Resigning with Courtesy, Etiquette, and Professionalism
There aren’t many how to guides when it comes to leaving a job. A lot of people relate it to break ups and a “it’s not you it’s me” situation. In part I guess this is right but you don’t (or shouldn’t) go into a relationship with the view you’re going to move on.
The reality is that good and bad staff will leave your organisation. As an employer its important to make sure their experience form start to finish is excellent – we know the importance this has from a brand and EVP perspective. In fact 70% of employees are unlikely to accept a job from a company with a bad reputation.
What isn’t talked about as much is the behaviour of employees as they leave.
There were 3 key points I learned from Jodi Glickman about 8 years ago which are just as important today:
Take the High Road
Help Find your Replacement
Stay in Touch
A Gallup poll of more 1 million employed U.S. workers concluded that the No. 1 reason people quit their jobs is a bad boss or immediate supervisor. 75% of workers who voluntarily left their jobs did so because of their bosses and not the position itself.
With this in mind the fact is that you most likely won’t like your boss. Make sure you keep this to yourself – not only in an exit interview but when interviewing and working with your new employer. Harris Poll found 53% said a negative attitude would create regret over a hire and A different CareerBuilder survey found that 62% of employers are less likely to promote a worker with a negative or pessimistic attitude.
Parting with a blow will do your career no favours. It is always recommended to keep feedback positive and friendly or worst case civil. If you can remove emotion and want to give constructive feedback you shouldn’t have saved it for your exit interview.
A resignation should be done one on one with your line manager in person and in private.
It is also really important to ensure your replacement gets a great handover – we often here about the mess that the new hire inherited – and it doesn’t reflect well on you if this is due to a lack of effort on your part.
Keeping in touch is ever so important with a workforce that moves around so much. People talk and communicate more than ever and it is always helpful to leave with a mentality of keeping a door open. You don’t often hear of candidates following these steps being spoken of badly.
Here’s an example of how you might conduct your resignation meeting.
“Thanks for seeing me Jane, I want to let you know that I’ve accepted an opportunity with EGM that I’m really excited about as I think it will help me achieve my career goals. I’d like to thank you for the opportunity you’ve given me here I really appreciate all of the time invested in me and I wish you all the best. My notice period is 4 weeks so I’ve agreed a start date of 4th June with them. In the meantime, I’m happy to stay on and help with the transition and handover to my replacement.”
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