How to Resign Gracefully?
Many people have always wondered if there is a correct protocol for resigning from a company and many others have kept pondering what to write in the body of the resignation letter and if there is a standard outline for resigning. Well, the truth is, there isn’t a perfect or standard outline for resigning form a company. However, you should apply some basic rules and principles regarding how you should conduct yourself and what you ought to say or not at your exit interview. Below are the rules:
- Don’t create enmity. You shouldn’t burn your bridges because you are not certain what the future holds. In the future, you might need the company for a reference or later you might decide to change your mind and come back. It is even possible that in future you will encounter the people you leave here down the road or at your next job. So when quitting, don’t burn down your bridges.
- If you are fed-up with being treated unfairly and you want to leave because of this and plan to sue also, don’t let on. Quietly gather your evidence and afterwards look for a lawyer.
- Study the employee benefits literature and the employee handbook. In doing so, you will get an idea what you ought to be paid after resigning, things like unused vacation time, etc.
- Give your deadlines date. Know when you have to go back to the company on certain issues such as COBRA. If your resignation is due to termination, then you should go to the unemployment comp office.
- Get someone in the company to agree to be your reference later in the future. Most HR offices of companies will just hand-out your date of employment and name.
- Stay connected with your business mentors and contacts, not just your friends. You need to begin keeping a list of contacts of people that might be likely to help you out in future. Most people usually overlook this but little did they know that top business executives always do it. No wonder why they make big bucks!
Now that you have gone through how to resign from a company, let’s go straight to the next chapter which is how to write a resignation letter.