If you’ve just accepted a job offer from a new company, high five! It’s always a fantastic feeling knowing that you’ll be moving on and starting a new adventure. However now you’ve got over the interview process, the job offer and the excitement, it’s time to deal with the elephant in the room: your current job.
Resigning is a pretty awkward thing to do no matter your age or experience. It’s important to get that right in order to leave your job graciously and on a positive note. No matter how much you’d love to give your boss a piece of your mind, you should always make the exit process as smooth as you can, in order to save any bridges from being burnt. This being said, it’s also important to be honest with your boss, but we’ll get into that later on in this article.
Don’t gossip
If you’re on the hunt for a new job, or have been offered one, you should make sure the first person to know is your line manager or manager. There’s nothing worse than your boss finding out you’re potentially resigning from someone else in the team. The workplace grapevine is killer, so make sure you don;t get involved by going straight to whoever’s in charge. Your boss will respect you for telling them first, and doing it this way will avoid the awkward Chinese whispers that can happen in any workplace.
Give notice
Resigning and handing in your notice are awkward things to do. However, the earlier you do it, the easier the whole process will be for your boss. Your boss will appreciate the honesty early on and it will give them a chance to begin hunting for your replacement. This leads me on to the next point…
Offer to train your replacement
Another thing that will keep you in the good books is to offer to train your replacement. Whether it’s just taking part in the recruitment process by interviewing and reviewing, or actually being there to train a candidate, it will all help your boss in the process.
Don’t slack off
When you know you’re leaving a company, it’s easy to start caring less and less about the work you’re doing. This can leave your boss with a sour taste in their mouth when you leave; and this is not what you want!
Create mini targets
If you have a four week notice period, then set yourself some short term goals that you wish to achieve within this time. Write a to-do list of everything you want to have finished and make sure you complete them before your last day!
Show gratitude to senior staff
When you know you’re going to be leaving a company, make sure you let anyone who helped you along the way know that you’re thankful. You may bump into them further along in your career! It’s also polite just to let them know that they’ve been a helping hand to you! If you can’t give a verbal ‘thanks’ then emails are just as nice.
Be honest & advise
Most jobs offer an exit interview to anyone who leaves the company. If not, suggest this to your boss. In this meeting you’ll be able to advise your boss on things: and you’re allowed to be honest. In fact, they WANT you to be honest. In this meeting you’ll also receive feedback and advice from your boss, which will help you excel further in your new role.
