Informing your current employer that you’re leaving and resigning can be challenging, especially if you’ve done well in your current role. Therefore, understanding how to leave and resign from your current employer successfully and gracefully is a paramount skill, especially in today’s highly connected world. Below are some tips from our professional career services experts on how to resign gracefully and successfully from your current employer.
Plan a Strategy for How to Resign Successfully
Always have a strategy when leaving a job. Figure out the logistics of your departure and how to go about resigning successfully. Will you give the standard two weeks notice or offer more time to ease the transition? How will you deliver your resignation? What if your boss presents you with a counter-offer and tries to entice you to stay? Will you be able to finish lingering projects or help train your replacement?
Thinking through how to resign gracefully from your current employer before actually giving notice will help you resign in a professional way. Knowing how to respond comfortably and assertively to uncomfortable questions that are sure to arise when resigning and leaving a current employer is pivotal. It’ll also show your boss and colleagues that you’re responsible and dependable up to the very end.
How To Write Your Resignation Letter
It’s standard practice to deliver an official letter of resignation when informing your employer that you will be leaving and resigning. In fact, an official letter of resignation is the key document when it comes to leaving and resigning your current employer successfully. Understanding how to craft the perfect resignation letter could be the difference between a smooth transition or a rocky one.
Keep your letter short and sweet. It’s not the place to air your grievances or express negative feelings about the position or your boss. You also don’t have to be overly specific about your reasons for leaving and resigning. A simple sentence about exploring a more challenging opportunity should suffice.
And don’t forget to thank your employer for the opportunity it gave you. Understanding how to be humble while resigning and leaving your current employer is a great skill to practice before going through with the resignation process.
How To Resign Face to Face
Resigning from a current employer is always uncomfortable. But it’s extremely important to deliver the news to your manager in person, as a sign of respect.
Tell your manager that you will be leaving and resigning from your current position before you tell your coworkers. Don’t feel the need to explain or justify your departure in great detail when leaving your current position. Instead, try to echo the thoughts in your letter of resignation, which you should present to your manager when you speak with him.
Be direct, keep the meeting positive and state your appreciation for everything your manager and the company has done for you.
How To Leave On Your Last Day
Your last day at a job for your current employer before resigning and leaving will be a whirlwind of activity. You’ll likely be tying up loose ends, organizing projects, writing instructions for your replacement and saying goodbye to colleagues. Before you go, make sure you’ve communicated the status of all your projects to your manager. It’s easy to let some items fall through the cracks as you’re leaving. However, proper etiquette before resigning and leaving your current employer is important.
Remember: Your behavior on your last day at work before resigning and leaving your current employer leaves a lasting impression on your everyone you come in contact with that day. Do your utmost to make sure your lasting impression is a good one.