Advice Re: Terminating Employment

[Happy Trails]

Yeah, yeah.... everyone reckons THEY are special and indispensible/irreplaceable.....

"The graveyards are full of indispensable men." - CDG

 

[dajop]

My view is that there is no obligation to tell where you're going to, but you of course may choose to if having a good relationship with your manager (or others in management) and you don't want to burn bridges. Might as well be honest and open, as someone will probably find out somewhere somehow. Whatever the decision taken, be well aware of what the contract clauses include if in a commercially sensitive position and moving to a direct competitor.

 

[DaveB]

Totally agree with the never burn bridges prior advices.
Having experienced gov't, private and now run my own company, the same principles apply:
- never be negative, particularly in writing - a positive spin can be put on nearly every situation and fools will only hear what they want to anyway;
- remember nothing is rarely, if ever in confidence;
- even if you are changing industries, it may not work out; and
- you can never cultivate enough referees.

 

[moa999]

Depending on the people who work in your organisation I would also be careful about saying where you are going.
I know of one person who left an organisaion to a competitor and was quickly marched and given gardening leave.
Their direct boss was not happy and spent that month telling everyone they could at the competitor what a bad choice they had made etc,
took this person a year to overcome the bad vibes that had been created by the time they started.

 

[wmetz]

Organize to take holiday leave, make sure u get your pay and holiday money first, then email your Good-Bye.

 

[vetrade]

Organize to take holiday leave, make sure u get your pay and holiday money first, then email your Good-Bye.

What a shocking attitude...........some propriety / ethics should be demonstrated if the business has treated you fairly while you have been there.

 

[Hvr]

Organize to take holiday leave, make sure u get your pay and holiday money first, then email your Good-Bye.

Only if you intend to never work again. I can't see why anybody would behave so badly.

 

[ftm]

Organize to take holiday leave, make sure u get your pay and holiday money first, then email your Good-Bye.

I dare say they won't miss you.

 

[Bolthead]

It's great to have all these different perspectives. Thanks to everyone's input however just so it is clear I am not looking to change my job or resign yet. The original discussion was based on an incident that occurred at work and the subsequent discussion I started with my wife. However as I have always wondered the correct etiquette regarding this subject I certainly appreciate all the input.

 

[munitalP]

Actual last resignation letter to manager I really liked

Dear ************

Please accept this letter as an unconditional offer of resignation from my position of ******* *** Manager and Technical Support Engineer

I will be leaving for an opposition company and know this will have impact on my 4 week notice period

Yours Sincerely

munitalP

Email to the sales manager sent at the same time

**** ******

I have just resigned from ***. The reason is primarily not being able to see the way forward from your point of view.

After careful consideration and analysis of my problem of not seeing your point of view, I put it down to not being able to get my head up my own cough.

See you around


munitalP

 

[simongr]

I dont think you have any obligation to disclose unless you want to (and if asked directly "are you going to work for a competitor?").

If I leave my current role I will have some harsh things to say but I probably wont say them sadly.

When I left one job in Oz I actually told them six months before I left that I was thinking of leaving. I was billing about 10% of the business so if I walked out the door it would have been a major disruption - worked out well, managed to transition clients to other people in an orderly manner, worked on some special projects etc.

 

[Sprucegoose]

It's great to have all these different perspectives. Thanks to everyone's input however just so it is clear I am not looking to change my job or resign yet. The original discussion was based on an incident that occurred at work and the subsequent discussion I started with my wife. However as I have always wondered the correct etiquette regarding this subject I certainly appreciate all the input.

as always go with the gut feel you have at the time, the relationships you value and the ethics you work and live to.

there are no hard and fast rules, except there are alot of people that change jobs these days.

I always leave as if I would like to return some day.

 

[richie9x]

When I have resigned I have let my employers know why I was resigning. Mainly as courtesy to them rather than any obligation. Most of the time it was to accept a better offer from a rival company. Twice after hearing I was going to a rival they have put me on gardening leave. Which to me worked out pretty good.

 

[JohnK]

I have only ever resigned twice to pursue other opportunities. One was always going to be a temporary job and the other after 10 years of service I left ~6 months before the company was about to fold on the proviso that I completed my tasks at the time.

This job is now my second longest and it is touch and go on who gets dibs on terminating employment. I am hoping for retrenchment/redundancy....

 

[Simo]

Biggest thing I can say is don't burn your bridges with your past employer.

I had a interesting meeting with a past employee who now it was not a green on the other side of the fence.

He wanted his old job back but he burn't his bridges a little bit in the last few days and in the lead up to leaving to the point I was glad I got the resignation, it saved me a potential hard moment with having to give him another talking to and saying there is the door.

We argued many times in the few months before he resigned and also he told customers that I would struggle without him.