The Fine Art of Leaving (Part 2/3)

Now that you've made up your mind, done your homework and everything is in place for your exit, it's time to put your money where your mouth is. It's time to follow through on that resolve.

Follow-through

This entails the actual act of tendering your resignation. The standard way of tendering one's resignation is to draft a letter of resignation for the record, sign it, date it, and hand it to your immediate superior. In fact, as far as I know, that is the only way. But, trust me on this, there are multiple ways to royally fuck up that deceptively simple enterprise.

During this very delicate operation, any slip-ups on your part can derail what would have been a painless and beautiful exit. Don't fuck it up. Nobody likes messy. Everyone likes it clean.

Remember that as far as employment termination goes, companies generally prefer to be the ones doing the terminating - either via firing, "requesting" that you resign, or making life so unpleasant that your position becomes untenable. Because that puts them in control, and that means they are prepared with a replacement and prepared to go on without you. Having you do the terminating is a spanner in the works because now they're the ones having to adjust to your impending and unexpected absence. This is just business; there's nothing evil or wicked about it.

Keeping that secret

This may sound like common sense, but you need to keep your intentions secret. Or, at least, tell them to someone who isn't in a position to rat on you. Because once management learns of your intentions before you even get a chance to resign, this gets messy really quickly.

Psst...

It's one thing to be on friendly terms with your colleagues. It's quite another to treat them like your best pals and entrust them with your plans to quit.

I've made that very elementary mistake before. Get this - I told my Tech Lead I was considering an offer from another company. Next day, I was hauled in for a talk by the Director, and told to resign with immediate effect. I got unfriended on Facebook by the owner of the company (boo fucking hoo), and relations remained strained for a long time afterword.

Was the Tech Lead to blame? No, this was my fault. I was so buddy-buddy with him that I forgot that he wasn't actually my friend, and that someone in his position was obliged to inform Management of my intentions.

Your colleagues are not your friends. Even if they are, putting them in a position where they have to choose between their professional duty to the company and their personal loyalty to you, is just poor form.

Resignation Letter

I probably shouldn't have to teach anyone how to write a resignation letter, but what the hell. These are the essentials...

Typing that letter.

Name and IC: An identifier to ensure that the person expressing his intention to resign, is unambiguously you.

Date With Effect From: As a gesture of goodwill, you can even peg this to the following day. But this day is important because it determines when your notice period begins and when your employment contract with the company officially expires.

Signature: Kind of a moot point in a paper-less environment, but put it there anyway.

Hand-over: Anything the company requires you to return? Office keys? Privilege cards? Write down the serial numbers (if applicable) and include the items in your letter.

The above are the must-haves. Anything else, including well wishes, are extraneous. Include them if you must, but try to avoid getting fancy. It's a resignation letter, not a goddamn essay. You have nothing to prove.

But, if you really want to sound like a pro, there are plenty of resources on the internet. I really wish I didn't have to spell all this out, but I have actually encountered Technical Directors in MNCs who couldn't draft a resignation letter worth a damn. Go figure.

Stick with your decision

Once you have tendered your resignation, there may be events that will tempt you to consider. Stay the course. You've tendered your resignation; for better or ill, there is no going back.

Nope.

Back in 2011, I accepted an offer from another company with better pay and benefits, and tendered my resignation. My soon-to-be-former boss offered me the same if I were to stay on. I declined. Why? I liked the job; it was simply that the pay sucked. Why wouldn't I take that counteroffer? The reasons were twofold. Firstly, it was too little, too late. If he had actually valued me that much, he should have given me that pay from the start. Secondly, the damage was done. Even if I somehow stayed on, he would remember me as the guy who almost left for greener pastures. There would be a certain amount of lingering resentment. The level of trust was gone. Our working relationship would no longer be healthy.

In 2014, I tendered my resignation at another company. One of the managers advised me that the CEO had declared bonus time to be a month after my resignation, and I would be missing out if I left now, because the CEO had also declared that any personnel leaving around this time would not be eligible for the bonus. Honestly, the CEO was a cheap bastard. I had expected that from the start. Staying on for another month just to get the bonus (which was likely to be miserable anyway) just seemed really stupid. I already had another job lined up. Why should I give that up?

That is why, in the previous part to this blogpost, I emphasized the need to prepare, and the need to avoid resigning on the spur of the moment. Once you've tendered, that's it. No takebacks.

Perform your duties

Oh, you plan to slack off? Why? Because you're no longer going to be working here? Buddy, you're still getting paid. You will do your best, not because you have anything left to prove, nor because you owe them shit; but because you are a goddamn professional and you need to act like it.

Don't slack off, pal.

Few things leave a worse (and justifiably so) impression than someone who leaves a ton of shit behind for his soon-to-be ex-colleagues to clear. I get it - everybody gets it - you're in what those in the SAF traditionally refer to as the "ORD Mood", where you find that you no longer have any fucks to give. It's natural to ease up. Nobody is saying you still need to be giving 110% at the job. But try your darnedest to avoid totally goofing off. It's a dangerous habit. If anything, try to keep yourself as sharp as possible, and in the right frame of mind to tackle your next job.

Next

The Clean-up