How to Tell Your Boss You’re Quitting

Telling your boss that you’re quitting your job is never an easy task. It can be awkward and avoiding hard feelings is important for preserving your career network. After all, your boss is going to be one of your references for new jobs. So, you want to keep them feeling happy and comfortable even when they no longer see you every day. Using the right techniques to prepare for the difficult conversation about the end of your tenure at a job can help preserve the working relationship with your boss and secure you a networking partner for the rest of your career. Here are some tips for preparing for and executing a flawless exit conversation to improve your chances of retaining the connections with your old job.

To determine what steps employees who are planning to leave their jobs should take, we started by consulting information from career coaches who have trained in the process of navigating work relationships. This helped us ensure that the steps we’ve outlined were backed by social sciences and accepted by authoritative bodies regarding how quitting one’s job should be done. We looked at multiple papers by career coaches and sociologists to determine what the best way to quit your job gracefully and effectively is.

Prepare to Be Asked Questions

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When you tell your boss that you’re leaving, they’re likely to have questions. Are you unhappy? Is there something they can do to retain you? It’s often easier to retain an existing employee over training a new employee. So, employers will try to ascertain if there’s something they can do to improve your experience and keep you on the team, especially if you’ve made excellent contributions to the team’s work and environment during your tenure. Anticipating the questions you think your employer will have can help you prepare for the conversation and practice what you want to say to avoid slipping up and putting your foot in your mouth. If you have a career coach or can get one, they can help you anticipate the questions most likely to be asked of you and prepare you to answer them gracefully and thoroughly.

Get Your Documents in Order

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You’ll want to prepare the documents you need to submit to process your notice. A written resignation letter is a good idea to submit as this creates a paper trail of information about your exit within the company’s systems. Some employers may look down on you or even claim you quit with no notice if you do not submit a written resignation letter that includes your projected final day. However, once you’ve submitted your resignation letter, expect there to be a conversation about your final days at the job.

While two weeks is the standard time period of resignation transition, this is not guaranteed, special circumstances may have your employer request that you stay longer or wrap up your work faster. Work with your employer to find a solution that works for both of you as this will help strengthen your networking ties and make you look reliable and considerate even on your way out.

Set Up a One-on-One Meeting with the Person You Need to Tell

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While many guides recommend that you only hand your resignation in in person, this may not be possible in the modern day with many people working remotely with teams that have never met in person. It’s best to do this as soon as you accept an offer for a new job to ensure that you leave adequate time for your employer to transition you out of their team and transition your replacement in. If an in-person meeting is not possible, ensure you set up a direct line of communication with your team leader and anyone else who needs to know about your notice. Schedule this meeting outside of normal meeting times to ensure you have plenty of time to dig into the details of your leaving and build a transition plan that works for all parties.

Be Direct Regarding Your Decision to Quit at the Beginning of the Meeting

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Don’t beat around the bush. Your boss probably already knows something is up if you’re planning a meeting outside of your normal meeting schedule. So, treat their time with respect and get straight to the point by politely informing them that you’ve scheduled the meeting to discuss your notice to quit your job. This gives your boss time to process the news and plan adequately to help you and your replacement flourish in the last days of your tenure. Instead of making small talk, just greet your boss and get right into the meat of the conversation. This discussion is crucial for both your transition to your new job and your boss’s transition to a new employee. Not wasting time on pleasantries and updates on things that won’t be relevant soon can help forge a stronger networking bond between you and your soon-to-be-former boss.

Outline the Reasons For Your Exit

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It’s important to let your boss know what the reasons you’re choosing to leave your job are. Are you looking for a career change? Taking a sabbatical? Outline these reasons for your boss so they can make adjustments to the work environment and position to help them retain their next employee. If you’re taking a new position at a different company, let your boss know what parts of the offer were most important to your decision to take it. Is the new position remote? Are the benefits and pay better? This information helps your boss understand how the job market is evolving and changing in regards ot your position and helps you build a strong positive impression by assisting your boss even though you’ll no longer be working there.

Help Build Your Transition Plan

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No one knows what you do and how you do it better than you do. The person most equipped to know how to transition you out of the team is yourself. You know your duties, responsibilities, and how you get those done. Your boss may ask you to train your replacement, especially if your job is technical and you do specific duties that other employees may not be able to replicate accurately. Building a transition plan with your boss is more than just agreeing to train your replacement. It’s also about figuring out with your employer how you can best wind down your current projects and wrap them up without creating difficulties for your replacement. If you work with technical subjects, you may be asked to document your work and create training materials that your replacement can use to replicate your methods while they work on their own identity.

Complete or Request an Exit Interview

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Some companies automatically schedule and conduct exit interviews with employees who turn in their notice. However, not all companies do this. If your boss didn’t ask you about an exit interview, ask yourself. Exit interviews are an important part of the offboarding process as they help the organization determine what worked and what didn’t with your position. Some companies may not want to conduct an exit interview and that’s okay. However, bringing it up can help your boss see that, although you’re leaving, you still want to help the company flourish by improving the processes that affected your position.

Tips For Quitting Your Job Gracefully

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• Be direct and clear with your communication. Be gentle and polite, but don’t hold back if something is wrong that causes you to want to leave.
• Start a paper trail. Don’t rely on word of mouth to get your notice acknowledged and validated. Write a proper resignation letter and deliver it to your boss. When you’ve completed the meeting, send your boss an email recapping what you talked about to create a digital proof of the meeting, what was talked about, and when it occurred. This can also ensure that you completely understand the intentions of your boss’s instructions for your last days.
• Be professional and respectful. It’s okay to be nervous when quitting your job! However, you should ensure that you communicate in a professional and respectful manner to preserve the relationship with your boss.
• Tell your boss first. Word travels fast and it’s best that your boss hears the news from you instead of your coworkers gossiping.
• Ask your boss how they’d like to share the news with your coworkers. One person leaving a job can sometimes result in a wave of resignations. Let your boss lead the charge on delivering the news to your coworkers. They know how to maintain a good environment.
  

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