Achieving a Graceful Exit
Perhaps you’ve been unhappy in your job for years and are finally ready to make some changes. Or possibly you’re anticipating layoffs and want to quit while the quittin’s good. Or maybe you enjoy your job but would like to launch your own business.
Regardless of your reasons for leaving, it’s important that you stage a graceful exit. You’ve heard what they say about burning bridges, and regardless of the direction you expect your career to take, you don’t want to leave any smoldering rubble behind you.
Here are 5 tips that will help you walk out that door with poise.
- Time your resignation well. When deciding when to resign, you have to pick a good time for yourself, but you also have to consider whether or not you’ve picked a good time for your current employer. Unless it can’t be helped, leaving at the busiest time of year would be in bad taste. And be sure to give sufficient notice.
- Submit a thoughtful resignation. This is not the time to tell your boss what you really think of him/her (unless, of course, it’s positive and upbeat). It’s also not the time to catalog all the injustices you’ve experienced. If you can, note things you’ve learned and ways your employment has been beneficial.
- Offer your help. Now that your boss will be looking to replace you, offer to help with the hiring process. And while two-weeks’ notice is standard, it’s helpful to give a full-month so you can train a replacement if possible. Also consider leaving notes of instruction the replacement might find useful once they begin working on your projects. And leave your contact information so that your current employer could contact you later if necessary.
- Work until the end. Sometimes it can be tempting to take it easy the last few days, weeks, months of your job. But you’ll leave a lasting impression if you work until the end, exerting your best effort and getting as much done as possible.
- Say goodbye. My best friend in high school quit her job at a fast food restaurant by simply placing her old uniform on the counter in the women’s bathroom. She was too afraid to tell her boss she was quitting, so she abandoned her job like the scene of a hit-and-run. As long as you’ve done the four things above, there’s no shame in leaving with your head held high.
Quitting a job can be a difficult thing, but as long as you’ve made an effort to leave gracefully, you’ll have no regrets. And while you think you may never want to cross that bridge again, you never know; it would good to not only leave the bridge intact, but to have the genuine statement, “You’re welcome back anytime,” echo if you ever cross that threshold again.
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