extend your appreciation for having worked with them, and wish them the best for their futures.
Trust me when I tell you that the circumstances of resigning your position will stay with you, and those circumstances will have a way of surfacing at the most inopportune times in the future. That being the case, make sure now that those circumstances were professional and will only evoke positive memories of you.
Resign with the expectation that you may want to come back and work for this company again. Hard as it is to believe, that scenario unfolds more often than you would think.
