This article briefly summerizes how to quit job with grace.
There may be a million ways to leave your employer,
but a few take the cake. Recruiter Paul Villella
remembers the case of a senior VP of sales at a
Washington-area telecom Web site. The exec stripped
his office clean over the weekend, then left his
resignation waiting in the CEO's voice-mailbox for
Monday morning.
The man's jilted boss was not amused, and neither was Villella, who was hit up for a job by the same exec soon afterward. Luckily, Villella had heard about the incident from his contacts at the company. "We elected not to work with a character like that," says Villella, president and CEO of HireStrategy.com, a recruiting firm in Reston, Va.
Miss Manners would have a field day with some of the more outrageous ways employees have parted company. Pissed-off workers have been known to dump coffee into their computers, walk away with thonds of dollars of competitive company research and equipment, and even sneak back to the company parking lot to pour sugar into their co-workers' gas tanks. These kinds of pranks make the old tactic of stealing a laptop look tame.
Dave Opton, CEO and founder of executive networking firm Execunet, says he's observed a rash of people burning bridges in the past 12 to 24 months. The strong labor market and ever-rising stock prices gave many workers a devil-may-care attitude about quitting for a new job. That's been changing since April's Nasdaq slide as people wake up to the timeworn strategy of maintaining a y career network. It's now clear that the more effort you make before you hit the door, the more you stand to benefit from stronger networks, the advice or business of former colleagues, and even extra severance pay.
It's easiest to leave with grace when you want to make a change for personal reasons such as wanting less business travel, shorter workdays or to go back to school. You shouldn't have a problem explaining your departure to your colleagues, who will probably sympathize - and might even be a bit jealous.
Scott Kemper worked at consulting and accounting firm Ernst & Young for four years in its Chicago care consulting practice. Partners at the firm saw Kemper's rise to senior consultant as a big step on the way to partnership. But between the job's constant travel and his desire to pursue his love of guitar playing, Kemper decided he was better off being an independent contractor. Nervous about his superiors' reactions, he wrote personal letters to five people who had mentored him, thanking them and listing specific examples of times he'd found their advice helpful. Kemper gave a month's notice, trained his replacement and wound down the projects he was working on.
Kemper's good manners were rewarded. He regularly has lunch with Ernst & Young partners, who even invited him to their holiday party almost a year after he left. "It's comforting to know that if I ever wanted to go back, I could," says Kemper. Not only can he return to Ernst & Young, he has references for life and continuing sources for business. The company has already given him a freelance project, one former boss confirms.
VIEW POP UP CHART - SORRY THIS CHART IS NO LONGER AVAILABLEKemper knew that Ernst & Young could carry on without him. But when the company you work for is in trouble, getting out might be seen as abandoning both your employer and your direct reports. That's why it's important to show you still care about the future of people left behind.
A former manager at USWeb/CKS, who declined to be identified by name, felt he faced an unstable future and decided to leave for a smaller consulting firm. (His instinct was confirmed in November when the Net consulting company, now called MarchFirst, cut 10 percent of its workforce.) But he and his fellow manager, who was also leaving, felt awkward because they had hired most of their group. "There were people we had hired within the last two months who we were basically bailing on," he says.
The two managers spoke to each person in the 10-employee team individually, emphasizing that the move could open doors for other employees' promotions. Then they called an all-hands meeting, clearly explaining transition plans and reassuring direct reports. Both trained
About the Author
Ajay Patole is a qualified management professional working as sales manager and runs a site 'Venturemall',a cool hangout to play money games,buy and sell in auctions,date and photochat.It is available at URL http://venturemall.tripod.com and newsletter to rediscover true colors of life at http://www.topica.com/lists/venturemall.Also he runs a community 'Venturecon', for entrepreneurs which is available at URL http://groups.msn.com/venturecon.