How to Quit!

On Friday a reader sent in a great question as a comment to my piece on Termination. His question appears below along with my response. I’ve heard the same question many times, so I thought I share this with everyone. 

“Hello Dave,

This is an excellent guide for how to terminate a harmful employee – could you talk about the best way to quit? I have had it up to the ears with a very frustrating boss, and am ready to leave, but doing so will be very harmful to this small company which has invested a fair amount into my development, but I am ready to change. What advice can you give on how to leave with as little damage as possible and to not spoil future opportunities (should they contact prior employer, he would not say good things…)”

Bill

Dear Bill,

Thanks for posing this question. In fact I have received the same question from another reader, so I suspect it’s on the minds of many!

Bad bosses are one of the worst problems you can encounter at work. It’s very difficult to avoid your manager and they have the ability to make you miserable whenever they please. My general advice is to try and transfer to another department with your current employer, but since you mention that working in a small company I’ll assume that is not a viable option.

So let me walk you through some advice for moving on.

1.      Don’t feel guilty – The vast majority of all workers resign at least once during their careers. Your current boss may have already quit himself and will probably do so again. While you may feel like you’re only one in the company thinking about quitting, the truth is virtually everyone does it sooner or later.

2.      Line up a great new job first – Not only is this a universal career rule, in your case, it’s also the best way to minimize any damage your current boss can do to your career. Once you start your new job and work there for several years, no one will care what your old boss says about you. In fact by the time you look for your next new job he may be gone, dead, or at the very least forgotten all about you!

3.      Prepare the right “talking points” and stick to them – Although I am major proponent of “telling the truth,” I do make exceptions from time to time and this is one of those times. There is nothing to be gained by telling anyone that you’re leaving because your boss is driving you crazy. So don’t do it. Once you have your new job lined up, you can make a list of reasons why you’re changing jobs. The list doesn’t have to be long, or even overwhelming; just keep it positive and avoid mentioning anything negative about your boss. The odds are pretty good that your boss knows he’s a pain and so do most of your coworkers. They’ll guess that he’s the real reason you’re leaving, but you will earn goodwill points from everyone – including your current boss – by remaining silent about it.  This is the classy way to resign and people are more likely to remember you as “the guy who resigned with class,” than “the guy who walked out and left them hanging.”

4.      Bend over backwards to avoid abandonment – One of most painful resignations I ever tendered was with Concentra. It was a small company and I cared about everyone I worked with. I just had a much better opportunity (Aspect Development) and had to move on. I negotiated the “option” for a 30 day transition period with Aspect before I resigned so I could offer Concentra extra time to prepare for my departure. I helped them find a replacement and even worked up to the day I day I started work at Aspect (I actually went to work at Concentra in the morning, left at noon and flew to Chicago and started working for Aspect that night). I also helped Concentra wherever I could after I began working at Aspect. Your current employer may not want your help, but if you offer, you’ll be enhancing your reputation as a classy guy.

I hope this helps – good luck in whatever you do and keep me posted.

Dave