How to Resign Gracefully
How to leave your job and stay on good terms with your co-workers.
Are you thinking of leaving your workplace? You have been offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity or perhaps it’s time to move on and get a different perspective with a new team.
Even if you dislike your current workplace it doesn’t mean you have to leave on bad terms.
In fact, looking at your situation objectively and taking away the emotion from the situation will make things a lot easier.
We often dwell on things that have happened, perhaps we are unfulfilled or not treated equally.
That doesn’t mean we should let them go and any form of discrimination or victimization should not go unreported but we do have to help ourselves a little by looking past what has happened and learning from it (or perhaps what we need to avoid!)
It’s true everything that happens leads to another road, one which can be better, hold more prospects, and ultimately lead to happiness if we view it in this way. We have to discover what we want to do, tell ourselves that we are going to do it and then find a way to get there. Not all things are possible but we can at least try.
Here are a few things you can do to resign gracefully:
Put your resignation in writing
An email will suffice but make sure that in your resignation email you keep it straight to the point. That you are leaving, your last date, and that you will tie up any loose ends until your last day.
This will come across as co-operative and your co-workers will make your life easier if they think you are doing your best to ease the load before you leave. You never know when you’ll need a reference.
Be constructive in your exit interview
Take this as an opportunity to inform HR about improvements but don’t forget to leave out the good things (if there are any!) about working there. If your reason for leaving is because of a difficult co-worker you can be honest here but without sounding as though you are gossiping about someone or that you are bitter.
You can say that on a personal level you get on well but it is a different story when they put their managerial hat on. This leaves them with something to work with rather than sounding like it was a personal issue and one way to sweeten the topic.
On the other hand, if you are already on good terms leaving could be even more difficult but at least you will have created long-lasting relationships and moving on to the next part of your career journey!