So, You Just Got Handed a Resignation Letter

It’s Friday afternoon. You just started to wind down after a long and crazy week at the office. Being the manager of a booming business can be a wild and wooly experience. Just this week you’ve had to kindly explain to a customer that you can’t accept her knitted doilies in trade for services, you had to talk to an employee about his extended morning constitutionals in the restroom, and did battle with an alarm system that decided to short circuit at 2 a.m. on Wednesday. It’s been a rough one.

Then with just ten minutes left in your day, just ten minutes before shutting it down and relaxing for the weekend, one of your long term employees asks if he can talk to you...

...and he has a letter in his hand.

...a resignation letter.

This is the last thing you need right now. It’s bad enough you’ve got Grandma-Doily and Bathroom Breaker to deal with, now you have to also go through the unholy hell that is interviewing, hiring, and training?

Here are a few quick tips to get you through the moment and onto an enjoyable weekend:

• All hope is not lost. If this is a valued employee, ask what you can to do convince them to stay. Make good on your intentions to keep this employee. (If this employee actually sucks, then forget the sadness and throw yourself a party this weekend.)
• Hope for a two week notice. Gone are the days of the standard two week notice. Most employees understand that they are in an At Will state and will walk accordingly. Loyalty and honor seems to mean nothing to some of these vultures.
• Take a deep breath and relax. Retaining an unhappy employee is bad for moral and worse for business. If you truly cannot convince the employee to stay, then wish them well and find someone who wants to be at your business daily.

Good luck. Enjoy your weekend. And don’t let the Bathroom Breaker get you down. (But just incase, you should probably remove the magazines from the stalls.)